Love in Buddhism & Psychotherapy
Saturday, October 17, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT
This online workshop will explore the complex nature and role of love as it is presented in Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapeutic theory and practice.
From the inception of both traditions, there has been ample commentary on the function of love. In Buddhist traditions, it is addressed in the Brahmaviharas, a foundational practice that encourages curiosity about how and who we love. In the psychotherapeutic tradition, it has been suggested that a primary developmental need is to both give and receive love from our earliest experiences of relationship. Yet the nature of love can easily hide behind an array of other feelings and needs akin to, but distinct from, love as it is understood in these healing traditions.
For clinicians, this workshop will provide opportunities to explore the therapeutic nature of love and the importance of consciously working with it in clinical treatment. Themes will include the therapist’s experience of love for the patient, the patient’s longing to feel and be loved by the therapist, and the role of needed boundaries alongside human affective arisings that include the tenderness of love, affection, and protectiveness.
For meditators, this workshop will offer a deepening understanding of the spiritual challenges posed by authentic love and efforts to cultivate it with fewer unconscious conditions. Primary themes will include the relationship between equanimity and love, the nature of love as explored through the lens of the wisdom teachings, and healing interventions in both traditions that restore this most generative and essential part of the human condition.
The Theosophical Society in America Member Rate: $35 • Standard Rate: $40
