PSYCHOTHERAPY COURSE HANDBOOK

Amida Trust

Counselling and Psychotherapy Training PROGRAMME

Course Handbook Amida Trust The Buddhist House 12 Coventry Rd Narborough LE19 2GR UK 1

AMIDA TRUST PSYCHOTHERAPY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME COURSE HANDBOOK: (Revised June 2006) This Handbook contains material about the philosophy and orientation of the course and information about assessment and course requirements.

CONTENTS PART I: SYLLABUS AND STANDARDS Awards; How to use the Handbook; I.B.A.P.; Entry Requirements; Full time and part time Syllabus and standards;

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PART II: COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND METHODS Introduction The Buddhist Psychology Perspective....

Ethics and Personal Spirituality...

Literature and Hermaneutics....

Individual Work & Group Work...

Creativity and Multi-media Work...

Page 5-14

PART III: GENERAL GUIDELINES Initial Planning; Study Time; Personal Journal..

CLGs; Tutorial System; Practice Work & Supervision.

Practice Records; Recording Groups..

Case Studies; Insurance; Projects; Papers; Personal Development...

Books; Reading List..

Page 15-19

PART IV: PERSONAL GROWTH

Page 20-22

PART V: PROGRAMME REQUIREMENTS

Page 23-27

PART VI: ETHICS

Page 28-32

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PART I AWARDS This handbook details the requirements leading to the making of the following awards: FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE IN COUNSELLING ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN COUNSELLING DIPLOMA IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK It is advisable to read the handbook through before you are interviewed. It may not all make full sense to you yet. You can seek clarification of particular points at interview. Subsequently, when you have joined the Programme, the Handbook will remain a continually useful source of reference and you will want to reread sections as they become relevant to your work. The Handbook contains information which will help you to get started and clarify what you need to do to complete each aspect of the Programme. The handbook is revised and updated from time to time.

I.B.A.P. The Programme offered conforms to the requirements of the Institute for Buddhist Analysis and Psychotherapy which are, in turn, determined by standards set both by the membership of I.B.A.P. and by the psychotherapy profession generally through the agency of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (U.K.C.P.). Requirements may, therefore, change from time to time to conform to these standards. All students enrolling for this Programme automatically become members of I.B.A.P. during their period of study.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE

No previous experience or academic requirement.

ADVANCED CERTIFICATE

Applicants must hold the Foundation Certificate or an equivalent qualification. All applicants are interviewed for suitability.

DIPLOMA PROGRAMME

Applicants must hold the Advanced Certificate or an equivalent qualification. This programme is at post-graduate level and applicants should hold a degree or be able to demonstrate their ability to work at a post-graduate level.

PART TIME AND FULL TIME STUDY Students may register as full time or part time. Students will be assumed to be part time unless they apply for full time status. Application for full time status must include an undertaking to attend courses at a frequency consistent with the regulations laid down in this handbook. Full time students will normally be resident in The Buddhist House or surrounding area unless special attendance arrangements have been agreed.

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SYLLABUS AND STANDARDS AIMS of the Programme: 1. To help students deepen their natural capacity for caring, kindness and understanding; to learn to skillfully apply this in therapeutic relationships; 2. To enable each student to evolve his or her own personal integration of theory, practice, personal and spiritual development, taking account of the major theoretical schools and methodologies taught, learnings from life and experience of helping others; 3. To present a Buddhist approach to psychotherapy, counselling and groupwork, incorporating both the eastern and western traditions. A Buddhist understanding of psychology is the primary focus of the Programme and the integrating model for other theories; 4. To enable students to become familiar with therapeutic work in a range of modes and media including dramatic, arts based, bodywork and meditational approaches in addition to the conversational method; 5. To establish non-discriminatory attitudes and practices in which each person is appreciated uniquely in their own relation to their own world; 6. To integrate an ethical perspective into the therapeutic process; 7. To assist each student to find a personal mode of practice for personal and spiritual growth.

TOPICS Students study the following areas:Buddhist Psychology as presented in the Buddhist sutras, abhidharma and writings of later teachers Counselling, Psychotherapy and Groupwork Theory, Practice, Ethics and Values Action and arts based methods as a medium for applying Buddhist psychological principles The application of therapeutic principles in different settings, formal and informal, and related ethics and boundaries Theoretical Bases of and Comparisons between the Major Approaches to Psychotherapy humanistic, cognitive, constructivist, behavioural, psycho-dynamic, psycho-spiritual, and particularly parallels in western phenomenology The Social Context of Psychotherapy including Issues of Power and Human Dignity related to race; social class; culture; age; ability; and mental health.

Professionalization: the Political and Organizational Context of Therapy and Counselling Theories of Human Psychological Development The Body, Mind and Spirit Dimensions of Therapy and Personal Growth The relationship between Theory, Practice and Research.

The general syllabus is the same for all levels of award but different levels of competence are expected.

Whilst focusing primarily on their specialisation, students are expected to acquire a broad perspective.

Thus, students studying groupwork are expected to gain a basic understanding of individual therapy theory and practice, and students studying individual therapy are expected to gain a basic understanding of groups. All students will acquire a general understanding of Buddhist psychology. The depth of understanding expected, naturally, becomes greater as you progress from the Certificate to higher levels of the programme.

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STANDARDS The Programme is constantly developing and the standard required gradually increases. Substantial elements of peer assessment are built in to ensure that there is a sharing of responsibility in this process of improvement. A general guide to standards required at each level is as follows: 1.

Foundation Certificate Level:

Students should be able to demonstrate basic competence in individual or group facilitation; understand the basic principles of Buddhist psychology and the core conditions of a therapeutic relationship; give evidence of personal warmth and of respectful and humane attitudes toward clients and colleagues; be able to express themselves about personal matters without undue timidity or hostility; be able to talk about their work with clarity; be free from practices damaging to clients; and be able to interact with other professionals in a proper manner. Faced with a range of different presenting issues, they should be able consistently to offer a reflective response.

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Advanced Certificate Level:

In addition to the above, be competent in a variety of styles of facilitation and be able to demonstrate more imaginative work reflecting their own personal style; show a basic ability to understand how different people arrive at different constructions of the world around them and be free of major bias in responding to different such constructions; understand the main theories and applications of Buddhist therapeutic psychology; understand a range of approaches to therapy and be able to clearly explain the rationale for their own practice and how it differs from alternatives; be able, in response to a given presenting issue, to offer and discuss intelligently a range of possible therapeutic responses including some which use media other than dialogue alone.

3. Diploma Level:

In addition to the above, have a well integrated personal style of therapy which is, nonetheless, still evolving; be able to work in a way which is creative and insightful, so that clients are enabled to discover unexpected possibilities for themselves; have a clear understanding of Buddhist therapeutic theory and method; have a capacity to recognise and work respectfully with the client’s subtle constructions of their own inner life and of the world around them; be alert to the creative potential of therapeutic encounters; appreciate a range of psychotherapeutic theories and methods and be able to apply them in particular cases; be free of rigid thinking and narrowness; have made sufficient progress in personal growth and maturity that there is no large group of clients whom they are not able to work with effectively; have awareness of spiritual-existential issues and the manner in which they underpin everyday choices and behaviour.

