A new take on the interplay of emotional and spiritual development. “Please read this book. Joseph Bobrow is a true meditation teacher who walks his talk and enjoys his practice.”—Thich Nhat Hanh This book is an intimate dialogue that examines the interplay of emotional and spiritual development through the lens of Zen Buddhism and psychotherapy. Zen and Psychotherapy artfully illuminates the intrinsic connections between the two practices, and demonstrates how the traditions can be complementary in helping to live a truly fulfilled and contented life. Zen teacher and psychologist Joseph Bobrow deftly shows how the major themes of trauma, attachment, emotional communication, and emotional regulation play out in the context of Zen and of psychotherapeutic practice, and how, in concert, both provide a comprehensive, interactive model of fully functioning human life.

In Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age André van der Braak uses Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age to describe the encounter between Japanese Zen Buddhism and Western modernity. He proposes how Dōgen’s thought offers resources for a reimagining of Zen.

Zen and Therapy brings together aspects of the Buddhist tradition, contemporary western therapy and western philosophy. By combining insightful anecdotes from the Zen tradition with clinical studies, discussions of current psychotherapy theory and forays into art, film, literature and philosophy, Manu Bazzano integrates Zen Buddhist practice with psychotherapy and psychology. This book successfully expands the existing dialogue on the integration of Buddhism, psychology and philosophy, highlighting areas that have been neglected and bypassed. It explores a third way between the two dominant modalities, the religious and the secular, a positively ambivalent stance rooted in embodied practice, and the cultivation of compassion and active perplexity. It presents a life-affirming view: the wonder, beauty and complexity of being human. Intended for both experienced practitioners and beginners in the fields of psychotherapy and philosophy, Zen and Therapy provides an enlightening and engaging exploration of a previously underexplored area.

In this book, Cooper brings together psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism by offering a comprehensive and integrated model, described as "The Realizational Model", that is consistent with the core concepts of Soto Zen Buddhism and psychoanalytic practice. Focusing primarily on Soto Zen Buddhism as presented in the original writings of the Japanese scholar monk Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253), and supported and elaborated by relevant contemporary scholarship in relation to the writings of the British psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897-1979), this book addresses the issue of how can one understand, assimilate, and integrate conceptions of the human mind that originate in the 13th and 20th centuries, as they are visited and inflected by the unconscious preconceptions of a 21st-century perspective. Expressing authentic Buddhist tradition within the frame of psychoanalytic thinking, and supported by online guided audio meditations that accompany the text, this work offers a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective of invaluable clinical significance. Case material garnered from 35 years of psychoanalytic practice as well as examples from daily life support the abstract concepts discussed in the text, rendering it equally relevant for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as students of Zen wishing to explore its practical applications.

This comprehensive handbook presents a Zen account of fundamental and important dimensions of daily living. It explores how Zen teachings inform a range of key topics across the field of behavioral health and discuss the many uses of meditation and mindfulness practice in therapeutic contexts, especially within cognitive-behavioral therapies. Chapters outline key Zen constructs of self and body, desire, and acceptance, and apply these constructs to Western frameworks of health, pathology, meaning-making, and healing. An interdisciplinary panel of experts, including a number of Zen masters who have achieved the designation of roshi, examines intellectual tensions among Zen, mindfulness, and psychotherapy, such as concepts of rationality, modes of language, and goals of well-being. The handbook also offers first-person practitioner accounts of living Zen in everyday life and using its teachings in varied practice settings. Topics featured in the Handbook include: • Zen practices in jails.• Zen koans and parables.• A Zen account of desire and attachment.• Adaptation of Zen to behavioral healthcare.• Zen, mindfulness, and their relationship to cognitive behavioral therapy. • The application of Zen practices and principles for survivors of trauma and violence. The Handbook of Zen, Mindfulness, and Behavioral Health is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in clinical psychology, public health, cultural studies, language philosophy, behavioral medicine, and Buddhism and religious studies.

In the midst of our busy activity, people often feel fragmented. We experience conflicting demands from our work, our personal relationships, our families, and our spiritual practice. In this book, the author, a practicing psychotherapist, explores the challenges and joys of making our life into a coherent whole. Psychotherapy addresses a sense of fragmentation in an effort to help us be uniquely ourselves. Zen Buddhist practice insists we find ourselves on every moment of our lives; it speaks to the basic connectedness of all things. This book attempts to integrate the two. Each chapter examines some aspect of sewing together the practice of Zen with the realization of psychotherapy, and its implications for daily life. Though there is a logical progression to the chapters, each chapter can be read on its own if the reader is interested in how a particular text might inform their psychotherapy or life circumstances. Through the stories of his clients' and his own difficulties and discoveries, the author invites each reader to actualize the fundamental point: to realize the joy and compassion that comes when we touch the basic ground of life, and put it into play in our everyday activity.

Mindfulness-Informed Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Inquiring Deeply provides a refreshing new look at the emerging field of Buddhist-informed psychotherapy. Marjorie Schuman presents a cogent framework which engages the patient at the levels of narrative, affective regulation, and psychodynamic understanding. Blending knowledge of contemporary psychoanalysis with the wisdom of Buddhist view, she examines how mindfulness can be integrated into psychodynamic treatment as an aspect of self-reflection rather than as a cognitive behavioral technique or intervention. This book explores how mindfulness as a "self-reflective awareness practice" can be used to amplify and unpack psychological experience in psychodynamic treatment. Schuman presents a penetrating analysis of conceptual issues, richly illustrated throughout with clinical material. In so doing, she both clarifies important dimensions of psychotherapy and illuminates the role of "storyteller mind" in the psychological world of lived experience. The set of reflections comprises an unfolding deep inquiry in its own right, delving into the similarities and differences between mindfulness-informed psychotherapy, on the one hand, and mindfulness as a meditation practice, on the other. Filling in an outline familiar from psychoanalytic theory, the book explores basic concepts of Self, Other, and "object relations" from an integrative perspective which includes both Buddhist and psychoanalytic ideas. Particular emphasis is placed on how relationship is held in mind, including the dynamics of relating to one’s own mind. The psychotherapeutic approach described also delineates a method for practicing with problems in the Buddhist sense of the word practice. It investigates how problems are constructed and elucidates a strategy for finding the wisdom and opportunities for growth which are contained within them. Mindfulness-Informed Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis demonstrates in clear language how the experience of Self and Other is involved in emotional pain and relational suffering. In the relational milieu of psychotherapy, "Inquiring Deeply" fosters emotional insight and catalyzes psychological growth and healing. This book will be of great interest to psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians as well as Buddhist scholars and psychologically-minded Buddhist practitioners interested in the clinical application of mindfulness.