Mindful Psychotherapy
“If we practice mindfulness we always have a place to be when we are afraid”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness is an ancient practice of self awareness. In psychotherapy we use it as a form of self-study where we can become aware of our experience using a slightly different state of consciousness. We become aware of what is happening in the present moment. Often our actions and reactions and those issues that bring people to therapy happen at an unconscious level. Using mindfulness we are able to lift some of this material onto a conscious plane, study it, curiously and compassionately and see what needs to happen to create deep and satisfying ways of being in the world. Mindfulness creates an alternative route to the more familiar one of getting caught up in our reactions or ignoring/dismissing them. By slowing down and turning our attention inwards to our immediate experience we can access the neural scripts that we have laid down generally as children and usually unconsciously. Mindfulness also then allows us to lay down a different script in a conscious way.
This deeper connection with the self touches feelings, memories and beliefs that while surprising feel powerful and true. Using mindfulness we can listen to what is really wanting to be expressed. Using mindfulness we can look at the kind of relationship we have with these deeper parts of ourselves that hold what is true and we come to understand the adaptations we have made when we have had to hold or hide our truths. This awareness allows us to make some conscious decisions about our adaptations and whether they are still necessary or are blocking our path to happier being in the world.