MountainGate Therapy

Zen and Psychotherapy ...

 

Zen is like a broth that one stews vegetables in. The longer you stew it, the more the vegetables take on the taste of the broth. Eventually they soften and become the broth.

 

Anyone who has practiced a skill or invested in intense study knows how, over the years, they become saturated. Practicing piano inevitably leads to greater ability at the piano and ease in playing. Studying and practicing a foreign language inevitably leads to becoming better versed at that foreign language.

 

Some people have more natural inclinations toward some skills than others, and the comparing mind can invite the inner critic to say, “I could never be good at that.”

 

The goal is not to become perfect, the goal is to become better.

 

Practicing transforms the practitioner.

 

I don't ask that my clients study Zen, and I will most often not even talk about Zen or Buddhism unless asked to. What I do hope for is that, together, we can helps find a life practice that works for you. 

 

My own experience and immersion in the practice of Zen has transformed my life, and so naturally it informs and is expressed in who I am, as Zen priest as well as a therapist. I will teach meditation if you are interested. I will talk about Buddhism if you are interested, but this will not be the focus of our work together. What we will focus on is your life and whatever is arising for you, expressed by you as only you, the liver of your own life, can express it.

 

Fundamentally, I want you to be able to immerse yourself and become saturated in the life that you want to live using the language and orientation that works for you. For me, Zen is that life. Part of psychotherapy is finding what that life is for you.