Thomas Bien

Mindful Therapy: The Art of True Presence and Deep Listening
July 28-August 1

We cannot be deeply present without nurturing ourselves. Whether we are present as therapists, colleagues, managers, or friends, listening to others requires being present to ourselves. In addition to providing new insights into the work of psychotherapists and others who seek to listen deeply, an important goal of this workshop is to provide a space for healing and transformation. This workshop approaches mindfulness as not only a set of techniques, but more importantly as a way to be more deeply present. While psychotherapists are the primary audience, others who seek to listen deeply, professionally or personally, will also find a lot of help here. While mindfulness has become a topic of great interest among psychotherapists, work to date has focused on teaching mindfulness techniques to clients. Such approaches can be helpful, but the most useful aspect of mindfulness may lay elsewhere-- namely, in helping the therapist become more deeply open and present. Metaanalysis suggests that factors such as the therapeutic relationship are more important than the therapist's specific clinical techniques, despite the attachment therapists have toward these. In an age of distraction, however, it is increasingly difficult to be deeply present to anything. Our administrative load can even create a figure-ground shift: peripheral matters come to feel central, while the people feel like the distraction. And since none of us lives in a protective bubble, we must do our best through the difficulties manifesting in our own lives as well. For all these reasons, it is not easy to simply shift gears and suddenly become deeply available to another person. While our capacity to listen deeply is often somehow assumed, in reality, with so much to do, we cannot take it for granted that we are as present as we would like. Mindfulness can be usefully abstracted from its Buddhist roots, yet there is also much to be gained by understanding the soil out of which mindfulness has grown. Buddhism itself, here taken as a kind of wise, ancient psychology, can deeply enrich our understanding and practice of mindfulness, and suggest many direct applications with clients as well. This course explores such foundational Buddhist insights as the Four Noble Truths, The Dharma Seals, the Brahmaviharas, and the Three Poisons in light of their clinical insight and utility. Periods of practice will follow periods of instruction. Exercises begin with mindful breathing, sensory awareness, and guided meditations, and build from there to direct practice of mindful listening. Participants should come prepared with a notebook and pen for written exercises.

Monday
Shaman, Guru, Sage, and Healer: Re-envision the therapist's role
Understanding mindfulness
Basic mindfulness exercises
Working with gathas

Tuesday
Therapeutic Insights of the Buddha: The Dharma Seals
Touching the Earth

Wednesday
Listening in a balanced way: The Brahmaviharas
Metta meditation
Understanding suffering: The Four Noble Truths Exercise
The Three Poisons and their Antidotes

Thursday
Dyadic mindful listening exercises
Mindfulness and the care of thoughts and feelings

Friday
Clinical techniques
A Day in the Life: Integrating life and work

Thomas Bien is an author and practicing psychologist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he teaches mindfulness and meditation. In addition to his doctorate in psychology from the University of New Mexico, he also holds a master's degree in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He presents nationally and internationally. His work is at the forefront of integrating mindfulness into the practice of psychotherapy. He is author of Mindful Therapy: A Guide for Therapists and Helping Professionals (Wisdom 2006), Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing From Addiction (Wiley 2002), and Finding the Center Within: The Healing Way of Mindfulness Meditation (Wiley 2003), and co-editor of the forthcoming Guilford volume, Mindfulness and The Therapeutic Relationship (2008).

Add to your Cape Cod Institute experience by ordering CD Audio recordings of this course here.