Buddhism and Psychotherapy

Both Buddhism and psychotherapy share an interest into the nature and interdependent functioning of the mind, emotion, cognition, behaviour, body, and social relationships, especially in terms of reducing suffering and striving for a meaningful life. While Buddhism attaches soteriological significance to its mapping of the human mind, body and spirit, and posits the end goal of Awakening, psychotherapeutic theories and practices developed in Western cultures are framed as secular, and are grounded in research that utilizes scientific and evaluative methods. Over the past century and a half, both Western and Eastern thinkers have been interpreting, comparing, distinguishing, and integrating their religious and psychological (and psychotherapeutic) systems, and in the process, transforming them. This course focuses on these cross-cultural engagements between Buddhism and Western psychotherapy with an emphasis on conceptions of the mind and emotions in relation to spiritual care and psycho-spiritual therapy. Topics covered in this class will include Buddhism, psychotherapy and cross-cultural dialogue; Jungian psychology and Zen and Tibetan Buddhism; Shin Pure Land Buddhism and Vipassana in relation to psychotherapy; Buddhism and psychodynamics; Buddhist-integrated psychospiritual modalities; and integrating Buddhist theology and psychospiritual practice.