Other-Centred Approach
Other-centred approach offers a model of psychotherapy which is grounded in an understanding of mental process derived from Buddhist psychology. The approach is particularly concerned with exploring the way that the world-view is constructed, based upon a variety of psychological and physical conditions including personal history, immediate environmental factors and cultural influences. This world-view in turn conditions the sense of self which can be seen as provisional and subject to change.
Other-centred method involves the exploration of conditioned perception, and the re-evaluation of patterns of attention and behaviour. Such shifts of perception indirectly lead to personal psychological change as the identity adapts to the new conditions. The method integrates, on the one hand, an investigation into the psychodynamics of experience and, on the other, an enquiry into the authenticity of what is being perceived. Such enquiry takes place within a frame of ethical, embodied attention and involves empathy and mindfulness skills. As such, the model can be seen to involve three fields of therapist activity:
- Empathic, triangular relationship: A relationship of accompaniment between therapist and client, consisting of giving collaborative mindful attention to the client’s perceptual world
- Enquiry into the nature and origins of conditioned patterns of attention, perception and behaviour and into mental structures which arise from them
- Enquiry into reality of situations, relational systems and encouragement to the client towards the development of an empathic relationship towards significant others in his world.