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PART II: COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND METHODS The Amida Psychotherapy Educational Programme is more than simply a training course. Over the years the Programme has become a flexible, multi-faceted environment in which students who have a variety of interests, experience and personalities can contribute together to one another's intellectual, personal, professional and spiritual development. People have gone on from this programme to do much good work not just as psychotherapists and counsellors but in involvement across the whole spectrum of compassionate action in society.

The inspiration for the programme comes from the understanding of mental process developed over 2,500 years of Buddhist history and from the methods of training which have evolved through Buddhist practice since the time of the Buddha. This inspiration provides the paradigm within which some of the experience of W estern and Eastern psychotherapeutic method and theory can be integrated. The course enables students to seek for an integration which is rooted in personal integrity and broad enough to allow for the complexities of human nature. There is a spirit of ongoing enquiry and co-operative learning. W e hope you will engage in this spirit with enthusiasm. The Programme integrates skills, knowledge and personal experience in an experimental and experiential way. The approach, therefore, is holistic, practical and rigorous.

This Handbook outlines the course requirements. It is important that you have this information. At the same time, we hope you will approach the course in an open and adventurous spirit. The requirements provide a framework. W ithin it you will extend your competence certainly. W e also hope the subject comes alive - and you come alive - in satisfying ways. Participation and enjoyment of learning are, in the long run, more consequential than collecting credits. You can contribute as well as receive.

W e have sometimes said that we cultivate not three Rs but three Cs: compassion, cooperation and creativity.

Creativity means being experimental and having fun with the material. The course is a space to try out new ideas.

The principle of impermanence can be freeing: everything is in a state of change and development, and there is always some new aspect to be discovered. Tutors and other students can be sounding boards for your ideas and projects. The syllabus is broad. The Amida Diploma is intended to be a feast.

Co-operation means inter-active learning and supporting one another. Sangha is a central concept in Buddhism.

Isolated individuality defeats the growth of sangha. The course group is a kind of sangha, in which co-operative learning and supportive sharing can grow. At first this may take some getting used to because it runs against the grain of much of our education in self reliance and competitive values. W ithin the learning community the real challenge is for us to develop harmony within diversity, co-operating together in deeper ways. For this reason there are many opportunities for shared project work and peer learning, as well as a dialogic process for written assignments. W e hope these structures will provide a stepping off point for you to find many ways to link and learn with others.

Dialogue is an important learning process: sharing thoughts before they are polished, listening deeply to one another and taking some risks with ideas and feelings. It can be a challenge to share in this way and to let other people see our uncertainties, get feedback, and work through the results together. Sometimes we realise we are holding uncomfortable attachments to being seen as right or infallible. Participating fully and helping to create an atmosphere in which we all go on learning, we can, however, build a real learning community together.

Compassion is central to Buddhist teaching. It is the natural response to suffering and the basis of psychotherapy. In Buddhism, compassion and wisdom go hand in hand. W hen Quan Yin, the embodiment of compassion in Buddhist myth, reaches out, she has an eye of wisdom in each of her hands to guide its movements. Psychotherapy is compassion with understanding. The word compassion means "suffering with". A person is not an island. W e are interconnected. There is a mirroring process which goes on between people all the time. Being a therapist means developing wisdom and compassion so that we can walk with others on their paths, and be a clear mirror to their suffering. It also means offering an open heart and an open mind in which a generous attitude to life comes naturally.

Becoming a therapist requires us to develop these qualities, not merely to assume a professional role.

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By the time you have read this handbook, you will be aware that there is a great deal more that one can learn than will be mastered within the time prescribed by the minimum course requirements. W e hope that you will choose to go beyond the minimum and pursue what interests you as fully as possible. Becoming a therapist is a matter of taking one's own learning process in hand and developing one's potential to the very fullest.

THE BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE The Amida Diploma Programme presents an approach to psychotherapy rooted in Buddhist principles and open to East-West integration.

A Spirit of Open Inquiry The Buddha invited people to inquire for themselves. The Buddhist teachings provide a great richness of wisdom, but this only comes alive insofar as we experiment with it and find out what works in our own lives and those of the people we seek to help. Buddhist teachings are called Dharma. In the Dharma there are many principles which help us to understand reality and in particular to understand how the mind works to generate happiness and suffering, noble and ignoble lives, authenticity and inauthenticity. The Dharma is far from being a set of dogmas, however. This is because a first fundamental principle is that words will always be inadequate to express reality in all its subtlety. Consequently there is a great deal of scope for variations of interpretation. Although the Dharma is 25 centuries old, it is still evolving and developing. The present time is an especially exciting one in this respect since Buddhism has now reached a level of acceptance in the West such that it is becoming possible to explore all the creative possibilities that emerge from bringing Buddhist principles into relationship with Western ones. Buddhist psychology anticipates many of the developments of Western science, but has frequently developed similar principles in different directions. Now we have the chance for East and West to learn from one another.

Amida: Buddha of Infinite Life In the story of Amida (or Amitabha-Amitayus) as told by the Buddha, a spiritual seeker called Dharmakara decides to pursue his path by making a series of vows to help others. He is determined to help everybody find release from their mental pain, to empty the hells which people have created and to set up the best possible conditions for people to find enlightenment. By practising sincerely in the spirit of these vows, he becomes Amida Buddha. Amida is complemented by Quan Shi Yin (also called Avalokita), who is a bodhisattva ("wisdom-being") whose specialty is also universal compassion. Quan Shi Yin is willing to do anything or be anything, if it will help to reduce the suffering in the world. These stories provide powerful images. The Buddha told many stories and people have continued elaborating them and telling new stories with the same or similar characters for centuries. Amida and Quan Shi Yin are thus, in a way, like archetypes of the essential qualities of therapy. In Buddhism we are encouraged to invoke them so that they can find expression in the world through us. Amida symbolizes being fully alive, full of love and willingness to create a better world. Quan Shi Yin is caring, compassion, and the quality of being moved by the pain of others. They represent the male and female archetypes of helping.

To complete their work they need one another - and they need us.

Outline of Buddhist Psychology Buddhist psychology is practical rather than primarily academic. Its aim is to help people live enlightened and noble lives. It begins with a recognition of the reality of affliction (dukkha) and goes on to look at the demands this places on the human character. Buddhist psychology is rooted in a paradigm which suggests that through our encounter and retreat from dukkha, we build up layers of mental 7

structure to act as a shield against painful feelings. Although such structures are understandable and comforting, they ultimately cut us off from fully living. Many of these structures come to be what we think of as our identity or self. Thus Buddhist psychology can be seen to be rooted in a non-self paradigm. A Buddhist approach in therapy aims to loosen the hold of our more rigid self-structures and help people move beyond identities which are overly fixed. It invites us to engage more fully with what is “other�; other people, other environments. It can be seen as an other-centred approach. The aim of Buddhist psychology, therefore, is to help people to create noble and enlightened lives in the midst of a world characterized by both wonderful blessings and grievous afflictions.

