Mindfulness

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a term that comes from various contemplative traditions including Buddhism and Yoga. Mindfulness begins by going very slowly and noticing how one is affected by and how one responds to experience. Within a therapeutic context, mindfulness practice is often called “assisted meditation.” In therapy, its greatest effect is simply staying present with experience longer. When we stay a little longer with what we notice - an emotion, tension in the body, a belief - we gather more information so that we can study this material without interfering with it.

When we can practice staying with our experience, especially when it’s difficult, without losing touch with it, and reporting on it without coming out of it, the experience has an opportunity to deepen. Once we can move slowly with what we usually have a hard time “sitting” with, we can begin to look at it, understand it, and perhaps move beyond it. This technique is especially helpful for stress reduction and work with physical symptoms.

Mind and Body

Are mind and body separate?

The psychotherapy I practice is based on the belief that the mind and body are not separate from each other and that the unconscious that is explored in psychotherapy is not just in the mind but in the body as well. Life is experienced at multiple levels and physical holding patterns usually have emotional and psychological meaning just as psychological patterns have corresponding physical responses. “Body-centered” psychotherapy simply includes the body in the psychotherapy session and though it doesn’t involve direct touch, we are very interested in studying the moment-to-moment changes and movements of the body as we talk about and explore various themes, feelings and resistances. Aside from talking, sometimes we may simply sit, breathe and pay close attention to the movements of the mind, body and breath.

What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy and who is it for?

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy draws on theories and practices of contemporary psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. It is a therapeutic process that helps people understand and resolve their problems by increasing awareness of their inner world and its influence over relationships both past and present. It differs from most other therapies in that it aims for deep-seated change of complex, often unconsciously based emotional and relationship problems, thereby reducing symptoms and alleviating distress.

However, its role is not limited only to those with evident symptoms. Many people who experience a loss of meaning in their lives or who are seeking a greater sense of fulfillment may be helped by psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy provides an effective treatment for a range of psychological issues, both as a treatment in its own right and as an adjunct to other forms of treatment. It can contribute significantly to a person’s mental and physical health, to their sense of well-being and to their ability to apply this awareness to all aspects of daily life. Sometimes people seek help for specific reasons and at other times, help is sought because of more general underlying feelings of depression or anxiety, difficulties in concentrating, dissatisfaction in work or inability to form satisfactory relationships.

Psychotherapy can also be useful to younger people, particularly those who are exploring physical, sexual, and spiritual questions that may not be able to be discussed in mainstream culture.

Many presenting problems in psychotherapy are more existential and intrinsic to human life than evidence of a clinical condition. For example, the universal problems of sickness, aging, loneliness and death appear again and again in psychotherapy. These life issues may stand on their own or be woven invisibly into the diagnostic picture, such as in anxiety and depression. My approach to psychotherapy allows space for discussing topics that may be more existential or spiritual than “medical.”

Integration

How do you integrate mindfulness and psychotherapy?

Although I ground my work in traditional psychology, and psychoanalysis in particular, sometimes it’s important to move beyond the content of the mind and focus on the mechanism of thinking itself. This process differs from most other therapies in that it aims for deep-seated change of complex, often unconsciously based emotional and relationship problems, thereby reducing symptoms and alleviating distress. By integrating mindfulness techniques into psychotherapy, people tend to leave psychotherapy with a practice that can be very useful in dealing with the vicissitudes of daily life.