A Buddhist form of Psychotherapy

[SWM]

"Applied Buddhism" is a surprising label for a school of psychotherapy, but according to the founder of Hakomi this tag fits. Take a man trained in natural science, expose him to eastern religions and to West Coast therapy and, in the hands of Ron Kurtz, the result was Hakomi.

Kurtz died recently, after surviving a serious heart attack.

"If I get the opportunity," said Kurtz not long ago, in his wry and paradoxical style, "I'm going to kick Freud's ass." Kurtz discovered the key to his therapy was not the interpretation of dreams and stories but the "loving presence" of the therapist. Instead of eliciting psychoanalytic material, he or she looks for bodily "indicators," which might be gestures, facial expressions, postures, nervous tics. Guessing at the kind of experience that might have produced the indicator, the therapist proposes a "little experiment."

An experiment might start with Kurtz telling the client that he was going to make a simple statement and wants his or her first reaction. For example, if the person was avoiding eye contact (an indicator of fearfulness), Kurtz might say, "you're totally safe here," guessing that the client's unconscious thought otherwise.

Attending to the phrase and noticing the first response requires, in the client, a state of what Hakomi calls "mindfulness." This is where the Buddhist inspiration comes in. The mindfulness of the client and the loving presence of the practitioner are very like practices of the Buddhist meditator; and one of the eventual goals is similar, a kind of attentiveness, calm and compassion toward the self and others.

Hearing the quiet assurance that "you're totally safe here," the client might feel, "fat chance!" or "it's never been safe." This is a core belief, normally unconscious, and recognition of it usually brings up what Freud called the repressed, though Freud elicited repressed material and dealt with it in ways very different from Hakomi.

continue reading at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-k-comstock/a-buddhist-therapy_b_810779.html

[pert -5]

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm
Sorry SWM, I had to.

This is very interesting to me because it is something that I always thought to be viable but I wasn't sure if anyone else had.  People might get the idea that because the focus is on Buddhism that the idea is proselytization, but such a motive would preclude Buddhism.  The affluent characteristic of Buddhism is that it is non-dogmatic and so we can have the Christian Buddhist or the Muslim Buddhist, devoid of conflict of the two approaches.  I myself am not, I repeat AM NOT, a Buddhist, but the ideology is sound and anyone interested in investigating a means of breaking free of the miasma of sorrow which plagues their lives should give it a quick peek.  Just Google it.

Peace.

PS
I am not on the payroll of Google or Buddhism.  My mentioning of both is purely pragmatic.

PPS
Thanks again for sharing this SWM.  I know my post isn't exactly on par with the article you presented, but I thought it might supplement it a bit.

[SWM]

thanks for the link. i found it to be a simple intro to buddhism. very useful.