The main principles of Buddhist psychology that you will encounter on this course include: 1. The Buddhist model of the mind in terms of 6, 8 and 9 vijnanas 2. The analysis of the flow of consciousness into a cycle of mental factors 3. Bombu (ordinary) nature that is conditioned as a result 4. Dependent origination 5. Conditional relations 6. The theory of adversity and character in terms of the Four Noble Truths 7. A relational, other-centred approach 8. Methods of cultivation of awareness, stability and insight 9. The ethical basis 10. The ultimate ideals: confidence, emptiness, refuge, wisdom, compassion These theories will be looked at in terms of their relevance to the individual and to interpersonal relations and in each case we will together seek to draw out their implications for psychotherapeutic practice in a comtemporary world context. A basic principle is the inseparability of our own spiritual development from our psychotherapeutic skill. We are in the same existential position as our clients. The more deeply we understand this the more useful we will be.

Historical Perspective: Early history The earliest Buddhist psychological material is called Abhidharma. The Abhidharma texts were later commented on by leading practitioners over the centuries and in due course, commentaries were written on commentaries until an enormous literature accumulated. An important writer in this respect was the monk Vasubandhu (316-396). Buddhism spread from India into the area now known as Pakistan and Afghanistan where there were then countries ruled by Greek kings. Thence it spread into central Asia and, in due course, it entered the mainstream of Chinese civilization. It thus passed through several quite different kinds of cultures. Indian idealism, Greek rationalism, central Asian shamanism and Chinese practicality have all left their mark. From China, Buddhism spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam, and from India it spread into Tibet and south east Asia. The cultural diversity across these regions is immense. Although we can loosely speak about "the East", these countries are all very different and Buddhism as we find it today is consequently diverse in its forms and presentation even though its deep meaning remains essentially the same everywhere.

Recent History Buddhist thought has had some influence in the west for about a hundred years now, originally as a result of colonial contact. Over this last century, also, Buddhism has undergone a period of rejuvenation in many of its traditional homelands. Buddhist thought influenced Carl Jung and William James. The real upsurge of interest has, however, occurred since the last world war. The Chinese invasion of Tibet brought many Buddhist refugees to the west. The Dalai Lama has become one of the world's most respected spiritual leaders. Zen was popularized in America by writers like Alan Watts and D.T. Suzuki.

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The more recent Vietnamese war brought another wave of refugees and the work of Thich Tien An and Thich Nhat Hanh has become widely respected. Theravada Buddhism has continued to spread in the English speaking world and, in the USA, Japanese and Chinese immigration has brought with it varieties of Pure Land and Nichirin Buddhism.

The interface between Buddhism and psychotherapy has become a particularly fruitful area of interchange. Western therapists are discovering that Buddhist psychology anticipated many of the dilemmas of contemporary western concern and offers challengingly different approaches to them. There are also some Buddhist based psychotherapies which have developed with relatively little western influence. In Japan, Morita Therapy and Naikan Therapy are both extensively used and in Thailand some Buddhist programmes for combating drug addiction have been developed. In Korea a deliberate attempt has be made to integrate Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism on the one hand with psychoanalytic and existential psychotherapy on the other and the work of the existential therapist Menard Boss is highly regarded there. The translation of western writings on therapy into eastern languages has also stimulated some original work, cross fertilizing Buddhist and humanistic ideas.

Western Roots: Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology Up to the 1950s western psychology was dominated by two quite different approaches: psychoanalysis and behaviourism. The two were poles apart. In 1954 Abraham Maslow published a book called Motivation and Personality. Maslow's work was the beginning of the emergence of a "third force" in psychology which came to be called humanistic psychology. The two best known forms of humanistic therapy are Rogers' Person Centred Approach and Perls' Gestalt Therapy.

The main point which Maslow was trying to make was that psychology should not be concerned simply with averages and with returning people to normality. If a study reveals that 90% of people do something a certain way, Maslow wanted to know what the other 10% do. The 10% may be more interesting than the rest. Maslow was particularly interested in what he called "peak experiences". He wanted to know what made people realize their full potential. He was concerned about the psychology of happiness, not just the psychology of pathology.

These ideas were very influential. Maslow popularized the concept of self-actualization and influenced the emergence of the encounter group movement. However, after a time, Maslow began to feel that something was missing from the humanistic approach which he had played such a large part in starting.

For many people in the humanistic movement, self-actualization meant building up their egos. For Maslow, however, the term really meant transcending one's ego. Another pioneer working along the same lines has been Maureen O'Hara. She wrote: "I have come to believe that... over emphasis on the individual self... can lead to still more fragmentation and alienation" (in an article called "When I use the term humanistic psychology" in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology 29, 1989, pp.270).

Maslow and his colleagues therefore started another new movement which has adopted the name Transpersonal Psychology. Transpersonal psychology offers a fuller expression of Maslow's quest to understand what people are capable of when they have gone beyond their individualistic needs and have become concerned with their place in the natural order of things. Transpersonal psychology has also provided a forum in which important east-west dialogue has become possible about the common ground between psychology and spiritual paths. Students may find the American Journal of Transpersonal Psychology useful. Transpersonal psychology paved the way for the emergence of a truly Buddhist psychotherapeutic approach in the West.

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Personal Constructs Another striking area of parallelism between Buddhist and Western thinking is provided by the work in the West of George Kelly who developed the notion of personal constructs. Kelly saw a person’s interaction with reality as an on-going experiment in which the person is constantly testing out through their actions the constructs they have inwardly developed as a result of their experience of the outcomes of previous actions. Kelly’s term “personal constructs” is virtually synonymous to the Buddhist term “internal formations”. From this perspective psychotherapy involves helping a client to reconstrue the world - to wake up to a new perspective. Such reconstruing is likely to result from and result in changes in behaviour which are part of the on-going experimentation in which a person who is awake to life is constantly engaged. A goal in psychotherapy focused on constructs or formations would be that the client becomes less rigidly attached to particular constructions and more willing to approach life in an open experimental fashion.

Points of Contact Buddhist psychology developed over two and a half millenia in many cultures. As might be expected it does not provide a single model or method, but offers a rich source for understanding all aspects of the mind and of human behaviour. It is thus a whole world of therapeutic psychology encompassing a diversity of its own. Buddhism is divided into schools but these do not map onto the Western divisions of psychology in any recognisable way. There are nevertheless parallels between aspects of Buddhist psychology and all the major western schools.

One way of classifying aspects of Buddhist psychology, using terminology drawn from Chinese, is into chi, nien and quan. These correspond to psychologies of the three levels of consciousness recognised by Buddhist psychology, namely the senses, mental processing (manas) and the storage of internal formations (alaya).

Chi refers to contact with and inseparability from immediate reality. The focus is on releasing human potential through immediate encounter with here and now experience. There are parallels with some aspects of Western humanistic and phenomenological approaches. Chan is to do with the psychology of perception.

Nien refers to training the mind. A nien is a mental impulse (thought, feeling, or image). Such impulses are learned or conditioned. It is therefore possible to train the mind and replace bad habits with more useful ones. Buddhism includes a wide range of mind training methods. There are parallels here with cognitive and behavioural approaches in Western psychology.

Quan means deep inquiry and is concerned with unravelling the complexes and patterns of conditioning already established in the mind as well as activating the sources of healing within. Since Buddhism recognises both that the alaya is not empty at birth and also that it goes on creating internal formations throughout life, there are parallels here both with analytic and archetypal psychology on the one hand and with personal construct psychology on the other. In the Buddhist model, the contents of the deeper mind are primarily to be understood as traces of previous action (karma) which, when activated, provide the blueprint for future behaviour. Depth psychology with all its wealth of symbolic meanings and behavioural psychology with its action focus are, in Buddhist psychology, seen as two sides of a single process. Projective and dramatic methods also have an important role in untangling this deep material.

