With Caroline Brazier
This year, in our Buddhist psychology series, I will be offering a series of ten thematic workshops exploring different ways in which Buddhist ideas can inform therapeutic work in general and ecotherapy in particular. In these workshops I will use these specific themes to examine the Buddhist understanding of mind and human process, but I will also look at practical ways in which these fundamental principles can inform therapeutic work out of doors. The workshops will offer a combination of theory and practical activities. They can be taken individually as stand-alone sessions, but to get a better understanding of the core theory of Buddhist psychology it is recommended that you try to attend the full series.
Whilst attending this series of workshops you may like to use the themes which we will be exploring as a basis for journalling. With each session, there will therefore be some reflection questions and activity suggestions.
If you would like to sign up for the full series, you can do so here. On the other hand, each workshop can be booked as a stand alone events and you will find links to each workshop below.
Session One: Connection, Disconnection and Reconnection
October 2nd 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
Buddhist psychology describes how ordinary human process involves a withdrawal from the fullness of life into private worlds. We create identities which allow us to identify with some things and separate from others, cutting off from aspects of the world which we experience as unfamiliar, threatening or unpleasant. The processes behind this are broadly defined in Buddhist teachings as attraction or aversion responses; responses which become more marked as we feel pressured or anxious. In this first workshop of the series, we will look at this core theoretical material as it informs a Buddhist therapeutic model. We will see how these processes lead to disconnection from others and from the environment. We will explore ways in which Other-Centred method, an approach developed to challenge the processes of separation which Buddhism identifies, can inform an ecotherapy approach. We will look at ways to reconnect with others, human or other-than-human.
- Core Theory of Buddhist psychology
- Seeing others in our surroundings as existent in their own right
- Recognising our own lack of control in many life processes and the otherness in ourselves
- Ecotherapy as reconnection
Session Two: Mindfulness, Presence and Awareness
October 9th 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
Over recent decades, mindfulness has taken on importance in the field of mental health and wellbeing. Founded in Buddhist practice, its roots can be traced back to some of the earliest Buddhist texts, including the Satipatthana, the Sutta on The Foundations of Mindfulness. This text begins with instructions for achieving mindfulness of the body, and it is largely on this section that we will build in this session. Mindfulness of the body includes a number of things, including detailed awareness of embodied process and present moment observation of phenomena. It involves both stillness and activity.
Mindfulness can be directed in different ways towards different focuses. It can involve inward inquiry or outward attention. In particular, through using embodied mindfulness practices, we develop awareness of the actions of our senses and of the qualities of things which they perceive: the surface texture of a leaf or the warmth of a rock in the sun. This kind of attention to detail helps us to connect deeply with our surroundings, facilitating some of reconnection as discussed in the previous session.
- Mindfulness in the body
- Present moment awareness
- Connecting through the senses
- Observation exercises
Session Three: Decay, Loss and Regeneration
October 16th 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
Buddhist psychology suggests that people tend to escape from things which they fear through cycles of mental and physical activity. This is how material and psychological bubbles of identity are created. They help us avoid seeing uncomfortable aspects of the truth. Behind these processes, fear is the major driving force, and particularly the fear of impermanence in all its forms. Most of us fear our own mortality and that of those around us. We fear loss and disappointment. We fear the destruction of all that we hold dear. Instead, we tend to distract ourselves by indulging the senses and building a false sense of security through possessions of various kinds. We look for stability, searching for the familiar, the regulated and the predictable.
Buddhism suggests that the way out of this cycle is through facing our fears directly. In this session, we will explore ways in which working outdoors can offer opportunities to do this in small and not so small ways. Whilst modern humans tend to think in terms of individual progress over a passage of time, natural processes are more fluid and less individualised, involving cycles of coming into being, maturation, death, decay and regeneration. Out of last year’s dead leaves, new shoots grow. The dead bird or animal becomes food for hungry scavengers. Working outdoors we can observe these things and as we start to attune to these different rhythms, we may find our relationship with impermanence subtly changing. In this workshop we will look at the ways in which ecotherapy can work with these processes.
