My article on Contemplative Psychotherapy, which is part of my doctoral dissertation, was published in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration.
Briefly, the paper gives an overview of Contemplative Psychotherapy (CP) as a discipline at the intersection of psychotherapy, Buddhism, and mindfulness, reviews its core theories and practices, and argues that CP may have special value in helping therapists become better at the common factors— the active ingredients of psychotherapy that are common to the different schools and styles of counseling.
The version of record is visible at https://doi.org/10.1037/int0000191. You can also download a self-archived version of the paper here. (It lacks the fancy typesetting of an APA journal, but reads just fine. 😉
The abstract is ©2019 American Psychological Association.
Contemplative Psychotherapy: Clinician Mindfulness, Buddhist Psychology, and the Therapeutic Common Factors
Abstract:
Contemplative psychotherapy (CP) is a counseling discipline that integrates psychotherapy training, clinician mindfulness, and Buddhism. This review articulates CP as developed at Naropa University, contextualizes its core concepts and practices with regard to the common therapeutic factors, and briefly reviews the Buddhist frameworks, theories of pathology, and interventions that characterize CP.
The foundation of CP training is clinician mindfulness and compassion. Because of its integrative approach to developing these therapeutic traits in clinicians, aspects of CP have the potential to enhance the common factors and therapeutic outcomes across counseling disciplines. Future empirical research should investigate these claims, and if they are verified, explore best practices in clinician mindfulness and compassion training. Because CP thoroughly integrates clinician mindfulness and compassion into clinical training and practice, it is a notable field for research into psychotherapy practice, pedagogy, and outcomes.
Keywords: Contemplative psychotherapy, mindfulness, compassion, Buddhism, common factors