Buddhist psychology is not organized around a concept of self but sees a person as an open system in which perception, constructions of thought, feeling and imagination, and deep symbolic processes 10

interact and permeate each other in an on-going flow. The course explains these processes in ways which are straight-forward yet powerful.

Buddhist psychology, with its long history and consequent maturity, provides a basis upon which many of the seeming contradictions between Western schools of thought can be reconciled and integrated.

There is much that BP can learn from Western psychology and there is much that the West can learn from BP. As you progress on this program you will learn many skills. Most importantly, however, we hope that you will enter upon an open ended journey of personal, inter-personal and spiritual maturation.

The bodhisattva ideal of Buddhism is the model for the consummate therapist.

Distinctive Features of Buddhist Psychotherapy The hallmarks of Buddhist psychology are its concerns with non-self, impermanence and affliction (anatma, anicca, and dukkha) and its fundamental principle that all problems derive from not-seeing (avidya).

Anatma The teachings on non-self are complex, and have many implications for the therapeutic process. We are not separate selves, but our responses and mental states are always conditioned by other people and situations around us. How each of us is affects others. If the client is sad, the therapist is likely to feel the sadness too, often in a very physical way. If the client has grown up in a violent environment, the seeds of violence will be in him, waiting to be activated. If the client has been exposed to certain ideas, those ideas will have stayed with her at some level, even if she has later learned to question them. Old criticisms follow us round. We feel our birth place in our bones. We are touched by the images of the starving child.

Working therapeutically we are able to learn about the client's world by sharing the images and people that it contains. By metaphorically standing beside him, and looking at the world through his eyes, we become infected by the feelings and images, and create a shared space for exploration of that world. We understand how the generate mind-states, and together explore the possibilities for change. This is not to say that we lose ourselves in the client's world. Wisdom requires that we are able to offer a safe vantage point as well as a fellow traveller. Thus one of the most significant areas of non-self which Buddhist psychology addresses is that of conditioning. The mind is shaped by causes and conditions. Our ways of responding to the world lay down action traces in the mind which, in turn, further condition future action.

The course lays considerable emphasis on understanding the cyclical nature of conditioning, the dependence of the mentality upon objects in the world, and the structures within the alaya ("the mind store") which arise from it.

The teaching of non-self has implications for the ethical stance we adopt. When we see things from a Buddhist perspective, we are aware of the effects of our work not only on our clients, but also on others in the client's life. We also see our own conditioned nature and, as bombu, know that we can never be free from our own distortions of view. Honesty about difficult feelings may be necessary and may benefit not only the client, but also others involved. Helping the client to gain understanding and appreciation of others' viewpoints not only builds healthier relationships, but may also be freeing as powerful others come to be seen in their full humanity.

Anicca: Impermanence means change. Without change, we become fixed, rigid and lose our humanity. Through change, we develop and grow. Psychotherapy relies upon the inherent tendency of all things to change.

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This reliance finds expression in the phrase "trust the process". However, Buddhist psychology does not assume that change will always be benign. The changes that occur depend upon causes and conditions.

The therapist therefore acquires both the arts of affecting the conditions, internal and external, that bear upon the clients mentality and behaviour, and those of helping clients identify and transform the causes that lie within their own consciousness.

Facing impermanence may often be the precipitating factor in therapy. Most of us fear impermanence at some level, and the therpeutic journey may well involve uncovering the layers of that fear and the constructions we hold to about the unknown future.

Dukkha: Suffering is part of life. It is not a subject for shame. Dukkha and Anicca are often linked. Impermanence often means losses, and these may be painful. The pain, however, is often multiplied by our feelings of shame and guilt. Facing Dukkha and recognising that it is not shameful is a significant part of therapy. If we can face the dukkha we can discover the energy locked within it. Therapy provides a container within which that energy can be faced and directed.

In Buddhism, the image within the word dukkha is that of a spark. Going through life many such sparks land upon us. Some burn us badly. Some set us on fire in a more constructive way. The relationship between the afflictions we encounter and the passions that drive us is an important matter.

ETHICS AND PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY Many students who join the programme do so because they appreciate the spiritual dimension of life.

They may have gained this appreciation through following a spiritual tradition or through personal experience outside of established traditions. The diversity of outlook enriches the programme. The practices of many spiritual ways are equivalent and we can learn from each other.

Goals of cultivating kindness, maturity and inner stillness are common to many paths. They are also essential to the work of therapy. We cannot give what we do not have. It is valuable, therefore, for the therapist to have a personal spiritual practice he or she can rely upon. It is the work the therapist does to overcome self, to appreciate ever-changing reality and deepen feelings for both the beauty and the affliction in the world which is most potent. When we are getting stuck in our work with clients, it may be our own cultivation which is lacking. The major obstacle to therapy is often the therapist's ego.

There is a dilemma in psychotherapy training in this respect. Much "personal work" can serve more to make an individual self oriented rather than client oriented. By no means all "self development" is conducive to advancement as a psychotherapist who must have the confidence to set self aside in order to be present wholly for the other person. The primary skill in all psychotherapy is listening. Personal development is crucially important when it helps us to let go of the obstacles in ourselves which impede our ability to empathize with particular clients or particular issues. It is counter-productive when it serves only to focus us more and more upon our own issues. Spirituality, in a Buddhist sense, is not really about individual salvation for oneself but about entering into the spirit of the bodhisattva path of service.

The connections between spirituality and western psychotherapy, though often unacknowledged, have often been important. Freud and Moreno both drew ideas and inspiration from Jewish mysticism. Jung was the son of a clergyman and made extensive use of religious and alchemical imagery. Rogers began 12

by studying to become a minister and only later converted to psychology. The work of all these four founding figures of psychotherapy can be seen as making spiritual insights available to a secular age. The Buddha taught his message in an age which, like our own, was becoming increasingly materialistic and secularized. The word psychotherapy, itself, comes from two Greek words. Psyche means the soul.

Therap means a servant or one who takes care of somebody. It could be said, therefore, that psychotherapists are servants of the soul. The Greek therap, in turn, comes from an Indo-Aryan root word dhr which seems to have meant to hold or take care of. It is also the root of the Sanskrit word dharma which means spiritual teaching. On this programme you are invited to inquire into spirituality both personally and in the ways in which it relates to and has influenced psychotherapy.

In keeping with the concern for the spiritual dimension of therapy, we have a particular concern with ethics. It is essential on this programme to maintain a high standard of ethical conduct, not merely in order to avoid bringing the profession into disrepute but more significantly because the establishment of a wholesome ethical atmosphere is therapeutic in itself. Non-ethical conduct has harmful psychological consequences for the therapist as much as for the client and so we should all be careful to maintain the highest possible standards in this respect. Our aim is a positive valuing of constructive and compassionate behaviour beyond simply refraining from breaking rules. All students who join the programme are asked to make a strong personal commitment to advancing their own ethical understanding and behaviour, not simply in the conduct of their professional work, but in life generally.

Ethical progress is at the core of personal growth.

