“I really value the subversive nature of what Pine Street is offering. Instead of doing some fear-based ethics course, what they offer seeks to open our minds and spirits and bodies to see our ethical responsibilities more clearly! Amazing!”
“I appreciate the safety and vulnerability in Pine Street trainings.”
“The insight of Buddhist teachings applied to clinical practice”
Within my personal meditation practice, I integrated the theoretical into the experiential which provided insights about what my own personal ethics entail in my work with clients.
The workshop provided a much more nuanced and personal approach to ethics than would be found in more traditional training on this topic.
Excellent synthesis of compassionate self-awareness with questions of ethics – strong emphasis on nourishing the self and maybe approaching ethical “speed bumps” from a place of strength.
Psychotherapists are well acquainted with the language of metaphor. It often arrives unannounced in the consulting room, offering a compact way to gesture toward inner states. One of the most common metaphors is the image of the cup: half empty, signaling a depressive orientation; half full, suggesting optimism or resilience. When a client describes their…
In clinical training, many of us were introduced to mindfulness as a way of stabilizing attention—returning, again and again, to the breath, the body, a chosen phrase or another focus object. There is real value in that discipline. The capacity to steady attention can regulate the nervous system, and in moments when a client is…
This blog, by Barbara Leeming, LMFT, highlights the power of reflection in healing stuck patterns of behavior. Exploring origins has long been a focus of my curiosity—whether in science, the humanities, or elsewhere. This inquisitiveness has served me well. However, it wasn’t until I began studying Buddhism and…
This blog integrates Reflective Meditation with mental health topics. Written by Katrina Gould, LCSW. A client of mine recently moved to Spain and, as one might expect, the transition has been challenging. A different culture, a different town, a different language. The only stable, familiar entity is his longtime partner. Otherwise, all is new.…
This blog by Nelly Kaufer, LPC, highlights how meditating in an open, receptive, and curious way helped her develop an internal sense of secure attachment. When I was young, I longed for secure attachment, though I did not have that language at the time. What I felt instead was a hole somewhere deep inside me,…
This is a piece by Katrina Gould, LCSW, about the dharna learned from a childhood experience. During the 1972/1973 school year, my family lived in Scotland. Two-thirds of the way into the year, my mom had a big surgery. She stayed in the hospital for two weeks before coming home. During those two weeks, I…
How is Reflective Meditation different from Psychotherapy? A Conversation between Nelly Kaufer & Linda Modaro Sometimes meditators ask us how Reflective Meditation differs from psychotherapy, especially since we value our thoughts and emotions in Reflective Meditation. The question engages me personally because I work as a ‘Buddhist informed psychotherapist.’ How I do psychotherapy differs…
The article below, written by Katrina Gould, LCSW, is an example of how meditation can help us navigate relationships healthfully. A couple of weeks ago, my partner asked if we could have some friends over for dinner the next night. We were coming off a flurry of houseguests and assorted dinner parties, and while he…
– Photo by Judy Butler – PREAMBLE We have been working with creative ways to reflect before and after our meditation practice. One way we discovered is through free-form writing. In the piece below, we chose the topic of “permission to do any practice in Reflective Meditation” and wrote for 15 minutes, then shared our…
– Photograph by Barb Tillman – An Unconventional Glossary of Buddhist Qualities In English translated from Meditative Experience and Pali* …Or the Meanderings of Nelly Kaufer’s mind Alphabetize This glossary is “somewhat alphabetical”. It’s like our inner life. For a while we can alphabetize, order, structure and define it; then we’re accosted by wild, chaotic and…
– Photograph by Nelly Kaufer – When you’re absolutely certain about what a client should do or shouldn’t do, you best be cautious. Your certainty might be rooted in insecurity. You, alone, can’t change the course of your client’s life. It’s probably your countertransference that is dictating. When you grasp for a clear-cut direction, you…
– Photograph by Nelly Kaufer – We listen to our clients, and to their inner worlds, all day long. We listen with them in sessions and at times in between sessions. We travel with them to myriad states of mind and internal places: to their pain, satisfaction, boredom, stuckness, joy– and so much more. Who…
– Photograph by Carol Kast – I sit day in and day out, year in and year out, with client after client — their pain-anguish-anger-fear-rage. You name it. That’s why they come to me. They’re hurting. They wouldn’t bear their soul and shame to a stranger if it was otherwise. Yes, there are the veterans…
– Photograph by Barb Tillman – A boundary violation is the rupture of the sacred agreement a psychotherapist makes with a client. “I will put my client’s needs above my own.” Maybe it seems that for fifty minutes you have no personal needs beyond ensuring that the client and their insurance pay you. We’re seduced…