num_pages: 320
description: A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year's worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism in tandem led to greater awareness - for his patients and for himself. For years Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource he trusted that the Buddhist influence could and should remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological emotional and the spiritual he soon realized were not as distinct as one might think.In The Zen of Therapy Dr. Epstein reflects on a year's worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how in the incidental details of a given hour his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster and in this cross-section of life in his office he emphasizes how therapy an element of Western medicine can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness too much like a good therapist can hold our awareness for us--and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace.Throughout this deeply personal inquiry one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical something wonderful and something to trust running through our lives no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs when we touch the ground of being we come home.
language: English
title: The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life
publisher: Penguin Press