Awakening the Heart: East/West Approaches to Psychotherapy and the Healing Relationship

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines—psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions—to show that it can.

What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach—grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self—and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it.

They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully.

Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chogyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.

As a psychotherapist, teacher, and author, John Welwood has been a pioneer in integrating psychological and spiritual work. Welwood has published six books, including the best-selling?Journey of the Heart?(HarperCollins, 1990), as well as?Challenge of the Heart?(Shambhala, 1985), and?Love and Awakening?(HarperCollins, 1996). He is an associate editor of the?Journal for Transpersonal Psychology.?He leads workshops and trainings in psychospiritual work and conscious relationship throughout the world.