MEDITATION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY FORUM ARCHIVE
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Re:Mindfulness & Acceptance in Psychotherapy
Dave Birren · 04/23/04 at 4:06 PM ET
Meditator writes: >"I think that it is very nice, and possibly helpful, to teach concepts such as acceptance, detachment,and mindfulness, using them as a form of psychotherapy. Can those meditation techniques really help without eventually helping a patient access a different consciousness in meditation? Won't these just be failed therapy techniques causing enormous frustration?" We could talk a long time about this. Briefly, acceptance of things the way they are is the first and most important element of mindfulness. Meditation may be seen as the practice of training the mind to accept what is in this moment, letting go of other moments and alternative versions of reality. Buddhism provides useful methods to approach this, especially study of the Four Noble Truths - the first one in particular. You mentioned detachment. It's important to remember that this does not mean separating oneself from the moment. It means, rather, to be fully in the moment without being attached to any particular desire or outcome. It is not detachment but rather non-attachment. To approach it another way, you could think of the ego playing a smaller role in what's going on. The less the ego is dominant, the more the moment can play out on its own. This is called non-self, or emptiness of self, and is the primary element of what people call enlightenment. >"From my experience, I can't merely will acceptance and detachment. I can practice it. I can hope that the practice will bring about a higher consciouness. But, the practice alone isn't enough to eliminate the angst that I feel about painful and troublesome thoughts and feelings. I wish I had that sort of power over my mind...." The piece missing is a complete understanding of acceptance itself. If you're having difficulty with a particular emotion, it may be because you haven't accepted the emotion. For example, we can deny anger and it will continue. But if we accept it, saying, "I'm really angry," we can give it the space it needs to transform into something else (which we then acknowledge in its own moment). Don't worry about higher consciousness, just be present with your experience. Thich Nhat Hanh has written eloquently about this. I recommend his books, "Peace is Every Step," "Being Peace" and "Teachings on Love." With metta and good wishes, Dave Birren
>"Isn't there a piece missing in the promotion of mindfulness,acceptance and detachment in psychotherapy?"
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