LITERATURE AND HERMENEUTICS Buddhism has come down to us through stories as much as through theories. Literature often reveals the subtlety that theory cannot convey. The great figures in the history of western psychotherapy, James, Husserl, Rogers, Freud, Jung and others, were astonishingly widely read. Freud, for instance, read two ancient and five modern languages fluently. We should not overlook the fact that some of the best sources of insights about people are not found in psychology books, but in major literary works.

Anthropology and mythology are also rich sources. On the programme, from time to time, we take a theme from literature and examine its psychological depth and significance. Students are encouraged to read widely and to see becoming a therapist as a broad education and not simply a matter of mastering the concepts of a narrow discipline. People live stories rather than principles and it is by becoming appreciative of the great diversity of narratives available to us that we become open to the widest possible range of clients. Therapy enables people to tell their story and to create new stories for themselves.

Therapy always inevitably involves some degree of interpretation. We have to make sense of the client's story (the "text") in terms of its setting ("context"). The art of interpreting text and context is called "hermeneutics" (the term comes from the names of the Greek god Hermes who was the messenger from the divine realm). Originally it was the discipline of studying the meaning of texts, such as biblical or Egyptian writings, to reveal their inner meaning. It is the attempt to put oneself into a position to "hear" what the text is "trying to say". The inner meaning in this sense means trying to get a sense of the lived experience of the culture from which the text sprung. Over the years it has become apparent that the methods used to understand what a set of hieroglyphics really symbolised to the ancient Egyptians are not very different from the methods necessary to fathom the significance of the dream one had last night or the "irrational" aspects of one's own behaviour. Hermeneutics has thus come to have a substantial influence upon contemporary psychotherapy.

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INDIVIDUAL WORK AND GROUPWORK Groupwork provides a medium in which much of the learning on this programme takes place. It is also an important subject of study in its own right. The programme integrates individual and group work. When we learn about counselling, we do most of the work in groups.

Groups provide dimensions to the therapeutic process which are not immediately accessible in individual work. The differences of perspective held by different group members are a vitally important resource in helping each group member to explore the essential meaning of their own way of being and become aware of conditioned aspects of view. Groups become a means of valuing diversity, of seeing complementarity where previously we saw conflict, opportunity where previously we saw threat.

Group process is a subtle and often complicated matter. There is a great deal more going on in groups than meets the eye and it is part of the groupworker's art to make apparent some of this hidden or "invisible" group. Groups seem, in many ways, to behave as if they have a life of their own over and above the lives of the individuals who make up the membership and experiencing this can help us understand both the western concept of "unconscious process" and the Buddhist one of "dependent origination". In addition, groups manifest the same processes of identity formation and attachment as individuals, thereby illustrating the constructed and insubstantial nature of self-formation. It does not even require a person. Every individual is strongly affected by the groups in which he or she has membership and to which a loyalty is felt. It is almost impossible for a person to give any kind of self definition without reference to group membership. Groups provide and change identities.

Groupwork is thus a powerful method of psychological work and requires refined skills. Not least of these is a certain degree of assertiveness. The groupworker learns the skills both of facilitation and of assertiveness and must acquire a depth of understanding of the multi-faceted process which goes on from the moment a group of human beings are assembled in one place. A variety of ways of thinking about and working with groups are introduced on the programme. All the themes of the programme are considered in their group as well as their individual aspect.

CREATIVITY AND MULTI-MEDIA WORK The paradox which Buddhist thinking exposes is that in one sense we create the world we inhabit, whilst in another we inhabit a real world with which we are inseparably connected. We create our world through our clinging to particular ways of seeing. Interests and longings direct our attention selectively, and even manufacture what we wish (or fear) to see. We notice what we are "warmed up to". At the same time we are not isolated from the world. Each experience, situation or environment creates causes and conditions which shape us. In our unenlightened state, however, we never really accept that the world is as it is. We mostly see it through filters of fear and wishful thinking. There is infinite wonderment in each moment if we can be open to it, and experience directly.

Working creatively with different media puts us in touch with new aspects of experience. The object produced is a representation of both external and internal process. Looking at a picture, we see through the eyes of the painter. Understanding it, we may understand the unconscious processes, the patterns of conditioning which shape attention and perception. Art work also produces an object with which the client can explore interconnectedness and reactivity. As images are made real, they become "rupa",

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objects that are perceived and reacted to. Creative work may generate catharsis as well as insight and creativity.

The process of creation is both one of expression, and one of receptivity. To produce a creative work involves letting go the need to be "in control" and flowing with the creative process. It is an interaction between the person and the medium.

As therapists we need to be in touch with our own creative potential both in our verbal responses and in our ability to move between media. On the course we use art materials, image work, dramatic and expressive methods. This is partly so that students can learn to offer different media to their clients, but also so that they can expand their potential to respond creatively.

Working with different media requires a sound basis of therapeutic skills. Each medium has its own special value and creating shifts from one mode of expression to another often provides the fullness of experiencing that makes life become real for us and opens new possibilities. Expressive methods allow people to become fluid and alive in their experience of life, giving form to the things for which they have no words and finding colour and multi-dimensionality where previously all was black and white and flat.

Mental and emotional processes are bodily experiences. Buddhism challenges the body/mind split and teaches methods which bridge the artificial divide. Meditation, walking, mindfulness of breathing are all central practices. Just as the mind is closely observed, so too is the body. In therapy working with bodily experience can be powerful and cathartic. It can also be the source of deep insight. Whilst the mind has learned to delude itself, the body often reveals deeper truths. On the course we work both with methods that develop body awareness and enable us to listen to our body-sense, and we work to develop observational skills so that as therapists students learn to notice and respond to body cues. Developing body sense and acute awareness is valuable both as a skill that can be passed on to clients and as a channel of understanding the therapist/client relationship. Awareness of our bodies greatly deepens our empathic link with clients. As we become more in touch with our own physical being we are able to recognise a felt sense of what our clients are edging toward. We may also become aware of how our clients are present (or not) in their bodies and may help them to gain contact with feelings which would otherwise be off the edge of their awareness.

Also, from the earliest times, dreams have provided people with insight into aspects of their minds which are not readily available to consciousness. Buddhist psychology advises us to look for signs in dreams to confirm directions in life. During periods of transition in our lives especially, we are liable to have significant dreams. Training to be a therapist is such a transition and you will experience important changes as a result of your experience on this programme. Attending to dreams can assist this process and can provide a basis for much creative work. Dreams reveal our inner mentality and are therefore an important subject of attention.

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PART III: GENERAL GUIDELINES Certificate students do not have an academic component but it is wise to set yourself a reading schedule and study the subjects that catch your enthusiasm to more depth. On the Advanced Certificate there is a lot to do following the Distance Learning sequence. You will need to keep organised to meet deadlines. The sequence begins each October. If you join the course too late to join the current intake, then you will join it the following October. In the meantime you can do some preparatory reading and get ahead with Project work and organising the Practicum.

INITIAL PLANNING There are a number of things to do to get immersed in the course. Remember that the initiative is with you in co-operation with others. Plan to: 1. Meet other students and establishing cooperative learning arrangements. If you do not already have access to e-mail, you should set up an account as soon as possible. This is especially important if you are on Advanced Certificate or Diploma levels of the programme.

2. Decide what courses in the programme you want to attend and booking them. Try to attend at least one course per term or two blocks per academic year.

Ideally more.

