MINDFULNESS MEDITATION THERAPY
Peter Strong, Ph.D

Mindfulness Meditation Therapy (MMT) is a powerful way of working with difficult emotions such as depression and anxiety, recurrent fear, phobias and anger by using the natural healing effects of mindfulness. Mindfulness Based Therapy has attracted considerable interest in the medical community for the management of depression and for stress management (see MBCT for more information). In general these approaches use mindfulness to enhance relaxation and body-centered awareness, which have a general beneficial effect. What makes MMT unique is that it applies mindfulness directly to emotional problems to facilitate transformation. MMT is also based on the core understanding that the path to the resolution to emotional suffering lies within, but is hindered by accumulated habitual reactivity. This natural and intuitive healing capacity in the psyche is called satipanna, from sati, which means mindfulness and panna, which means natural wisdom-intelligence. MMT helps you strip away the layers of avoidance, resistance and reactivity so that satipanna can guide this natural process of healing. The MMT therapist is primarily a teacher who guides you in the process of applying mindfulness to achieve beneficial results internally and externally.

MINDFULNESS (top)

Over 2500 years ago, the Buddha taught about the healing power of Mindfulness Meditation, called Vipassana, or Insight Meditation. Mindfulness Meditation Therapy simply applies mindfulness directly to emotional problems as a means of facilitating their transformation and resolution. Mindfulness is a very specific way of relating to any form of emotional stress that is based on the three principles of non-reactivity, openness and compassion. Habitual reactivity prevents change and reinforces suffering. Reactivity has the general effect of closing the mind and perpetuating fear and people who are very reactive and unaware of their reactivity are generally unhappy and unable to appreciate life to the full. The Buddha taught mindfulness as a practice to counteract habitual reactivity and liberate the mind. Mindfulness is a state of awareness and attentiveness in which we are fully present for whatever we are experiencing. In essence, mindfulness is the perfection of listening and inner stillness as an antidote to the usual condition of frantic emotional reactivity and reactive thinking. Mindfulness applied to the experience of an emotion is not thinking or talking about the emotion, but learning how to be fully present with the inner experience of the emotion. When we listen in this way we create a space around the emotion that allows the emotional complex to unfold into its component parts. The conscious illumination of the internal structure of an emotion is what leads to the transformation and eventual resolution of the emotion.

HOW MINDFULNESS BASED THERAPY WORKS (top)

It is always what we don’t see that is most harmful and for this reason, focussed mindfulness becomes very important for transformation by illuminating the deeper structure of our experience. There are three inter-related processes that contribute to the transformation and resolution of emotional complexes during MMT. These are RECOGNITION, RELATIONSHIP and EXPERIENTIAL TRANSFORMATION.

The first transformational step is simply learning to recognize reactions as they arise in the mind. The more skilled we become at this, the less we will be controlled by our habitual reactivity. Once we have learned to recognize our reactions and stop their proliferation, then we can establish a therapeutic relationship with our inner suffering. In this mindfulness-based relationship we simply stay present and open to our inner feelings. In this space, an emotional complex will naturally begin to unfold and reveal an internal structure of subtle feelings, memories and experiential imagery. This natural unfolding of the internal structure of our emotions leads directly to Experiential Transformation and it is the consciousness illumination of the internal structure of difficult emotions that leads to their resolution. In effect, the psyche heals itself, rather than our trying to fix things externally. The more aware you become of the inner experiential structure of your suffering, the more you will experience beneficial change. The psyche is more than capable of healing itself, but it can do this only if you are able to stop the habitual reactivity that inhibits the healing process and this happens when you allow yourself to form a mindfulness-based relationship with your inner emotional pain. This innate capacity to heal suffering is called satipanna, the intuitive wisdom-intelligence (panna) that arises when there is mindfulness (sati).

INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING (top)
Send me an email

Mindfulness psychotherapy is a form of Experiential Therapy: it works directly with your inner experience in the present moment. Interpretation and analysis can be useful tools, but are seldom enough to resolve the root cause of emotional reactivity and consequently this kind of approach can be lengthy. However, if you allow the healing process to unfold from within, then whatever arises is more likely to be transformative at a deeper level and consequently, fewer sessions are required to produce a measurable improvement. Sessions are usually done with eyes closed to help you focus inwardly and establish a mindfulness-based relationship with the emotion that you have chosen to work on. You will be guided on how to focus mindfulness on the feeling energy that powers each emotional reaction. This is the most important initial step in the therapeutic process, because feelings give power to the thoughts, beliefs and actions that form an emotional reaction. Mindfulness of feelings leads to the unfolding of the inner structure of the emotion and this unfolding of content is in itself highly transformational. Experiential transformation often involves experiential imagery that arises internally and the conscious experience of such experiential imagery can be immensely liberating. However, the most important transformational step happens the moment when you establish a non-reactive mindfulness-based relationship with your inner suffering. Whether you are struggling with anger, anxiety, grief, low self-confidence, recurrent painful memories or phobias, MMT helps you establish a safe relationship with your emotions based on mindfulness and then facilitate the process of transformation and resolution that follow naturally from this inner relationship.
I offer individual sessions of MMT in Boulder County, Colorado. Please feel free to contact me by email to discuss your needs. Introductory meetings for individual counseling are free.

PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR ANXIETY (top)

Anxiety about the future, about your family and personal relationships or anxiety about work, are very common experiences for everyone, but occasionally anxiety reactions can become repetitive. Such recurrent anxiety can severely affect your happiness and may lead to depression. There are many different schools of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety and depression and one good source of information is provided by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.
Anxiety reactions have an internal structure in the form of patterns of negative thinking and beliefs. However, what gives power to these thoughts is the emotional energy attached to them in the form of feelings. MMT begins by focussing mindfulness on these feelings, rather than on the content of our thoughts. The feelings begin to unfold into more subtle content that will often involve experiential imagery and this provides a very effective way of working with anxiety and depression. As you become conscious of this inner imagery, the internal structure of the anxiety will undergo experiential transformation and this leads to the gradual resolution of the associated anxiety. As the anxiety resolves, new and more functional patterns of thinking and beliefs will emerge. Transformation becomes a natural and intuitive process if we cultivate the inner psychological freedom that mindfulness provides. The innate intelligence of satipanna guides the process of healing anxiety and depression if we give it the freedom to operate. This is the psyche healing itself: a process that is inhibited by habitual reactivity, but facilitated by mindfulness.

MINDFULNESS PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR PHOBIAS (top)

A phobia is an intense fear reaction produced in response to external objects such as a cat or a spider or exposure to certain situations such as open spaces and social gatherings. At the core of most phobias you will often find intense experiential imagery that connects directly to the powerful emotional energy of fear. The overall strategy for working with a phobia is to change this inner imagery, because changes in the internal imagery will produce corresponding changes in the intensity of the fear reaction. But, before you can do this you need to establish a safe relationship with the emotion and core imagery. Mindfulness is ideal for doing this, because it allows you to monitor subtle changes in reactivity before it proliferates and overwhelms the mind. During MMT, you will focus on the internal representation of the object or situation that produces the fear reaction. Through repeated and controlled mindfulness-contact with your fear, you will become less reactive and this will allow you to proceed to the next stage in which you establish a mindfulness-based relationship with the inner imagery. As you focus on the imagery you will begin to notice how it changes in response to your attention. This natural experiential transformation leads to subtle changes in the structure and contents of the imagery and this leads to corresponding changes in the intensity of the fear reaction. To give a simple example, if you have a phobia of spiders you will likely have an inner image of a spider that is very large, very close and vivid. After the resolution of the phobia with MMT, the inner image representation will likely be much reduced in size, will appear further away and will not be so vivid. These inner changes in how you experience a spider are what eventually lead to the resolution of the phobia.

PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR TRAUMA and GRIEF (top)
(POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, PTSD)

Intense experiences produce intense emotions that may be hard to resolve. Childhood traumas can leave scars that generate suffering throughout adult life. Experiences such as the death of a loved one, accidents and injury can produce vivid memories that evoke intense anxiety, guilt or even anger. In the same way that we work with phobias, the process of transformation begins as soon as you are able to establish a safe and non-reactive mindfulness-based relationship with your inner feelings and memory-based imagery. This allows the imagery to change and resolve itself into a form that does not produce overwhelming emotional reactions. The psyche is very capable of restructuring the inner representation of traumatic memories and resolving the associated emotional reactivity if it is given the non-reactive freedom of mindfulness.

MINDFULNESS PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR ANGER (top)

Inner conflict as well as continual frustration and disappointment are generated by unconscious attachment to inner beliefs about what we must have in order to be happy. Such blind attachment to expectations and ideals inevitably leads to inner conflict, because reality can never match your expectations. When inner conflict becomes entrenched through habitual reactivity, it leads to anger, expressed both internally and externally in our relationships. MMT helps you form a mindfulness-based relationship with your anger based on careful listening and being fully present. Under these conditions the negative emotional energy and the associated experiential imagery will begin to change. People often discover intense sadness and feelings of abandonment that form part of the internal structure of their anger and experiencing this fully can be very transformative. The emotion of anger, like all strong emotions has an inner structure encoded in experiential imagery, often involving vivid colors. The color red is often associated with anger because this is the color that is most often associated with our internal imagery. As you focus mindfulness on the inner imagery of anger and allow it to transform, you may discover that the color red is replaced by more muted colors that do not provoke anger. Careful attention to the subtle structure of experiential imagery and the deeper feelings at the core of anger will eventually lead to a resolution. When you have resolved the patterns of habitual anger you will be free to discover better and more skillful ways of meeting your needs and aspirations based on conscious awareness, rather than blind reactivity.

IMPROVING SELF-CONFIDENCE (top)


Low self-esteem and lack of confidence are generated when we become attached to negative thought patterns and emotional reactions directed against the self. There will often be strong negative beliefs at the core of this kind of emotional reactivity. However, these beliefs depend on negative emotional energy that gives them power. To break free from dysfunctional habitual reactions requires that you form a relationship with the emotional energy that fuels these reactions. As you begin to uncover the internal structure of these emotional reactions, it is very common to experience an internal drama of experiential imagery often involving childhood memories. As these are transformed through MMT you will learn new ways of relating to past events that will allow you to form more positive beliefs about yourself, which is essential for developing self-confidence. This is another example of the psyche healing itself, which it will do to perfection if given the freedom to operate. Confidence is not something that you create, but something that you need to nurture and mindfulness allows you to remove the obstacles of habitual reactivity and allow you to discover your natural innate potential.

BLOG / ARTICLES ON MINDFULNESS PSYCHOTHERAPY

To read more about Mindfulness Meditation Therapy. Click Here

MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION (MBSR)(top)

Emotional stress is something we all experience as we try to cope with the many demands and responsibilities of home and work. Stress can be defined as an intense emotional and physiological reaction to a situation or the mental representation of a situation as a memory or anticipation. Chronic stress is produced when stress reactions do not resolve themselves and become habitual. The sustained physiological effects of chronic stress can have a serious effect on the body and lead to an increased risk of disease. The psychological effects of chronic stress produce fatigue, poor concentration and an impaired ability to perform tasks, which leads to more stress. Stress produces a general feeling of helplessness and negativity, both of which reinforce the stress reactions. We feel a lack of vitality, enthusiasm and creativity. Many people describe chronic stress as a heavy blackness that covers everything. Chronic stress can result in an increased chance of accidents as well as reducing work performance.
Chronic stress also reduces our listening and learning skills and this reduces the quality of communication in our personal relationships and family. Chronic stress is a problem that greatly impacts those around us as well as reducing the quality of our own life.

