|
Cognitive Behavior Therapy Institute
and TheraZen® Center for Psychotherapy-Meditation Integration Now
Offering Online Therapy via Webcam
at our CyberClinic 
"I
am weak before the wind; before the sun
I faint, I lose my strength;
I am utterly vanquished by a star;
I go to my knees, at length
Before the song of a bird; before
The breath of spring or fall
I am lost; before these miracles
I am nothing at all."
(A. Moses Klein, 1940, Hath Not A Jew)
"To be, or to attempt to be
an entire human being,
is difficult"
(Seth, Early Sessions, Book 2, p. 236)
"Man is not born
to solve the problem of existence, but to attempt
to solve it"
(Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, 1749-1832)
"By giving up pride, one becomes lovable,
By giving up anger, one never experiences grief,
By giving up desire, one becomes wealthy,
By giving up avarice, one becomes happy"
(Yaksha Prasna, Mahabharata)
You Don't Have to Feel How You're Feeling
(unless you continue to think how you're thinking)
If you are reading
this, you may be suffering from a heightened
level of one of the common afflictions associated with being human:
depression, stress/anxiety, worry, relationship
problems, or simply a general dissatisfaction with where you are in
life
versus where you thought you would be or want to be. Though most people
at some time in their life struggle with at least one of
these difficulties in one form or another, the fact that you are on
this site suggests that you have begun to realize that this is not the
way life has to
be. This realization is the first step, and probably the most important
step, toward reaching your goals.

Psychotherapy-Meditation Integration
The fact is that there
exist ways of thinking and behaving
that are very different from the constrictive patterns of relating to
the world
that are often taught, either explicitly or implicitly, by parents and
society.
The practices of psychotherapy and meditation have evolved over
thousands
of years to address this discrepancy which is the root cause of
individual and
societal suffering. After a period of differentiation and
specialization, in
which psychotherapy became a form of healthcare and meditation became a
form of
spirituality, it is now widely acknowledged that such a dichotomy is
neither conceptually accurate nor practically helpful.
Indeed,
psychotherapy-meditation integration is just one of a growing number of
approaches introducing people to wisdom traditions and
teachings on integration of body, little mind and Big
Mind or "All That Is." To these
ends, in addition to services provided by CBT Institute / TheraZen
Center, clients are encouraged to identify and seek out additional
resources specializing in other areas of personal growth.

