When our sense of being fully alive is lost through stress, injustice, or trauma, remembering our deep connection with the world can invite us back into our bodies — and back into the fullness of life.

Buddhist Psychology differs from Western Psychology in may ways, including an emphasis on liberation at both collective and personal levels and an understanding of the self as a fluid process in continuous interaction with other complex systems.

Psychotherapy informed by Buddhist Psychology includes both cognitive (mind-based) and somatic (body-based) practices, along with generative and relational practices where compassion, generosity, and an ethical framework for living are cultivated.

Within this frame, there is an emphasis on fostering a certain kind of attention. that helps disrupt our habitual patterns of mind and generate healthy nervous system regulation. Many decades of research show a potential for influencing our brain function and structure, with areas of the brain corresponding to stress and trauma decreasing in volume — and areas of the brain associated with well-being growing.

Engaging these practices through a frame critical consciousness helps ensure its most mature expression. A practice focused on self-improvement or behavior expectations can miss the mark completely. Mindfulness alone is incomplete until it includes bringing our practice forward, for the benefit of the greater whole and the natural world.

Appropriately expressed, practices informed by Buddhist Psychology utilize a decolonial, anti-oppressive, liberatory praxis, helping to foster social and racial justice and ecological consciousness.

Learn more about Buddhist Psychology here.