- Facing fears as a route to liberation
- Working with death and change in nature
- Observation of seasons and time
- Griefwork and ritual
Session Four: Oneness, Interbeing and an Ecosystemic Perspective
October 23rd 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
In these first four sessions we have seen how ordinary psychology tends to lead us into states of separation and narrows our engagement with life. In this last session of the autumn series, however, we will look at ideas, particularly developed in East Asian Buddhism, that the natural state is one of inter-connection and inter-dependence. Working in ecotherapy, we can see parallels between these ideas and theories relating to how ecosystems function. Elements in the environment do not act in isolation, but rely upon and interact with one another, creating a living system where each element is vital to the whole. As humans, part of the delusion in which we live is the denial of this fundamental truth. We generally fail to see that we are not independent beings and our existence depends entirely of our relationship to the whole.
In this session we will look at ways in which our work can be grounded in an ecosystemic perspective. This may include direct observation of the processes immediately surrounding us but also the role of wider discussion in our work.
- Theories of non-self
- Dependence and interdependence
- Ecosystemic Thinking
- Shifting perspective and the overview position
Session Five: Addition and Compulsion
4 February 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
One way of understanding Buddhist psychology is to view it as a model of human process based on cycles of perception and habitual behaviour. This model has resonances with the patterns associated with addiction. Indeed, the processes of avoidance which are the foundation of the common mind involve mental clinging to objects which take on importance beyond their substantive qualities. They take on importance because they represent and maintain the sense of self. In this manner, we are all focused on, and, one could say addicted to, those things which support our sense of identity. Of course, this is not to say that we are all addicts in the sense the term is commonly used, but using this understanding can give us insight into addictive process and empathy for those whose lives are dominated by it. This workshop will focus on the aspects of Buddhist psychology relating to addictive process and will look at ways in which the understanding that it gives can inform therapeutic work. In particular we will look at how ecotherapy can be used to support people with addictive problems.
- Buddhist models of addiction
- Working with attention to address addictive process
- Watering good seeds and supporting positive behaviour
- Finding a balance between addressing roots of addiction and working with day-to-day behaviour
Session Six: Working With Depression and Negativity
11 February 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
Buddhist psychology describes a process of withdrawal from life. One way in which this withdrawal manifests is in depression and negativity. Depression can be seen as a kind of selective viewing in which all the difficulties and pain of life seem to overwhelm and positive feelings. When we reflect on Buddhist ideas about suffering and impermanence, we might think that such a position is close to enlightenment, however, the truth is that in depression the emphasis on negativity is just as delusional and biased as an over-consumptive approach.
The depressive retreat from the world can be understood in a number of ways. It may literally involve avoidance as the person suffering from depression restricts their life to very small areas of activity. At its most severe, it may reflect a state of non-being which is the ultimate end of the withdrawal process. Here the depressed person simply longs for oblivion and may seek it through various self-harming routes. For many, however, being depressed, becomes a kind of normality and even an identity, built upon familiar patterns of behaviour and thought.
In this workshop we will look at ways of understanding the roots of depression and helping people to find ways to move forwards. However we conceptualise it, depression involves a process of disengagement from life. Ecotherapy can be one way of facilitating a route back into engagement. At its simplest, being outdoors lifts the mood and invites connection. There are particular activities which can be helpful too. These often involve simple regular practices such as journalling or mindfulness exercises aimed at changing habits of negative thought. They offer small steps in breaking the mind’s cycle of negativity and the regularity establishes new ways of relating to life.
- Fear and stasis: retreating from the world
- Depression as identity
- Depression as non-being
- Steps to engagement as a way beyond depression
Session Seven: Guilt and Self-criticism
18 February 1.00-4.00 (Book here)
How we feel about ourselves matters to our wellbeing. Despite the fact that Buddhism sees the sense of self as a construction and a barrier to full relating, having a positive sense of self can be enabling in the day-to-day world, whilst having a negative self-image can be crippling. The sense of self is indeed a fabrication based on habits of view rather that objective observation of our worth. It is formed over time through various experiences. It can vary with external conditions in any given moment but it is heavily coloured by earlier phases of our lives, as the sense of self is learned, internalized from others or built up over time according to the way the world treats us.
Feelings of guilt and self-criticism, with their habitual aspect nature, are usually very painful. It is therefore hard to appreciate that such feelings in themselves represent a strong self-image. Even more surprising is that, although they are destructive in some ways, in other ways they can act in self-protective ways just as much as positive or grandiose self-images do. Holding a negative self-image means not expecting much of ourselves. Things are predictable and less pressured. Blaming ourselves provides a way to avoid having to try at certain things. If I am useless anyway, what would be the point? Negative self-thoughts are however, painful and difficult. In this workshop, we will explore the complexity of feelings involved in guilt and self-criticism and look at ways in which these feed into wider relationship dynamics and into our relationship with the natural environment, often creating barriers to engagement.
