What is Contemplative psychotherapy?
Contemplative psychotherapy is an approach to psychotherapy, which blends principles of contemplative or mindfulness practice with western psychology. One of the core principles of contemplative study is that everyone has "basic goodness."This means that fundamentally we are all born into this world with inherent worth and a nature oriented toward wellness.
Understand and discover yourself
One of the core foundations of therapy builds on deepening a person's connection with their basic goodness and sense of inherent self-worth.
When we feel separateness from these parts of our being, it is possible to use therapy as a bridge to reconnect.
Using mindfulness-based and present moment-centered therapy, it is possible to build a deeper relationship with the distanced parts of yourself.
The way we discover our gifts is to understand and discover ourselves.
​
By learning to quiet the mind (to quiet or halt the never-ending dialogue running in our heads) we can increase the capacity for awareness of the present moment. We can participate more fully in our life as it is actually happening, right now! This is quite important because we only have this present moment in which we are alive to experience anything. When we orient around the present moment we might also find an intuitive intelligence within our mind and body. This intelligence whether it be emotions or a physical felt sensation can inform us about our needs and current situation.
​
The natural state of our mind is made up of three qualities, openness, clarity, and compassion. The habitual patterns and mental distortions we learn in life often cover up the open, clear, and compassionate qualities of the mind. These three qualities of mind are the foundations of mental health and well-being. When we quiet the mind and begin to build a more connected relationship with ourselves, then we can get beyond these distortions and closer to a peaceful mental state.
​
Working with Your emotional experience is an essential part of Your life.
Therapy is also about helping you develop practices for cultivating mindful awareness in all moments of your life, even outside of therapy sessions. Our emotional experience of the world is full of rich experiences, that many times can be life enhancing, such as experiences of joy. Our experience of other emotions like sadness can also be quite difficult. When we learn to embrace our present moment situation more often, we learn how to enjoy or work with all the experiences of life.
​
Developing mindful awareness helps connect us to the direct felt sense of emotion in the body, which the practice allows for a greater and more full experience of our everyday lives.