3. Book tutorials. You can generally do this when you attend a course block.

4. If you are on AC or Dip think about how to organize your practice work and supervision. Normally this happens through a placement in a voluntary project, and this can take time to organise. Start in good time.

5. Set aside regular time for reading and study.

6. Find a therapist or personal growth group for yourself.

7. Start a personal development journal and make some initial decisions about how you are going to meet the personal development requirement of the course.

8. Start a log book listing everything you do which is relevant to the course and keep your tabella up to date.

9. Develop your spiritual practice and reflect on how it links with your experience of the course.

PERSONAL JOURNAL Start a Journal of your experience on the course. On the Certificate, this Journal is your main written learning aid. It may be requested by staff when you complete the course. You should write in your Journal at the end of each course unit you attend what you have learnt and then return to the journal in the intervening time to reflect on aspects of your daily life in relation to the learnings you had from the course. On the Advanced Certificate you will not need to produce your Journal but you will write a report summarising it at the end of the course. Diploma students are advised to keep a learning journal for your own use. In your journal record of your thoughts and feelings about yourself and your progress and reflections on what you have learned.

A good way to start now might be to 1. Review the present; thoughts and feelings on joining the programme; a self portrait of yourself as you are now; 2. Consider the future; issues you might want to tackle in yourself and professional issues and questions you intend to learn about over the next year - set targets; 3.

Consider the past; events and personal changes that have led you to the present point; what strengths can you draw on from past experience to help you on this programme? Use prose or notes. Include pictures, diagrams, collage or whatever is most meaningful for you. Keep a portfolio for artwork which you produce on the course and to date the items so that you will be able to look back and review.

Although the initiative is with you, you are not alone.

The tutors will help you if you make your needs known. Co-operative study is essential. You are not in competition with other students and everybody achieves more when we help each other.

STUDY TIME Determine now to put aside some regular time for study. This requires self discipline. Each person has their own pattern of studying. Some make notes. Some research a topic. Some pursue a controversy. Some like to work alone. Some like interaction with others.

Establish your own pattern but don't do nothing!

In addition to the journal keep a log of facts and 16

figures: what you have attended when, how many counselling sessions you have had and so on. You will need these details to fill in your tabella.

have an approach compatible with that of the course, in practice there are relatively few Buddhist therapists, and even those who describe themselves as such vary considerably in their understanding of Buddhist models. Thus many students are limited in their choice.

If you are finding differences of model between the course and your supervisor a problem, discuss this with your tutor. Often in practice you will find your supervisor is provided by your counselling placement agency. This should not be a problem if you discuss the course approach with your supervisor.

PEER LEARNING Peer learning is an important basis for making a reality of the principles behind the programme. We learn to work together and appreciate one another's needs as developing therapists. Peer learning is a requirement on the AC programme and should be done in groups.

These may include students at different stages of study within the Programme and you may also invite other members of the Trust to participate if you and they wish. Psychotherapy programme students should not be out-numbered by others though. Groups may be ongoing and meet regularly or may be ad hoc. For students at a distance they often take place on evenings of course events, but sometimes students also organise week-end get togethers. Peer learning time can be used for discussion, skills practice and personal work. You can use formats for exercises which we use on courses, or you can develop your own. On this programme co-operative work is seen as one of the best ways of developing skills and knowledge.

You are required to have at least one supervision session for every ten hours of therapy and one and a half hours supervision per month that you are seeing clients. For UK students, this should also meet accreditation requirements for BACP who require supervision at a minimum rate of one and a half hours per month whilst practising, but whilst course staff make every effort to stay abreast of accreditation requirements, students are responsible ultimately for making sure their practice meets the standards required by other bodies such as BACP. Overseas students and those intending to seek other accreditation should check requirements.

TUTORIAL SYSTEM Book tutorials regularly, either when attending a course or by contacting your tutor directly. How you use tutorials is up to you and the tutor. In tutorials you can discuss your plans for courses and practice work; share ideas; discuss course material and topics that interest you; develop ideas for written work; and discuss how personal development and skills learning fit together for you, perhaps referring to your journal if you wish.

Practice work should also be reviewed in tutorials, although you need to make your own supervision arrangements. Check these with your tutor.

Arranging a counselling placement is your responsibility, but your tutor will discuss with you how and when it is best to start. Some students are already in practice through their professional work. For others, seeing a first client may be an important water-shed. If you are a complete beginner, you will probably not begin to see clients until the end of your first year of study. It is, however, worth investigating placement options early, since these can be difficult to find.

You will be required to give evidence of your counselling skill through your supervisor’s report, diary listing of client and supervision sessions, two case studies,and taped session

PRACTICE WORK & SUPERVISION Advanced Certificate It is important that all counselling work you do is properly supervised. We now use a system of external supervision. The supervisor must be approved by the course staff, and needs to sign a contract agreeing to report upon your work and competence for the end of the course. External supervisors should be people who can show evidence of appropriate qualification and experience. Although ideally your supervisor should

Diploma For the Diploma you need an external supervisor who is suitably qualified to be able to supervise you satisfactorily up to UKCP registration standard. You will also tape record one session of client work per term and submit this to your course tutor together with appropriate notes.

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INSURANCE Students are advised to take out public liability and professional indemnity insurance. The agency you are working for may cover you for these, but it is important to check that a suitable policy is in place. BACP offer contacts for professional insurance.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT There is a widespread principle in the therapy world that therapists should have experienced a similar length of therapy themselves to what they offer to their clients. All students on the Advanced Certificate are required to complete 40 hours of personal therapy and 20 further hours for the Diploma. The purpose of the personal development requirement is to help you to: 1. Understand and gain confidence in the process of personal growth and change; 2. Become aware of the personal issues which hinder your therapy work; 3. Realize the value of on-going personal work for the practising therapist.

OVERSEAS STUDENTS The standards required of students on the course programme are designed to conform to UK standards of professionalism and to UK accreditation requirements. Overseas students are responsible for making any enquiries necessary into local standards and are strongly advised to do so. Course staff cannot advise on matters of professional standing, accreditation or insurance or similar matters outside the UK, but we may be able to adjust requirements to meet specific needs.

We are concerned that the therapy you receive is useful, and are willing to be flexible in accepting a range of group, one to one and other therapeutic experiences. At the same time, it is important that all students have at some time undergone a sustained period of therapy in the mode they are training in (one to one or group). If you have already spent a long time in therapy prior to joining the course it is probably better to try a new approach, such as joining a group, but if you have not, you should aim to do at least 40 hours with one therapist.

PROJECTS Diploma and Advanced Certificate students need to do one or more projects. This is a piece of co-operative work. A project is a small piece of research or of creative work. Some examples of projects undertaken in the past: 1. A survey of counselling student's attitudes on a particular topic; 2. Creation of a teaching "pack" on an aspect of counselling or groupwork; 3.

Production of an annotated bibliography on a theoretical topic; 4. Make a video of an aspect of therapy practice; 5. Collect information for a directory of counselling resources for a particular client group in a particular area and create a web site; 6. Start or work with a support network for a client group and write a report on it. A project should produce a product of some kind which will be useful, preferably in a practical way, to other students, therapists, clients or the public.

BOOKS So many books! How to choose where to start. You will receive many book lists as the course progresses.