- Guilt and the sense of identity
- Self-criticism and disengagement
- Guilt and the environment: does a sense of responsibility enable or restrict?
- Moving beyond guilt and self-reproach into effective action
Session Eight: Creativity and Connections
Creativity thrives on connection. It is the spark which emerges when different people and different cultures come together. It is the interaction between different presences – our meetings with wind, water, the animal and plant worlds, rocks. It flows from our immersion in the elements – the salt sea, the grass of a meadow or the heat of a summer afternoon. It is in the sounds of insects and the flight of starlings. As we open up to our surroundings, we invite our creative energy to thrive, unlocked from our fear driven rigidities. Other-Centred working invites us to encounter the world in fresh ways and though these encounters to stimulate our imaginative capacity. It also invites shifts of perspective so that we use that imagination to enter different viewpoints and see the world through other imagined eyes. So, we may feel the embrace of the earth on roots, or the crumbling colouration of chalk on slate.
In this workshop we will explore ways in which an Other-Centred perspective can liberate creative possibilities, using a variety of stimuli and methods. This may take the form of visual arts, written word and poetry, or movement and voice. Participants are invited to have to hand whatever art materials they have available, but there will be no pressure to respond in any particular medium or to show outcomes unless you wish to.
- Creativity as interfaces of ideas
- Flow and continuity
- Others as inspiration; observation, mimicry and embodiment
- Experimentation and empathy for the materials
Session Nine: Ecoanxiety and Commitment
Fear is the driver of many forms of mental distress. Our struggles with pain and impermanence lie behind many individual psychological troubles. Today, as the world faces many collective existential threats, similar responses are also being unleashed on a larger scale as communities and nations struggle to insulate themselves from overwhelming collective fears. In this process we see many of the same features of withdrawal as we see in individuals. Groups become locked in avoidant behaviour. They develop cultures dominated by over-consumption, hostilities or nation building. The facts of climate change and environmental collapse are often glossed over or ignored as other concerns are more prominent for politicians and the public.
For many of the people with whom we work, and for ourselves as people concerned with the state of the environment, awareness of the plight of the ecosystem can feel overwhelming. Eco-anxiety is a growing and distressing phenomenon. In this workshop we will give space to distress which often goes unheard. Sharing with others is an important step in addressing fear. Buddhist psychology suggests that in facing our darkest fears, energy is released. Active involvement with others and directly engaging the issues can be one way of applying this energy to the good. Acting in a committed way we can use the arising energy of fear for the good. We will also talk about ways in which we can address ecoanxiety when we encounter it in others, neither diminishing its seriousness nor falling prey to impotence.
- Processes happening at global level also reflect Buddhist psychology models
- Therapy in the current crises: addressing overt and covert reactions
- Future orientation where the future is uncertain
- Arising energy as fuel for action
- Connection with others
Session Ten: Awe, Gratitude and Trust
In this series of workshops, we have looked at the ways in which people commonly insulate themselves against life’s pain by dulling their awareness and shaping it to a limited range of responses. We have also seen how liberation comes through connection and other-focused attention. Whilst we may deliberately cultivate connection from our own side in a number of ways, in this final session we will explore ways in which this connection does not need to be initiated in a one-sided way. The world speaks to us, inspires us and draws us into relationship. If we are able to stop and receive, we realise that all we need is there anyway. Our efforts may not actually even be necessary
The responses evoked in us through contact with nature are recognised in a number of innovative therapeutic approaches: awe walks, forest bathing and gratitude practices for example. Such approaches can help us open to inspiration, and in doing so, relax into our place in the greater system. We now recognise the deeply trustworthy quality of our surroundings. As we walk on the earth and come to know its many faces, we come to trust its processes and with this trust, to trust life in all its complexity. This entrustment offers a route to healthy relationship on many levels. Our wellbeing becomes founded on mutuality and a sense of our place in the greater whole.
- Present focus and intentional process
- Attention, wonder and awe
- Gratitude as a practice
- The role of faith and trust when things are uncertain