Zazen and psychotherapeutic presence

Zen meditation, or zazen, has attracted the interest of many psychotherapis ts. The teachings and practices of the Soto Zen tradition are understood as encouraging important areas of both psychological and spiritual developmen t. Zen, like the relational psychoanalytic theories, encourages its practit ioners to become aware of the fundamentally distorted aspects of an overly individualistic view of human experience. As a spiritual practice. zazen in creases the practitioner's tolerance and appreciation of the Wholeness that Buddhists refer to as Emptiness. As a psychological practice, it helps us to be more flexibly and intimately present with our patients. An effective therapeutic process, even of the most secular type, will often contain elem ents of the meditative process of zazen, and failure to actualize this in p sychotherapy can have a negative impact on our ability to understand and he lp our patients.