Awakening the Heart East/West Approaches to Psychotherapy and the Healing Relationship

by WELWOOD, JOHN

• ISBN13: 9780394721828
• ISBN10: 0394721829
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-11-12
• Publisher: Shambhala

Summary

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines-psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions-to show that it can. What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach-grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self-and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it. They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully. Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chouml;gyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.

Author Biography

John Welwood is a writer, teacher, and psychotherapist in private practice. He is also the editor of Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path and Challenge of the Heart: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Changing Times.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Basic Questions: Psychotherapy and Spirituality	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Psychiatry and the Sacred	p. 4
Psychotherapy and Spiritual Tradition	p. 18
Psychological Adjustment is Not Liberation	p. 33
On Psychotherapy and Meditation	p. 43
Working on Oneself	p. 55
Introduction	p. 57
The Nature of Well-Being	p. 59
Where is the Self?	p. 70
Psychotherapeutic Materialism	p. 75
Befriending Emotion	p. 79
Anger and the Gentle Life	p. 91
Things Are Not as They Seemed	p. 103
Working with Others	p. 121
Introduction	p. 123
Becoming a Full Human Being	p. 126
Asking the Right Questions	p. 132
Nowness in the Helping Relationship	p. 140
Vulnerability and Power in the Therapeutic Process	p. 148
Teaching Therapists How to Be With Their Clients	p. 163
Entering into the Place of Conflict	p. 176
Uncovering a Patient's History of Sanity	p. 183
Working With the Old and Dying	p. 192
Notes on Contributors	p. 202
Glossary	p. 205
Bibliography	p. 209
Acknowledgments	p. 212
Index	p. 214
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