You are expected to read widely. Use the lists as well as advice from other students and tutors and your own discretion to devise a sensible reading plan for yourself. It is not generally wise to read books from cover to cover unless you are a very fast reader. Use indexes and tables of contents to follow up the topics which interest you most.

At the Diploma level especially you should be making use of professional journals as well as books.

PAPERS Diploma Students write several theory papers during the programme. A good paper is likely to be between 2000 and 3000 words but some longer and some shorter papers will be accepted. Students have wide choice of title and subject for each of their papers.

Discuss both your intentions and drafts of work in progress with your tutor and with other students.

LIBRARY Since you will need to read a lot, you need access to books. Do join libraries and use inter-library loan services to get what you want. A lot of good material can be found on the internet, though do be careful to check the source is a good one. University libraries are also useful as a reference source and you can often join 18

even if you are not a graduate of that university. Some hospital psychiatry departments also have good library facilities. It is a good idea to come for a few days reading retreat at The Buddhist House from time to time. We have a large library of books and a computer room with broadband access for guest use. If you come at a quiet time you can have a study bedroom and enjoy a peaceful break, participating in the life of the community as little or much as want. Our books are not for loan but can be read at the house.

Therapeutic Relationship *Corey G. 1991 Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Brooks Cole *Weinberg G. 1984 The Heart of Psychotherapy. New York: St Martins Press.

Rogers C.R. 1951 Client-Centred Therapy. Constable. *Rogers C.R. 1961 On Becoming a Person. Constable Reich W. 1972 Character Analysis Farrar, Straus & Giroux, part I only.

Sedgwick D. 1994 The Wounded Healer. Routledge

READING LIST The reading lists which follow are arranged topically.

Specially recommended books are marked with *.

Mind, Personality, Change Donaldson M. 1993. Human Minds. Penguin Eichenbaum L. & Orbach S. 1983. Understanding Women. Penguin.

Fordham F. 1959 An Introduction to Jung's Psychology Penguin *Fransella F. & Dalton P. 1990. Personal Construct Counselling in Action. Sage Freud S. 1901/1975 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Penguin Freud Library *Freud S. On Metapsychology. Penguin Freud Library vol 11.

Glasser W. 1985 Control Theory Harper & Row Goleman D. 1997 Emotional Intelligence. *Haley J. 1986 Uncomon Therapy. Norton Jeffers S. 1987 Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway Century Hutchinson *McConnell J.A. 1995. Mindful Mediation Buddhist Research Institute McDougall 1986 Theatres of the Mind. Free Association Books Pervin L.A. 1989 Personality. Wiley Rabten & Dhargyey 1984. Advice from a Spiritual Friend. Wisdom.

Reat N.R. 1951 Origins of Indian Psychology Asian Humanities Press Stevens A. 1990 On Jung. Routledge Tedeschi R. & Calhoun L.G. 1995 Trauma and Transformation. Sage Truax C. & Carkhuff R. 1967 Towards Effective Counselling and Psychotherapy Aldine Trungpa C. 1992 Transcending Madness. Shambhala Trungpa C. 1993 Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving Kindness. Shambhala Von Franz, M.L. 1993 Psychotherapy.Shambhala *Worden J.W. 1987 Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy. Routledge

Buddhist Psychotherapy Akong Rinpoche 1987. Taming the Tiger. Dzalendara *Brazier D.J. 1995 Zen Therapy. Constable & Robinson *Brazier D.J. 1997 The Feeling Buddha, Constable & Robinson *Brazier D J, 2001 The New Buddhism Constable Robinson *Brazier C J, 2003 Buddhist Psychology Constable & Robinson Epstein M. 1996 Thoughts Without A Thinker Duckworth Kalupahana D. 1987. Principles of Buddhist Psychology. State Univ of NY Press Manne J. 1997 Soul Therapy. N Atlantic Bks Reynolds D. The Quiet Therapies University of Hawaii Press *Reynolds D. Flowing Bridges, Quiet Waters State University of New York Press Buddhist Therapy Anthologies Claxton G. 1986 Beyond Therapy Wisdom Crook J. & Fontana D. 1990 Space in Mind. Element Fromm E., Suzuki D.T. & Martino R.D. Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis Souvenir Pickering J. (1997) The Authority of Experience.

Curzon Tarthang Tulku 1989 Reflections of Mind Dharma Tarthang Tulku 1980 Dimensions of Thought (2 vols) Dharma Welwood J. 1985 Awakening the Heart Shambhala Welwood J.1992 Ordinary Magic. Shambhala See also the Journal of Contemplative Psychotherapy.

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Action in Groups Routledge Yalom I. 1985 Theory And Practice Of Group PsychotherapyNew York: Basic Bks

Mindfulness & Meditation Hanh N. 1990 Transformation And Healing Parallax Hanh N. 1993 The Blooming of a Lotus Beacon Kabat-Zinn J. 1990 Full Catastrophe Living. Piatkus Levey J. 1987. The Fine Arts Of Relaxation, Concentration And Meditation. Wisdom Tart C.T. 1994 Living the Mindful Life Shambhala *Tarthang Tulku 1977. Gesture of Balance. Dharma Publishing

Phenomenological & Transpersonal Axline V. 1969 Play Therapy. New York: Ballentine.

Batchelor S. 1983. Alone with Others. Grove *Bettelheim B. 1983 Freud and Man's Soul London: Chatto & Windus. *Brazier 1993 Beyond Carl Rogers. Constable Brooks C.1974 Sensory Awareness. Ross Erikson. *Gendlin E.T. 1981 Focusing. Bantam. *James M.& Jongeward D. 1971 Born to Win. Signet James W. 1890 The Principles of Psychology Dover Jones D. 1994 Innovative Therapy. OUP Jung C.G. 1997 Jung on Active Imagination. Routledge Laing R.D. The Divided Self. Penguin.

Kirschenbaum H. & Henderson V.L. 1990 Carl Rogers Dialogues. Constable Maslow A (1976): The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Penguin.

Moacanin R. 1986. Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism. Wisdom Oaklander V. 1978 Windows to our Children. Real People Press Rowan J. 1993 The Transpersonal. Routledge Spiegelman J.M. & Miyuki M. 1987. Buddhism and Jungian Psychology. Falcom Press *Spinelli E. 1989 The Interpreted World. Sage

Story, Ritual,dream & Archetype Bettelheim B. 1992 Recollections and Reflections.

Penguin Castillejo I.C. 1990 Knowing Woman. Shambhala Freud S. 1900/1976 The Interpretation of Dreams.

Penguin Freud Library, vol.4.