TheraZen®Training
TheraZen® (Thera = therapy-related;
Zen = the Japanese and English-adopted transliteration of the Chinese term chan,
itself a transliteration of the Sanskrit term dhyana,
which means
meditation) is the term Dr. Seiden currently uses to characterize his
personal integration of knowledge and techniques from the fields of
cognitive behavior therapy and other psychotherapies; the philosophy
and
practice of yoga (including meditation, mindfulness, and prayer); and
other disciplines involving
training body and mind first to get out of their own way and,
ultimately, out of
the way of soul-guidance and realization of unity with Spirit.
TheraZen® was
chosen as a user-friendly description of Dr. Seiden's approach which has
gradually evolved into a method of Integral Cognitive
Behavior Therapy or Transpersonal Cognitive Behavior
Therapy that would
perhaps more precisely (though certainly more clumsily) be termed
"Entheo-Syntonic
Transpersonal Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy-Meditation Integration
Yoga" (entheo
= God containing/enabling; syntonic = consistent with; entheo-syntonic
= consistent with a client's own religious, spiritual or scientific conceptions
of God, the Universe or Ultimate Reality; yoga =
simultaneous octo-arising of the eight limbs of yoga which are external
behavior/purification, internal behavior/purification, settling the
body, settling the breath, withdrawing attention from sensory
stimuli, focusing attention, being aware of awareness -- jnana yoga or
self-inquiry a la Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj -- and, finally, eventually, not whether but when, Being-Consciousness-Bliss).
The
"Transpersonal" aspect of this approach refers
to the explicit therapeutic focus on moving toward
"ultimate human capacities and potentialities"
rather than merely on figuring out ways to eliminate
"problems" (though this is an important focus
as well). Some such capacities might include, as
contained in one definition of Transpersonal Psychology,
". . . ultimate values, unitive consciousness, peak
experiences . . . ecstasy, mystical experience, awe,
being, self-actualization, essence, bliss, wonder,
ultimate meaning, transcendance of self, spirit,
oneness, cosmic awareness . . . sacralization of
everyday life, transcendental phenomena . . . and
related concepts, experiences and activities." (Sutich,
1973)
TheraZen shares aspects of
what
like-minded colleagues have labeled "Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction," "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy,"
"Acceptance and Commitment Therapy," and "Dialectical Behavior Therapy."
However, TheraZen's conceptual and technical
integral and transpersonal (transcendent
experiential) emphases warrant its differentiation from these other methods
to avoid confusion
with their
own particular philosophies and protocols. Whereas the mindfulness therapies have, generally speaking, distanced themselves from the
ego-transcendent theories and goals of the religious,
spiritual and mystical systems from which they have
co-opted their theories and techniques (although this
may vary from one practitioner to another, and according
to the stated goals of the client), TheraZen may,
with interested coevolutients (co-evolving
patients/clients), supplement cbt and meditative
techniques with practices aimed at attaining beneficial
transcendental and anomalous
states such as lucid dreaming and out-of-body
experiences.
Although such an
approach is uncommon in traditional psychotherapeutic
practice, two of the
founders of scientific psychology, Gustav Fechner and
William James, were themselves transpersonalists. As
William James (perhaps the originator of
the term trans-personal, which appears in his lecture notes for a
Harvard University psychology course in 1905) once wrote, "No part of the unclassified residuum has usually been treated with a more
contemptuous scientific disregard than the mass of phenomena generally called mystical" (1897, pp. 299-303, in The will to believe and other essays
in popular philosophy, cited in Ryan, Mark B., 2008,The transpersonal William James, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 27).
Likewise, while inspired by and incorporating aspects of Ken Wilber's Integral Life Practice,
Theosophy, various teachings involving kundalini and chakra work, the journeys
of Robert Monroe (Journeys out of the Body; Far Journeys; Ultimate
Journey), the hemispheric synchronization technologies of the Monroe
Institute (Hemi-Sync), Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Jane Roberts' and Robert Butts'
Seth Material, Mantak Chia's Universal Healing Tao
System, Carlos Casteneda's Art of Dreaming, Waldo
Vieira's Projectiology, the teachings of Bhagavan Sri
Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Biofeedback, and other
alternatives to traditional psychotherapy, the
strong emphasis on traditional empirically validated cognitive and behavioral techniques
for specific cognitive, emotional and behavioral
difficulties firmly situates TheraZen® among
the Third Wave contextual
cognitive behavior therapies (with All-That-Is as the Ultimate
Context).
Psychotherapeutically, TheraZen® aims at helping people to overcome cognitive, emotional and physical
distress; set and accomplish healthy goals; interact harmoniously with others; and lead a fulfilling life.
To the more religious, spiritual, esoteric, mystical, and otherwise
ultimate-reality oriented ends, clients are made aware of the vast literature of
the Perennial Philosophy (the basis for all true spiritual and religious thought
and practice -- See Aldous Huxley's book by this title for a breathtaking
introduction and overview).
Although many people associate meditation and mindfulness with
Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, these practices are firmly rooted as well in ancient practices of the Biblical
prophets. Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam all possess their own rich traditions of meditation. CBT Institute / TheraZen® Center clients are encouraged to identify
a meditational format
that is "entheo-syntonic" or "God-containing/enabling" in
accordance with their personal beliefs (or lack thereof) (See Huston Smith's (2003) preface to
"Cleansing the Doors of Perception" for his discussion with Aldous
Huxley regarding terminology).

Contact us for more info
|