Dr. Pilar Jennings

Working with Anxiety in Uncertain Times: A Buddhist and Psychotherapeutic Response

Retreat with Dr. Pilar Jennings

April 9-11, 2021

All sessions will be recorded and available to retreatants for one week following the retreat.

Course Description: As we navigate this time of dramatic change, stirring fear and anxiety in all forms, the healing arts of the Buddha-Dharma and Western psychology offer needed perspectives and healing methods. In this retreat, we’ll explore a Buddhist and psychodynamic understanding of anxiety, its causes and personal symptoms.  Together we’ll examine a contemplative response to this powerful form of suffering as a way to cull meaning and offer support to those who experience anxiety and its many ripple effects.  With a focus on interpersonal dynamics and collective triggers, we will learn about key relational and developmental experiences that generate feelings and behaviors associated with anxiety. We will also explore how these early dynamics can inform and intensify anxiety during this pandemic.

This retreat is open to meditators of all experience levels and clinicians interested in the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation.  Sessions will meet via Zoom.

Working with Anxiety in a Time of Tumult

Friday April 9, 6pm – 8:00pm

  • Welcome & Introductions
  • Our Roadmap: Three Facets of Exploration,
  • Spiritual, Psychological, Neurobiological
  • Q&A
  • Meditation

Saturday Morning, 10:00am – 1:00pm

  • Opening Meditation
  • How Mind Develops – Links to early anxiety
  • Dyadic Exercise
  • Tea Break, 11:15am – 11:30am
  • Healing relational sources of anxiety in psychodynamic work
  • Q&A
  • Lunch break, 1:00pm – 2:30pm

Saturday Afternoon, 2:30pm – 5:00pm

  • Why & How a Separate Self evolves – Buddhist origins of Anxiety
  • Reading the Heart Sutra – A Response & Challenge to Separateness
  • Dyadic Exercise
  • Tea Break, 3:45pm – 4:00pm
  • Healing Existential/Spiritual Source of Anxiety
  • Meditation

Sunday Morning, 10:00am – 1:00pm

  • Meditation
  • Building a Bridge: Contemplative Psychotherapy
  • Linking Self, Early Development, Somatic Response
  • Writing Exercise & Dyadic Work
  • Tea Break, 11:30am – 11:45am
  • Closing Circle & Meditation

About Dr. Pilar Jennings

Dr. Pilar Jennings is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice.  She has been working with patients and their families in private practice and through the Harlem Family Institute since 2000.  Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.  She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; and a Faculty Member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “I’ve Been Waiting for you: Reflections on Analytic Pain,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” and Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism released through Wisdom Publications.  Her most recent book: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism & Psychotherapy in Action, was released in December 2017.

Dr. Pilar Jennings

– REGISTER –

Full Retreat Registration Fee: $200
Graduate Student & Clinical Candidate Pricing: $90

Registration options

Donation – if you wish to attend but need a reduced fee, please offer what you can afford

 If you have any issues, please contact Dr. Jennings.