The Book

Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers mental health professionals of all disciplines and orientations the most comprehensive and complete introduction to the art of integrating contemplative psychology, ethics, and practices including mindfulness, compassion, and embodiment techniques. It brings together clinicians, scholars, activists and thought leaders of unprecedented caliber, featuring some of the most eminent pioneers in the rapidly growing field of contemplative psychotherapy and psychosocial change.

The new edition offers an expanding array of effective contemplative interventions, contemplative psychotherapies, and contemplative approaches to clinical practice. New chapters discuss how contemplative work can effect positive psychosocial change at personal, interpersonal, and collective levels to address racial, gender, and other forms of systemic oppression. The new edition also explores the cross-cultural nuances in the integration of Buddhist psychology and healing practices by Western researchers and clinicians, and includes the voices of leading Tibetan doctors. Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers the most profound and synoptic overview to date of one of the most intriguing and promising fields in psychotherapy today.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Roshi Joan Halifax

Introduction / Contemplative Psychotherapy: The Art and Science of Individual and Collective Well-Being

Joseph Loizzo

Part One: Mindfulness and Personal Healing

1. Contemplative Practices for Assessing and Eliminating Racism in Psychotherapy: Towards Dynamic Inclusive Excellence

Kamilah Majied

2. Buddhist Origins of Mindfulness Meditation

Miles Neale

3. The Buddha, MLK, and the Buddhist Ethics of Healing Community

Jan Willis

4. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness: Practicing Presence and Resilience

Sharon Salzberg

5. Positive Neuroplasticity: The Neuroscience of Mindfulness

Rick Hanson

6. Mindfulness Practice as Advanced Training for the Clinician

Paul R. Fulton

7. Meditation, Wisdom, and Compassion in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Seiso Paul Cooper

8. Toward an LGBTQ+ Affirmative Approach to Contemplative Psychotherapy

Moustafa Abdelrahman

Part Two: Compassion and Social Healing

9. Traditional Buddhist Perspectives on Modern Compassion Trainings and a Proposal for an Integrated Relational Emotional-Analytical Framework

Lobsang Rapgay

10. Compassion Practice, Social Justice, and Collective Liberation

Lama Rod Owens

11. The Supreme Medicine of Exchanging Self-Enclosure for Altruism

Robert Thurman

12. Interpersonal Connection, Compassion, and Well-Being: The Science and Art of Healing Relationships

Daniel J. Siegel

13. Compassion in Psychotherapy

Christine Braehler and Christopher Germer

14. The RAIN of Self-Compassion: A Simple Practice for Clients and Clinicians

Tara Brach

15. Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT): A Contemplative Intervention for Self-Regulation and Cultivating Loving Intimate Relationships

Fiona Brandon

Part Three: Embodiment and Natural Healing

16. Tantra, Imagery, and Integral Dynamic Therapy

Emily J. Wolf

17. Skill, Stamina, (Noticing Avoidance) and Embodied Connectedness: Realizing Our Vows to Be of Service

Sheryl Petty

18. The Essence of Tantric Medicine: Embodied Healing in the Yuthog Nying-Thig Tradition

Nida Chenagstang

19. Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing

Pilar Jennings

20. Embodied Practice, the Smart Vagus, and Mind-Brain-Body Integration

Joseph Loizzo

21. How to Be a Transformational Therapist: AEDP Harnesses Innate Healing Affects to Re-wire Experience and Accelerate Transformation

Diana Fosha

22. From Trauma to Transformation: Accelerating Resilience, Recovery, and Integration through Embodied Transformational Therapy

Joseph Loizzo