Everyone wants to be free from unnecessary suffering.  This was the Buddha’s only concern and every practice he taught served to encourage the liberation of a clear mind and a warm heart.   The relief of emotional suffering is also the focus of contemporary psychotherapy and the wide range of techniques now available all serve this important goal.  How are we, then, to understand these ancient mindfulness practices alongside the new and very potent methods for emotional and relational healing?  Both approaches are profoundly transformative and when skillfully woven together they pave the way for increased vitality and a deeper sense of peace, freeing the burden of unnecessary suffering.  Such an integrated approach shows us how to grow up (personal maturity) and wake up (spiritual maturity) to who and what we truly are. This workshop will be an integrated retreat format (practices and teachings) and will be geared toward understanding the function of mindfulness as the core practice that links both the psychological and spiritual paths to greater wellbeing. Each day we will explore these integrated teachings and actively engage in mindful practices to experientially taste their potential.  

Throughout the weekend we will be drawing primarily on two methods of contemporary psychotherapy — Hakomi and Internal Family Systems.  These remarkably skillful approaches weave together applied mindfulness with an understanding of the multiplicity of mind in ways that reveal the Buddha’s teachings as practical tools for personal and relational transformation. We will examine the ways in which our everyday sense of “self” emerges and is sustained, how the contraction of conditioning leads to unnecessary suffering, how assisted self-discovery in mindfulness opens us beyond our habits toward greater possibilities for freedom, and how being led from the deepest source of wisdom and compassion supports practical human maturity.  We will focus primarily on how the foundations of these two therapeutic models reflect the practical application of Buddhist teachings. At times we may draw on perspectives from child development, attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, and contemplative psychology, but we will be focusing primarily on personal practice and renewal.  We will also look at the ways contemporary systems research and the Buddha’s teachings on mutual causality reveal the centrality of relationship in healing unnecessary suffering.  Ultimately, we will investigate the ways that attention to relationality and mutual care opens the way to a life of freedom and joy.

Some essential topics:

• Mindfulness as an engaged practice in psychotherapy

• Loving Presence as the essential container for relational healing

• Assisted self-study and the Hakomi Way

• Multiplicity of mind and the Internal Family Systems model

• The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths for the relief of suffering

• Redefining symptoms and pathology

• Distinctions between attachment in human development and in Buddhist practice

• Mutual causality and the unfolding of the Self

• Immediacy in the therapeutic relationship

• Stepping beyond self-reflection and self-identification

• The shadow side of mindfulness

• Growing Up and Waking Up: The Double Helix of Maturity

• Clear Care

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Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will learn the foundations of mindfulness and how the principles of Buddhist psychology support and enhance more traditional therapeutic  modalities.

2. Participants will have the opportunity to experiment with mindfulness practices which can support insight and behavior change for both clients and clinician.

3. Participants will develop a set of personal practices for ongoing renewal and spiritual nourishment.

4. Participants will engage in the essential experiential facets of a more traditional silent meditation retreat in oder to gain personal experience in meditation and mindfulness training.