WHAT CAN CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES BRING INTO THE WORLD OF PSYCHOTHERAPY?

30 june 2021

A conversation between Joe Loizzo and Begoña Martinez

Over sixty years ago, the long-time hidden, secret and secluded Buddhist teachings were forced to leave the purity of the Himalaya heights. In their quest for a new home, Buddhist teachers and high lamas penetrated the West bringing along a philosophy, a vision of the cosmos and a set of mind training practices that were embraced by many adepts, searching for meaning in an increasingly materialistic world.

At the same time, the development of new scientific tools – such as fMRIs technologies – enabled the study of the brain and the emergence of a whole new scientific discipline: neuroscience.

For the first time, the brains of Buddhist monks and highly experienced meditators could be observed in the lab, demonstrating from a scientific standpoint what Tibetan lamas had known for centuries: meditation practice helps reshape the brain and creates new neuropathways that promote happiness and well-being.

These scientific findings have legitimized to a great extent the incorporation of contemplative practices into clinical settings, giving rise to many mindfulness-based and “third generation” psychological therapies.

What are mindfulness-based and “third generation” psychological therapies?

In the late 70s, Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the widespread mindfulness-based stress reduction programme (MBSR), which is currently implemented widely across the world. The essence of mindfulness meditation practice, devoid of its cultural and religious context, is introduced throughout an 8-week programme that leads participants through the basics of meta-cognition, perspective-taking and mindful communication.

“Third generation” psychological therapies developed on the basis of cognitive and behavioral therapy, (CBT). A set of new behavioral and cognitive approaches emerged based on contextual concepts that focus on the persons’ relationship to thought and emotion rather than on their content. Concepts such as metacognition, acceptance, mindfulness, personal values, and spirituality are frequently incorporated into what might otherwise be considered traditional behavioral interventions.

“Third generation” or contemplative therapies prioritize the holistic promotion of psychological and behavioral processes associated with health and well-being over the reduction or elimination of psychological and emotional symptoms, although that typically is a “side-benefit.”

What does the Nalanda Contemplative Psychotherapy programme have to offer to the world of psychotherapy?

Last week, I had the pleasure to meet up with Joe Loizzo, Co-founder and Director of the Nalanda Insititute in New York, in the context of the launching of the Contemplative Psychotherapy programme in Switzerland next Fall.

Begoña Martinez: Joe, you were talking about the recent research breakthroughs, which point to the fact that the Buddhist understanding of the mind, holds keys and tools that are becoming increasingly relevant in current approaches to psychotherapy. Within the Nalanda Contemplative Psychotherapy Programme, could you explain, Joe, what are those key elements, how they have been incorporated into the program?

Joe Loizzo: By now, everyone has heard about mindfulness and how it entered the world of science, health and psychology. Actually, I was at Harvard around the time that Jon Kabat-Zinn was beginning to introduce mindfulness at UMass University. What Jon did was to extract mindfulness as an attention training practice, independent of the culture, and other dimensions that come along the wisdom tradition of Buddhism. Jon managed in a very effective way to make it an attention training practice that was proved to be very efficient in relieving pain and reducing depression symptoms.

As his early scientific studies started getting traction, he and others began to integrate mindfulness-based practices into psychotherapy and psychology as early as year 2000.

In 2004, a paper was published by Antoine Lutz and Richard Davidson that showed that experienced meditators could develop a certain kind of brain wave that was indicative of learning and neuroplasticity, the high-frequency gamma wave.
This study brought together the early research on the efficacy and acceptability of mindfulness practice with the biggest discovery in neuroscience of the last three decades: neuroplasticity.

It was therefore in the early 2000s when people realized that mindfulness was not just effective or helpful, but probably one of the best ways to stimulate neuroplasticity and hence accelerate the natural mind, brain healing process that happens in talk therapy and other kinds of cognitive therapy.

As a result, in subsequent years, many cognitive behavioral therapies were developed that incorporated mindfulness practice, such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and so on.
But if we wish to take a look back into the roots of these practices, mindfulness came to us from the ancient Buddhist tradition.

The practice of mindfulness was skillfully incorporated in various mindfulness interventions in the past decades, but in reality, the practice of mindfulness represents a small fraction of all the different methodologies and strategies for healing developed in the Buddhist tradition.

BM: Indeed, mindfulness-based programmes have skyrocketed in recent years. What I am really curious to know is how the Nalande Contemplative Psychotherapy Program is different from them? What other elements does it incorporate?

JL: Mindfulness developed very early in the Buddhist tradition. Buddha was essentially trying to take the meditation and yoga practices of his day and make them accessible to anyone, and essentially turn them into a science.

So the first way in which our program is different is that unlike mindfulness based stress reduction, MBCT, or any other mindfulness based programmes, we don't just integrate a simple form of mindfulness practice, but all the classical forms of mindfulness. Furthermore, the programme also incorporates the psychological wisdom and the ethical, motivational and energetic aspects that are necessary for holistic healing.

From a Buddhist perspective, the efficacy of any healing methods involves having a profound and game-changing understanding of suffering and happiness, that allows to use mindfulness wisely to effect change. It is also important to understand that it is the cultivation of a positive, self-caring, non-harming, compassionate motivation that makes mindfulness work.

So, in our programme, rather than mixing mindfulness with Western cognitive therapy, or other secular approaches, we take a close look at the foundational elements that developed in early Buddhist science and psychology that promote self-healing as a whole package.

BM:Thank you, Joe, it has been such a pleasure to hear about the many aspects that this training has to offer. I am already looking forward talking to you next time, maybe you could then share a bit more about what you call the three waves of development of Contemplative Psychotherapy.

JL: I thank you Begoña, and yes this would be my pleasure to go a bit deeper explaining the development of the Nalanda Contemplative Psychotherapy program, whose explorations take a step deeper within the contemplative traditions – which I call the third wave of development in Contemplative Psychotherapy.

BM: This sounds very interesting. I am much looking forward to this. And of course we are looking forward to welcoming you and your team this year in October!

Did you enjoy reading this conversation? And do you wanna know more about the three waves of development in contemplative psychotherapy, than be sure to read the second part of this conversation between Joe and Begoña.

The program that starts October 22, 2021, will be offered in a hybrid form combining online teachings and resources, weekly calls with residential retreats that will happen here in Switzerland, at Landguet Ried.

Have you been intrigued by the richness of the Nalanda Insitute approach?

Learn more and register here.

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