Dharma-friendly schools of psychotherapy

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Griffin, modified 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 4:25 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 10:10 AM

Dharma-friendly schools of psychotherapy

Posts: 271 Join Date: 4/7/18 Recent Posts
What psychotherapeutic modality do you find especially useful for approaching psychological stuff that causes significant difficulties in meditation (hindrances, unpleasant energetic phenomena etc.)?

​​​​​​​I usually see prag dharma practitioners mentioning somatic approaches (Somatic Experiencing, Gendlin's Focusing, Reichian techniques etc.), also Internal Family Systems, Shadow work, Ideal Parent Figure Protocol...  Usually some kind of "alternative" emotional or psychodynamic framework, while mainstream cognitive and behavioral approaches are much less represented. I guess that CBT is more effective at addressing practical life problems, while alternative psychotherapies are more suitable for subtler meditation-related issues.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 5:29 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 5:29 PM

RE: Dharma-friendly schools of psychotherapy

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
The topic unfortunately needs serious work globally, hence our project at https://theeprc.org

However, if one is looking for the closest functional equivalent, one typically looks up a Transpersonal therapist.

Helpful tip: when mapping the sorts of frameworks Transpersonal therpaists will tend to use, such as those found in The Stormy Search for the Self, Spiritual Emergency, and similar works by the Groft, as well as books such as The Call of Spiritual Emergency by Emma Bragdon, consider that, if one is using a framework such as the Stages of Insight (sometimes called the POI), then it maps relatively orthoginally to many of their maps, as theirs tend to focus on specifics (Kundalini, Archetypal, etc.), where as the Stages of Insight tend to map to a general progression that might play out across any of their major types. This is not perfect advice, but just a place to begin what is actually much more complex than that map-wise.

Yes, all of those techniques mentioned above have been reported to be helpful by various people I have spoken with. IFS is really getting a lot of good play these days, as well as various trauma healing techniques.

Best wishes, and happy to hear about how your explorations uncover modalities of value.
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Griffin, modified 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 6:17 PM
Created 2 Years ago at 10/11/21 6:17 PM

RE: Dharma-friendly schools of psychotherapy

Posts: 271 Join Date: 4/7/18 Recent Posts
Thank you Daniel! I completely forgot to consider Transpersonal therapy.

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