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The Personal and the Professional: Buddhist Practice and Systemic Therapists

Grassia, Joanne R.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6165-9501
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1431524759

Abstract Details

2015, Ph.D., Antioch University, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy.
This dissertation consists of two articles. The first article presents a literature review of research on therapists’ personal and professional lives as practitioners of Buddhist meditation and psychotherapy in the past ten years. Nineteen articles were reviewed that met the inclusion criteria of a) between 2004 and 2014; b) exploring meditation; and c) studies related to therapist personal or professional lives. The results of the review identified four broad themes: a) presence and acceptance; b) empathy; c) countertransference; and d) self-care/compassion and gratitude. The content analysis indicated a positive association between therapist meditation practice and therapist qualities, both for personal development and enhanced clinical competence. The second article describes a qualitative research study to discover the embodied, lived experiences of practicing therapists as they move between their personal study of Buddhist meditation practices and their professional clinical work. In-depth semi-structured interview data were analyzed, revealing two superordinate themes: a) a way of seeing and being in the world; and b) the personal and the professional in the therapy room. The research findings have clinical implications in gaining an understanding of on-going personal and professional development for experienced therapists and contributing to the literature on professional competence, in particular, therapeutic presence, acceptance, empathy, compassion, and practitioner well-being. The electronic version of this dissertation is available in the open-access OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.
Lucille Byno, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Megan Murphy, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Susan Dreyer-Leon, Ed.D. (Committee Member)
Catherine Lounsbury, Ed.D (Other)
125 p.
Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Families and Family Life; Psychotherapy
Buddhist meditation; marriage and family therapy; systemic psychotherapy; therapist development; compassionate therapeutic presence; personal; professional

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grassia, J. R. (2015). The Personal and the Professional: Buddhist Practice and Systemic Therapists [Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1431524759

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grassia, Joanne. The Personal and the Professional: Buddhist Practice and Systemic Therapists. 2015. Antioch University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1431524759.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grassia, Joanne. "The Personal and the Professional: Buddhist Practice and Systemic Therapists." Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1431524759

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

antioch1431524759
628
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Antioch University and OhioLINK.