This is part of a series of blogs by John Baxter, a Vedanta person and a retired psychotherapist. Although this blog is addressed to psychotherapists, it will be of useful for anyone interested in psychology: psychologists, life coaches and other mental health professionals.
Let me take this opportunity to take a little detour. While my remarks may appeal to a broader audience, the focus of this blog is practitioners of psychotherapy.
Let me start with the basics once again…with qualifications. We know how this applies to Vedanta, but what about to psychotherapy? Maybe they’re not so different. In fact, it makes perfect sense that helping people to become qualified for psychotherapy by using Vedanta principles could be a powerful tool in starting the process of psychotherapy. I understand that the end game of these two systems is different. One is improved mental health; the other is freedom from the mind itself (moksha) which requires a healthy mind. But on the qualifications level they have more in common than you might think. Both require some ability to think clearly, be discerning and to be dispassionate. In general, these are universal life skills…not limited to a specific situation. These skills are enormously valuable irrespective of whether you are engaging in Vedanta or psychotherapy… They are a basic life-skill set.
You might ask, how can this be applied to psychotherapy? Well, it should be obvious. From the perspective of the therapist, if you don’t possess these qualities, you simply will not be very effective. Therapy training places a great emphasis on the relationship with the client. Some training promotes a more open authentic attitude, while others encourage more distance…“being professional.”
I have my preferences, but I’m not here to argue one way or the other. Many training programs encourage a process of self examination as being essential…”Know thyself.”… All good. And while self-examination may indirectly develop a person’s qualifications, I don’t recall ever being asked during my training to cultivate them directly…and I think the direct approach has a lot of merit.
What about the client? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Don’t ask me which is which. This ground floor stuff is the basis for any healthy relationship, including a therapeutic one. How do you go about implementing these guidelines?
Start where you start….first with yourself. Lead by example. It’s vital that you evaluate your client’s ability to follow the guidelines. How you evaluate your client’s ability will not only determine the outcome but also the nature of your interaction. Some clients will require more help than others in gaining stability. In some therapies, clients are encouraged to emote, and are not encouraged enough to balance themselves with objective qualities. So, if someone comes to you with a highly charged emotional situation, obviously, express empathy and concern….and as the emotion subsides, you might begin to gently instruct your client in the guidelines of dispassion.
A word of caution…timing is everything. If you try to make comments about becoming qualified too soon, they may not land. So, take your time, relax, try not to be too pedantic, there’s no hurry…and I think you’ll find a way to implement these guidelines into your practice.
Hopefully this was helpful. Maybe a little too basic. Anyway, tell me what you think. Have you thought about focusing on qualifications in your practice?
