A Second Premise Of Contemplative Psychotherapy

Another operating premise of contemplative psychotherapy is that there are two basic requirements which will create the most advantageous environment for encouraging the changes you may wish to make. These are the cultivation of
1) an attitude or relationship of acceptance of where one is right now; and
2) an attitude or relationship of compassion regarding oneself, as well as others.

Through cultivating (there's nothing instant about this) both acceptance and compassion toward oneself, it is possible to create a cauldron into which all of one's concerns and imperfections and questions and doubts and troubles can be cooked into workable ingredients for a tasty and healthful stew of transformation.
On the other hand, if one attempts to make real and beneficial changes while starting from a place of hostility, criticism and judgement toward oneself, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to proceed fruitfully. You may already have some experience of this.

There are different ways to cultivate these qualities within oneself, and in the contemplative approach, various meditation techniques and practices can be employed
toward this end, as well as utilizing the power of the therapeutic relationship itself as a catalyst and as a tool for this cultivation. The process in either case is an experiential, and not a theoretical one.















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A Starting Premise Of Contemplative Psychotherapy

How might one approach working with ("treating") anxiety, or depression, or really any number of concerns, from a contemplative perspective? Before we can answer that, we need to establish some basic understanding about the working assumptions and basic premises of contemplative psychotherapy. For example, perhaps the bedrock assumption is that we are all fundamentally, essentially, at our core, both good and healthy. This sounds simple doesn't it? In fact though, it flies in the face of the virtually inescapable Western Judeo-Christian world view with which we have all been infected to one degree or another, which assumes just the opposite: that we are essentially "bad" or "fallen" or "sinful", and that we are also, perhaps as a direct result, somehow doomed to illness as a punishment for this condition.

This is not at all a simple matter, psychologically, emotionally, somatically or spiritually. The implications are profound and usually traumatic. Think about it for a moment. If you have been raised in a culture which has taught you, explicitly or implicitly, that you are sinful, and that there's really nothing you can do about this, and that you will have to be punished for this sin even though you may have had nothing to do with creating it; and if you have internalized these teachings, as children naturally do, and they have now become, perhaps, the unconscious template for life from which you are functioning, how do you imagine this would affect you? Your view of life? Your moods? Your inner conflicts? Your (probably hidden) beliefs about yourself?

If, on the other hand, you begin with the notion that you are, in your very nature, good and whole and healthy, even if you might not be living up to this truth at all times and in all things, how do you imagine this view might affect you?















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