Harding M.E. 1971 Woman's Mysteries Routledge Jenkins M. 1996 The Play's the Thing Routledge Leonard L.S. 1986 On the Way to the Wedding Shambhala *McAdams D.P. 1988 Power, Intimacy and the Life Story.Guildford Rogers N. 1993 The Creative Connection. Science & Bevavior Books *Shay J. 1995. Achilles in Vietnam. Touchstone *Scheff T.J. 1979 Catharsis In Healing Ritual and Drama. University Of California Press Schwartz-Salant N.& Stein M. Liminality and Transitional Phenomena. Chiron Van Der Post L. 1978 Jung and the Story of Our Time Penguin

Buddhist Life Dass R. & Bush M. 1992 Compassion in Action London: Rider Fromm E. 1962 The Art Of Loving Unwin *Hanh N. 1988 The Sun My Heart. Rider/Parallax Hanh N. 1974 Zen Keys. Doubleday King / Myodo 1987 Passionate Journey Shambhala *Macy J. 1993 World As Lover World As Self. Rider Sheng-yen 1993 Zen Wisdom. Dharma Drum Suzuki S 1970 Zen Mind Beginners Mind Weatherhill *Thien-an 1975 Zen Philosophy Zen Practice Dharma Publishing *Trungpa C. 1987 Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Shambhala Uchiyama K. 1993 Opening the Hand of Thought Penguin Arkana Watts A.W. 1957 The Way of Zen Penguin, Zopa T 1994 The Door To Satisfaction. Wisdom

Groupwork *Agazarian Y & Peters R. 1981. The Visible and Invisible Group. London: Routledge *Board R. De 1978 The Psychoanalysis Of Organizations. Routledge Brazier D.J. 1991 A Guide to Psychodrama. AHP Holmes P. 1992 The Inner World Outside: Object relations theory and psychodrama. Routledge Holmes P. & Karp M. 1991 Psychodrama: Inspiration and Technique. Routledge Jennings S. 1987 Dramatherapy. Croom Helm Rogers C.R. 1969. Encounter Groups. Penguin Rogers C.R. 1983 Freedom to Learn. Merrill *Whitaker D. 1985 Using Groups to Help People.

Routledge *Williams A. 1991 Forbidden Agendas: Strategic 20

PART IV: PERSONAL GROWTH The attitude to personal growth on this programme is distinctive. Most programmes of psychotherapy training affirm that the therapist's own personal development is important. What is meant by personal development, however, varies and not all the activities and ideas put forward under this heading are equivalent, or even helpful.

Some "personal development" may make people worse therapists. The quality of the therapist as a person is the most important ingredient in therapy. Therapy is, therefore, a path rather than simply a job; a profoundly ethical process rather than a set of techniques.

A basic Buddhist proposition is that it is the self which gets in the way of inner peace. The self is a complex topic in psychology, and it is important in reflecting on the Buddhist position to explore what is actually meant by the term. Different Western approaches have different views of what constitutes the self. As you explore the theoretical base of the course, you will see how the Buddhist view differs on these matters and how the Buddhist concept of self (atma) is concerned with the sense of fixity and permanence that people crave. It is the accumulated habits of action and view that we come to identify with and that limits our lives. This self shows up as varying degrees of self importance, self denigration and/or self consciousness which all of us fall prey to. Thus self arises and stops us learning when it says "I'll never be any good" as well as when it says "I know everything important already". It blocks the therapy process when it says "The client should think and feel the way I think" and also when it says "I hope I look like a proper therapist" and also when it says "I'll never understand this client". The kind of personal growth which makes us therapists, therefore, requires a playfulness in which we do not take ourselves too seriously.

One way to look at Buddhist personal growth work is to think in terms of the three levels we saw earlier, Chi, nien and quan: The chi level: here and now awareness and developing calm and focus. Being able to still our minds creates a basis of receptivity which means we can offer our clients better attention.

The nien level: cultivating vision and aspiration, nourishing positive qualities and a sense of inspiration. A sense of purpose and vision is probably the most important thing that a client can receive from therapy. Rediscovering faith in something beyond the mundane world and the precipitating issue is often the way to find release. If the therapist has this kind of deep faith, this will be inspiring. If the therapist lacks it, the malaise is likely to limit the client’s openness to change.

The quan level: inquiring into the habit energies and karmic accumulation we carry around: soberly inquiring into and doing something about the self-centred patterns. Looking at the effect we have on others and how they in turn have supported us.

To become a therapist, we need to have insight into the processes of conditioning and it is good if we can see these at work in ourselves. In this way as we experience our own conditioned nature, we see the pervasive process involved, and through this gain understanding of how it may be for others. We arrive at a humbler opinion of our own nature, and if we are lucky, we are able to do something about it. We can explore our lives through quan reflection and start to see the way that our resistances, grief, anger, unfinished business, compulsiveness, insecurity and ethical misunderstandings have shaped our lives and impacted on those around us. Doing so we may feel both a profound regret and appreciation for others. We may develop compassion for those who have either been hurt by our actions or who have fallen prey to their own habit energies. The ethical precepts provide an aid to our development, making us aware of our fallibility, helping us to identify what we can change. They also give us a picture of how life can be, in that they can be viewed as a description of a life as a Buddha. As such, they can be a source of inspiration.

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The real enemies of growth are cynicism and self preoccupation. There is always a danger that personal development will increase self preoccupation rather than diminishing it and this may hinder a person's ability to be a therapist. Buddhism is primarily concerned to help us develop an appreciative awareness of the world and people around us. This is the opposite of cynicism. This means developing our sensory experience so that we look more attentively at the world, trying to get beyond our pre-conceptions. Thus we see, hear, touch, taste, smell and cognize what is before us with greater clarity: beautiful and ugly, rough and smooth, close and distant, constant and changing, all the multi-coloured pageant of life: appreciating the universe and being in the flow of it. We experience ourselves as part of something much greater. Most of our psychological blocks are basically defences, attempts to cut ourselves off from a world that is unpredictable and impermanent. If we can create an atmosphere of safety, we can all help each other to take down these defensive walls and learn to inhabit a larger universe. In doing this more, we may also help our clients become happier and more alive. A therapist needs to develop openness to new possibilities; to develop versatility. In many ways this means returning to the kind of curiosity which children have. We need to allow ourselves to be fascinated by the world around us and to wonder at the many miracles in everyday life which most adults have learned to disregard. Developing this freshness of view will help us in our task of entering the worlds of others who do not share our preconceptions, our taste, our outlook.

Getting out of our habitual position is not easy though. One way to do it is by stepping out of our "comfort zone" again and again. This might mean overcoming shyness, reducing compulsive habits, clearing "unfinished business", doing new things, or experimenting with creative activities and being imaginative. Important steps outside one's comfort zone for every student include working in groups, sharing personal feelings, sharing ideas, showing people what you have written, doing art work, demonstrating your skills, meeting your first client and taking the role of group facilitator for the first time. It will also come from listening to others and being willing to hear when you have not fully understood what is being said. All new experience helps us grow. On this course, you will find that the four day course block sections offer particular opportunities for this kind of experimentation.

For much of the time people view the world in ways that have been conditioned by past perceptions. We see what we expect to see. Personal growth can be a resolution to try to experience every day as a new day. Ideally we would approach every client with the same fresh aliveness and care with which we approach the first one. But, also ideally, we will in time let go of that handicapping self-consciousness which can so quickly arise whenever we face a new challenge.

The path of the therapist is one of appreciating others. The personal growth of the therapist occurs primarily through his or her attention to the needs of others (see David’s article “The Necessary Condition is Love� in Beyond Carl Rogers, Brazier 1993). The Buddhist path trains us in the qualities which bring reliable peace and happiness to ourselves and others simultaneously. Unconditional positive regard is thus a way of viewing the world. Empathy is real in those moments when another being becomes real to us. Congruence means not trying to hide things we are ashamed of, but being aware of our own inner process with the same simple awareness as we are able to view anything else in the world. In this approach, therefore, personal work means learning to appreciate everything we come in contact with and developing a curiosity about the world. