Zen practice has had a profound influence on my work as a psychotherapist. While this influence is pervasive, there are a few clear trends in my work that reflect the values espoused by Zen.
Zen teaches being in the present moment. In psychotherapy, this means staying finely attuned to what’s going on in the here-and-now interactions between client and therapist. Attending to these interactions and carefully exploring the client-therapist relationship helps clients to actively experience the effects of their relational tendencies and to understand the interconnectedness of their relational life and their well-being. This helps to loosen old, stuck ways of being and open space to discover new ones.
Zen believes in the middle way, a path of temperance between extremes. Feeling overwhelmed by problems often elicits extreme, black-and-white responses. The very thing that makes these responses alluring in a crisis is what makes them ultimately unhelpful. They are over-simplifications. When they first enter therapy, clients may believe they are worthless or be rigidly blaming themselves or others or feel that their situation is hopeless. The middle path softens these judgments by avoiding dichotomies like good/bad, right/wrong, leading to a clearer appreciation of things just as they are, in all their complexity.
Zen understands all life as an interconnected web. It challenges Western notions of a separate, individual self. This helps clients understand how their sense of self and place in the world are influenced by the many people and systems to which they are connected. In realizing this complexity, clients can move beyond self-blame, more clearly understand the problems they are facing and, with the help of compassion, uproot them.
Compassion creates a space in the therapeutic relationship where difficult things can be spoken. It helps both client and therapist to be present with problems and painful emotions rather than adding a second layer of suffering by fighting or disavowing them. This acceptance makes it possible to reflect on problems rather than be overwhelmed by them. Problems rarely go away when we demonize them and try to kick them out of our lives. Instead, befriending them with a hope of understanding their meaning is what allows for the possibility of transformation in the psychotherapy process.
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