Download To be or not to do, or do?

To be or not to do, or do?
Tapio Malinen & Riitta Malkamäki
www.tathata.fi
EBTA
Helsinki 4.9.2009
Goals in psychotherapy
• ”If I planned to go to a conference, and if I
knew forehand what I would be thinking at the
end, then I wouldn´t go. If I knew where we
would be at the end of the session, I don´t think
I would do this work. And If I had not changed
at all after the session, then my actions probably
would not have a very big impact on the people
who came to me.”
Michael White
Three (crusial) questions related to
well-being of the therapist
1. What is knowledge? Where is knowledge in the
2.
3.
therapeutic relationship? How do we produce
knowledge?
What or who is the ”self” we are taking care of
while doing therapy?
How is this ”self” positioned while we work
with people, searching for the constantly
shifting balance between connection and
detachment, merging and separation?
The practices of knowledge and the
well-being of the therapist
Aboutness thinking
• Distance is maintained
• The therapist has a priviledged
position in terms of knowledge
and power
• The therapist determines the
meanings
• Didactic, strategic, guiding
• Control, cures
Withness thinking
• Distance redused
• Closeness increased
• The therapist and the client
are mutually priviledged;
power is freely shared as much
as possible
• The meanings are negotiated
together
• Unpredictable, creative
uncertainty, cares
No-self (annatta)
• According to the Buddhist psychology there is no fixed, separate,
permanent, independent ”self”.
• ”Empty self” from fixed defining essense
is a mental construction, image, a label we are
identified with during our development.
• ”Self” is a impermanent, constantly changing process containing of
five aggregates: matter (body), sensations, perceptions, mental
formations and conciousness.
• Compare how social constructionism defines the ”self”.
The Position of the Therapist
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Central and influential
Central and non-influential
Decentral and non-influential
Decentral and influential
Morgan, A.: The position of the therapist in working with
children and their families. In White, M. & Morgan, A.
(2006): Narrative Therapy with Children and their
families. pp.59. Dulwich Centre Publications
.
Dvorak Simon
• ”Therapy is a spiritual path on which we
suddenly realize that we are something fullbodied, as it were something with guts,
something that makes you suddenly realize that
you are breathing…that awareness encompasses
time and as it is embraced with it, that
something is beautiful or absurd, or
magnificient, or rediculous, and every inch of
you is moving through space, and knows, and
doesn´t know that it knows…”
Bhavana maya pañña (in pairs)
• Think of a situation in your work, when you felt yourself unusual living. You
experienced that you did not do your therapy techniques, they just
happened through you. You were the openness through which the life just
manifested in that moment. What kind of skills did you use in order to
create this special moment? How did you create your being?
• Can you describe some of the particular steps you took to prepare yourself
to work in this way?
• What would you call these steps you took in your work?
• What does this say about what is important to you in life, what values or
beliefs might you hold that supported your work in that moment?
• Thinking about these values, what hopes or aspirations do you hold for your
work in relation to these values?
Bhavana maya pañña (continue)
• What ways of being in the world, or principles might
these hopes/aspirations reflect?
• Who in your life would be least suprised to hear you
talking about these things, someone who would
appreciate these things, too?
• If you were to see yourself through that person´s eyes,
what would you most appreciate about yourself?
• How was this conversation about being in your work for
you?
Literature
• Malinen, T. (2009) Psychotherapy as an ethical and
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spiritual exercise. Submitted to The Journal of Family
Psychotherapy. Can be read in www.tathata.fi
Malinen,T. & Thomas, F. (2009) Doing therapy: A source
of therapist well-being. CONTEXT 103, June.
Segall, S.R. (2003) Psychotherapy practice as Buddhist
practice. In Segall, S.R. (Ed.) Encountering Buddhist.
Western psychology and Buddhist teaching. New York:
State University Press.
Simon, D. (1995) Doing therapy as a spiritual practice.
News of Difference.