R105: Beyond Psychology: Expanding Our Models of Consciousness and Change

No longer confined to a strictly psychological viewpoint, therapists today are incorporating neuroscience research, mind-body healing strategies, and spiritual practices, along with the insights gleaned from a century of psychological learning, to better serve our clients in all their depth and complexity. This Reading Course explores how therapists can incorporate a broader frame of meaning and personal identity into their work. Walter Truett Anderson examines the meaning of "enlightenment" and argues that it is a thoroughly natural development that can, among other places, emerge in a therapist's consulting room. Richard Schwartz shows how cultivating our inner Self can reconnect us with our fundamental core and transform therapy for both therapist and client. Douglas Flemons describes the "Tao of Therapy" and how dualistic thinking separates us from experience. In her profile of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mary Sykes Wylie looks at one of the most influential figures in bringing eastern practices into the mainstream of western health care.

Course Readings

The Power of Attention: What Jon Kabat-Zinn Has against "Spirituality" by Mary Sykes Wylie

Enlightenment Reframed: When East Meets West in the Consulting Room by Walter Truett Anderson

The Larger Self: Discovering the Core within Our Multiplicity by Richard Schwartz

The Tao of Therapy: Helping Clients Experience Their Inner Freedom by Douglas Flemons

Bringing the Mystery Back by Jeffrey Kottler

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the role of psychotherapy in enlightenment
2. Create interventions to elicit a client's Self
3. Discuss the practical functions of meditation
4. Identify ways to use meditation in therapy