WORKING WITH STRESS REACTIONS

All habitual emotional reactions rely on two elements – ignorance and emotional energy. The first task in MMT is called RECOGNITION, in which we learn to recognize our stress reactions as they arise in stressful situations. This counteracts the automatic and mechanical part of what makes a reaction habitual. The maxim of MMT is that all change begins with mindfulness and awareness is the first and most important step. However, what keeps a reaction alive is the associated emotional charge without which the reaction would have no power to cause stress. MMT teaches us how to form a non-reactive relationship, the MINDFULNESS BASED RELATIONSHIP, with this underlying emotional energy that compels us to react.
The mindfulness relationship is very important. This is where we allow ourselves to open our awareness and investigate the emotional energy, which is quite different to our usual reaction of ignorance, avoidance or aversion. Mindfulness creates a therapeutic space that allows the emotion to unfold and undergo transformation. If you give it space it will change. This is one of the great discoveries made by the Buddha, 2500 years ago and which we are rediscovering today. It is not what we do that matters as much as how we relate to our emotional stress. When this relationship is based on the receptivity and openness of mindfulness, then we create the best possible conditions in which the emotional tension can resolve itself. Without this emotional power, there is nothing to sustain the reaction and life-long patterns of stress producing reactivity begin to dissolve, leaving you free from their compulsive grip. Like the petals of a lotus bud that were previously held and constrained so tightly, the mind begins to explore a new freedom with all its possibilities and choices. MMT teaches you how to apply mindfulness to resolve your patterns of habitual reactivity so that you can realize your full potential and enjoy your life and relationships to the full.

RELATIONSHIP COUNSELING (top)
Send me an email

Whether in our personal relationships, family relationships or relationships at work, we often become victims to patterns of habitual reactivity that create and proliferate conflict. Over and over again, we become offended, upset and angry by words that were not intended to cause hurt. Often we hurt others unintentionally and yet seem unable to feel change what we say or do. At the center of all habitual reactions is a form of compulsive energy that compels us to react, often against our better judgement. Buttons get pushed and reactivity takes over. One person is compelled to become a victim, whilst another is compelled to become a perpetrator. These compulsive patterns of reactivity can destroy relationships and families. MMT can be very helpful in improving communication and interaction between individuals by teaching each participant to recognize their habitual reactions through mindfulness. Through individual mindfulness work on the underlying feelings that compel us to react when provoked we can uncover the complex inner structure of these emotional reactions. As the inner structure is made conscious then it will begin to transform and our fixations and compulsions will begin to lose their power over us. When we can resolve the underlying emotional energy that compels us to react then we can learn more skillful ways of being in a relationship.
I offer MMT in Boulder County, Colorado. Introductory meetings for relationship counseling are free.

WORKSHOPS (top)
Send me an email

Classes and workshops are offered in Colorado and beyond. Please feel free to contact me by email to discuss your needs.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION (top)
Sign up for the next series of classes, which are offered at various times throughout the year. Individual instruction in mindfulness mediation is also offered as well as life coaching in which we can discuss, in an informal setting, how to apply mindfulness in your life to help you realize your goals.

MINDFULNESS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS (top)
I offer instruction, either to groups or individuals on the application of mindfulness in the healing professions and for psychotherapists who wish to use mindfulness in their practice. Topics include: Mindfulness Based Therapy; Experiential Psychotherapy and the use of Experiential Imagery; Buddhist Psychology and Psychotherapy; Therapeutic language modalities and NLP.

MINDFULNESS AT WORK (top)
I teach mindfulness techniques for stress management and conflict resolution, suitable for organizations and companies interested in improving listening skills and communication skills in the work environment.

BIO (top)

Peter Strong, PhD, was born in the UK and went to the University of Edinburgh and Oxford, where he received a doctorate in immunology. He has a life-long interest in the relationship between meditation and health and this led him to the study of Buddhism and meditation and the therapeutic applications of mindfulness. He later received trained in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and Hypnotherapy. NLP is a very effective tool for working with the inner structure of emotions and hypnotherapy provides an excellent tool to help clients focus on the inner experience of their emotions. In the late 1980s he developed Mindfulness Meditation Therapy, a unique combination of mindfulness work, experiential image psychotherapy and NLP that proved to be very effective for helping people resolve a wide range of difficult emotional problems.

Currently, he lives in Louisville, Colorado with his wife and two children. He offers counseling to individuals and couples that is highly effective and affordable.

ONLINE COUNSELING (top)