Mindfulness in Psychotherapy: The Contemplative Relational Approach
by Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D.
One of the basic premises of mindfulness meditation, a practice which derives from Buddhism, is that when we relate to our experience with nonjudgmental attention and interest we can more easily move through and resolve pain, fear, and confusion.
Note: Marjorie will be speaking on this topic on February 15th. Registration will open on this site during the first week of February.
Mindfulness was part of the Buddha’s basic prescription for the cure of human suffering. This seemingly psychotherapeutic goal perhaps sheds light on why increasing numbers of mental health professionals (as well as lay people) are attracted to Buddhist practices, psychology, and philosophy.
What is mindfulness, and what are its psychological benefits?
How does it differ from other forms of introspective awareness?
Is mindfulness meditation essentially a form of psychotherapy?
Does all psychotherapy implicitly involve mindful awareness?
The orientation provided will focus on mindfulness as part of the process of psychological discovery in psychodynamic psychotherapy. In contrast to treatment strategies which employ mindfulness as a cognitive behavioral intervention, emphasis will be on mindful awareness as a reflective stance in psychodynamic psychotherapy. My experience has been that creative application of mindfulness within the context of the treatment relationship can help facilitate insight into self and other.
My clinical approach, which my colleagues and I call “contemplative relational psychotherapy”, integrates meditative inquiry into a psychoanalytic framework. Within a traditional psychodynamic focus on issues of attachment, separation, and loss, this approach weaves mindfulness practice and the principles of Buddhist psychology into the therapeutic narrative. Where appropriate, I invite clients to use mindful awareness as a way of engaging specific aspects of psychological experience.
In this presentation, I will convey the essence of the contemplative relational approach in two different ways. First, I will give case examples in which mindfulness is implicitly or explicitly included the treatment. These vignettes show how I frame my clinical work and illustrate the Buddhist elements in my therapeutic stance. Second, I will lead a set of brief experiential exercises to help convey the ‘feel’ of mindfulness and “contemplative space” in the clinical encounter.
The cornerstone of a psychoanalytic approach is in-depth inquiry into each person’s unique life experience and suffering, explored in the here and now of the therapeutic relationship. We seek to understand how the developmental events of early life influence problems in the present.
This relational approach is based on the fact that subjective experiences are organized in response to our relationships with others; relationship is embedded in the very structure of our minds and brains. I believe that this explains why psychodynamic therapy is such a powerful agent in bringing about psychological change. The therapeutic relationship provides an opportunity for clients to see themselves more fully in the mirror of another while the therapist helps to illuminate the relational dimension of emotional upsets and reactions.
In contrast, in Buddhist psychology the foundational premise is that the basic nature of mind is to seek its own unifying wisdom and compassion. Mindfulness meditation is a practice designed to access a dimension of consciousness in which it is possible to see clearly how the mind functions. Clarity of observation supports the capacity to let go of what is dysfunctional. Contemplative relational psychotherapy combines these two approaches by inviting meditative inquiry into psychological patterns and reactions in the context of a relationship that effectively supports change. The responsive empathy of the therapist helps the client metabolize experience in a new way, and helps clients to acknowledge and accept what may otherwise have been disowned.
Mindfulness enriches psychotherapy for both therapist and client. For the therapist, mindfulness engages the capacity to be present and facilitates the free-flow of clinical creativity. It fosters the capacity to listen with “beginner’s mind” and allows the clinician to transcend fixed clinical models. For the client, mindfulness practice contributes to the ability to discern subtleties and nuances of psychological responses that arise from moment to moment.
In sum, the dimension of mindfulness in the psychotherapeutic encounter helps to highlight where someone is having difficulty, enhances clarity about where there is opportunity for change, and opens up the possibility of moving beyond unconscious stereotypes of self and other.
Contemplative relational psychotherapy weaves together the relational theories of contemporary psychoanalysis with the insights available in Buddhist mindfulness meditation. Together, these perspectives cultivate greater awareness of the dynamic unfolding drama of life and allow the potential meanings which are implicit in suffering to unfold in the therapeutic process.
Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who teaches and practices psychodynamic therapy both in Santa Barbara and West Los Angeles. After earning her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, Dr. Schuman came to Los Angeles where she did postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA and later earned her certification in psychoanalysis. Currently she is a member of the faculty at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies.
Dr. Schuman describes the guiding passion behind her professional life and work as a life-long desire to understand the nature of consciousness. have pursued knowledge of the mind through several decades of advanced study, first in neuroscience and psychopharmacology, then in clinical psychology, and ultimately in psychoanalysis. [ see curriculum vita]. Ultimately, I came to realize that intellect alone could not provide the understanding I sought. This insight led me to explore experience in other ways, including meditation and psychoanalysis.
For more than 10 years, Dr. Schuman trained and supervised psychologists in her role as associate professor at the California School of Professional Psychology. She co-founded the Center for Mindfulness and Psychotherapy in Santa Monica, where with colleagues she developed and taught a certificate program in Contemplative Relational Psychotherapy, a psychodynamic treatment model which weaves together the relational theories of psychoanalysis and Buddhist psychology
“I have been a long-time practitioner of Vipassana meditation and student of Buddhism. My primary professional focus for many years has been the interface between mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy. In my view, the dynamic synergy between these two approaches to the mind cultivates wise understanding and helps to reveal the meanings implicit in our problems and difficulties.
I have been teaching and practicing psychotherapy and psychoanalysis throughout my career.”
