Contemplative psychotherapy

Contemplative Psychotherapy

Started in the west by Trungpa Rinpoche, this method, like Jung, uses religion (in this case Buddhism) to help the client ‘accept’ who they are. It criticizes western psychological tendencies to interpret mental pain as pathological, and as such would be most useful for clients who have been misdiagnosed in the past by heteronormative analysts . As it concerns the ‘principles of acceptance’ rather than the religious tenets of the Buddhist religion, neither the client nor the therapist needs to be Buddhist to get the benefit from this model. (page 67) "Contemplative psychotherapy simply offers secular and logic-based tools to free us from unnecessary struggles.”

This model could help trans persons to seen in law as NOT mentally ill and thus NOT subject to a list of criteria they have to fulfill a) to establish that they are not a transvestic fetishist

b) in order to be able to become the ‘self’ they feel they have become since birth, i.e at odds with the unchanging or unchangeable ‘self’ that has been foisted upon them as constant by a heteronormative ‘society’

This model could help a) the Alternative lifestyle person for they would not be told to stop dressing or behaving in a certain way in order to receive help

b) the SRG (Same Gender Relationship), bisexual or genderqueer person for they would be told to stop exercising their sexuality or their presentation of ‘ambiguous’ gender or sexuality in order to receive help (page 67)(“We do not have to get rid of anything to be sane.”)

c) the therapist that finds they are reacting in a hostile, biased (by upbringing and ‘society’) or otherwise inappropriate way towards the client(“When we sit in a room with someone else, we tend to pick up on how they are feeling. In the west people sometimes say, 'That is evidence that we have bad boundaries and are getting too caught up with the client.' From the contemplative point of view, we regard that as evidence of our sanity, evidence of the fact that we are connected to others… acknowledging that whatever the emotional experience is, it is yours.”) Another model that could be seen to follow similar lines is Core Process Psychotherapy as it utilizes Buddhist awareness as the centre of a healing relationship between client and therapist. It was founded by Maura Sills and Franklyn Sills in the UK. “The ‘Core’ is that unconditioned state inherent in every human being…[and] does not discriminate in its decisions or practices by gender, race, colour, class, physical disability, sexual orientation, or religious belief.”

d) that this model could be used to psychoanalyze convicted criminals due to its definition of the word 'sane'.

Core ideas

1. Our basic nature is intrinsically healthy but our awareness of this health is often obscured. "Contemplative psychotherapy is a process of uncovering this fully awake and aware state. We become liberated from unnecessary suffering through experiencing ourselves in the moment, exactly as we are.”

2. Acceptance of the ‘self’; the fact that the ‘self’ is subject to constant and ‘allowable’ change and ‘acceptance’ of how they are treated by others is vital for clients to find their own way forward. By acceptance it does not mean that others’ treatment of them is ‘right’, but it does matter how they deal with that often prejudicial treatment. (page 67)

3. Sanity and Insanity. Indeed, this model even challenges the concept of sanity and insanity as perceived in western psychoanalysis. Contemplative Psychotherapy has the ethos that all of us are sane in a fundamental sense, but that we are not always in touch with that sanity. Sometimes only when we relax can we access it. This model defines sanity as "brilliant" and is characterised by the capacity to be open to all aspects of our life experiences. It is recognised by moments of "'clarity,'" which is the recognition of the interconnectedness and ever-changing 'nature' of every aspect of what comes and goes in our minds, our emotions, our thoughts, our sensations and our actions that result from such internal computations.

4. That we are 'naturally compassionate.'

5. Ego. Unlike in Western psychologies, the Contemplative method puts forward the idea that 'ego' is not a solid, never changing entity that defines an individual. In fact it is this insistence upon and attachment to the idea that the 'ego' is 'solid' that causes mental pain according to this method. Using the Buddhist point of view, there is no such thing as a 'solid' self. "Even if we are experiencing great confusion, we could still be quite sane and open to the experience of confusion in that moment. We need only be precise and clear with it and have a quality of friendliness or compassion towards our own experience. That is already sane. We do not have to get rid of anything to be sane. That is what the idea of 'unconditional' means.”

6. "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

Theory

According to Ker Cleary M.A.

"Under stress, we tend to operate from old patterns, telling ourselves the same old stories about the world, and behaving as if these stories are still true. The stories might be about abandonment, loss, danger or other uncomfortable experiences from the past. For instance, if you experienced pain at the hands of a person wearing a purple plaid hat, you might respond fearfully to anyone wearing such a hat, whether or not they mean you harm... However, we can accumulate so many stories over a lifetime that we stop living authentically in the moment...We can easily find ourselves in continual reactivity to old beliefs and experiences, acting out of habit, rather than in response to what is actually happening. This is ultimately unsatisfying. We might try to find satisfaction through various activities and pursuits, but when we can't be present in our own lives, we can't really experience any of it. As a result, we find ourselves feeling alienated from ourselves, each other, and our world. We might feel helpless, depressed, angry, anxious and stressed out. We might not know where to turn."

Or as the Naropa University magazine puts it (page 1)"our spirits want us to take suffering, make it known, and in so doing make it beautiful."

By undertaking 'mindful' activities, balance is both achieved and can be maintained by the client. By 'mindful' "tending toward awareness and appreciation" is meant; in other words whilst undertaking all activities, to be aware of all other activities and experiences that are around and have 'shaped' the client by the client (and the therapist.)Too much concentration on one activity or experience or flitting from one to another without fully understanding the first one is seen as counterproductive to being 'sane.'

Thus in theory all clients needing psychological help, including those who have convicted of crime should be able to be helped by this model.

"Social psychology provides empirically supported insights into ways we label and harm each other thereby inadvertently normalizing such phenomena as prejudice and ingroup-outgroup (thus providing excuses as to why we are all not humanitarians.) This is inevitable given the current paradigm wherein causes of behavior and attitudes are sought in either person (e.g., personality, beliefs) or situation factors (e.g., social or physical environment.) A contemplative perspective shifts focus from this person-situation dichotomy to mind states. Two common features of harmful social phenomena, mindlessness and arousal (i.e., we harm when aroused and attention is passive) are addressed in contemplative practice wherein mind states are intentionally cultivated. In shifting to states rather than traits or situations altruism is normalized. Moreover, the contemplative model insists that caring is not only normative (e.g., everyday altruistic acts), it is universal (e.g., "hardened criminals" can experience moments of tenderness even if with a beloved pet.) The contemplative approach presented here proposes a model of three levels of mind or experience. ('Mind' here means heart-mind, qualities of immediate experience present in the moment.) The third level is sky-mind, an open spacious state free of distorting conceptual lenses."

Criticism of this method

1. See 5 Criticism and controversy of of some of Trungpa's alleged methods.

2. That the discipline has been brought into some disrepute by some individuals that practice it trying to turn it into a "New Age Religion" or allied with the 'hippy' movement in the 1960's rather than a method of psychoanalysis."Early criticisms have been answered, principally that it fails to recognise fully the implications of the [ Jungian ] shadow side of human nature and that its scientific methodology is flawed."

3. That there are few studies that actually offer 'success rates' after therapy cases have been taken on.