Meditation is now one of the most enduring, widespread, and researched of all psychotherapeutic methods. However, to date the meeting of the meditative disciplines and Western psychology has been marred by significant misunderstandings and by an assimilative integration in which much of the richness and uniqueness of meditation and its psychologies and philosophies have been overlooked. Also overlooked have been their major implications for an understanding of such central psychological issues as cognition and attention, mental training and development, health and pathology, and psychological capacities and potentials.
Dr Roger Walsh
University of California College of Medicine
Although the term contemplative psychology was first coined by Tibetan Buddhist lama and author Chogyam Trungpa in the 1970s, contemplative psychotherapy has since broadened its scope, drawing from psychodynamic and humanist approaches which share some Buddhist principles in relation to therapy. While still maintaining many recognisably Buddhist influences, the contemplative practices of many great spiritual traditions can be seen in its scope, as well as the emerging neuroscience of meditative states.
And although the meeting of Buddhism and modern Western science has been referred to as “the marriage of the millennium”, it is important to recognise from the outset however that it is not Buddhism as a religious system that is relevant to contemplative psychotherapy. As Bhikku Pannaji in his book Buddhism and Psychotherapy writes:
Of course, the Buddhists of Buddhist countries don’t look upon Buddhism as a psychotherapy. It is mainly understood as a form of religion. Of course, those scholars who study the teaching of the Buddha … tend to regard the teaching as a philosophy. Now as I see it, these two ways of thinking can be seen as two extremes. Avoiding these two extremes, I would like to take the Middle Path, which is to treat the teachings of the Buddha as a form of psychotherapy. I would say that if Buddhism is introduced into the modern world as psychotherapy, the message of the Buddha will be correctly understood.”
For many contemplative psychotherapists, traditional Buddhist practices such as metta (loving-kindness meditation) and tonglen (givng-taking meditation) are popular, and Big Sky Mind has developed these ideas into a system of heartfulness meditations.
Resource Therapy, and Parts Work in general (IFS and Ego-State Therapy) also draw from this fruitful cultural overlap, including the assumption found in Buddhism that we contain no one essential, unchanging Self, but rather a series of identities, personas or parts that operate together – either harmoniously or not. Similarly, mindfulness has influenced many modern psychotherapies, such as ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) and MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). All these approaches promote mindful self-awareness and acceptance of what is in order to make meaningful and valued change.
Essential common ground between Western humanist schools of psychotherapy and Buddhist thought is the idea of our basic goodness, or “brilliant sanity” as Chogyam Trungpa puts it. From this perspective, therapy is a strengths-based approach centred around becoming aware of that goodness and allowing it to permeate our self-beliefs, helping us reframe our experience around strengths and gratitude. Its starting point is therefore the client’s basic empowered nature, rather than undue focus on neurosis or pathology.
Its primary reflection, drawing from this understanding, echoes the powerful observation of 13th Century mystic Meister Eckhardt when he said “there is a place in your soul where you have never been wounded.” It is in this place that we find our “brilliant sanity” and profound stores of strength and natural wisdom.
In addition to Buddhism, the contemplative practices of many religious and spiritual systems find valuable applications in this form of psychotherapy, including the meditation systems of Christian mysticism, such as Centering Prayer and Welcoming Prayer meditations. Similarly, the moving meditations of traditional Daoism, such as Qigong and Taiji, are also popular in the practice of Contemplative Psychotherapy.
The Unified Mindfulness system devised by Buddhist monk and neurobiological researcher Shinzen Young, also lends itself extremely well to contemplative psychotherapy practice as it too bases its approach on a combination of Western science and Eastern meditation practice. Young refers to modern mindfulness as “contemplative-based psycho-spiritual growth working in concert with science” which effectively captures the process and intent of contemplative psychotherapy.
Big Sky Mnd 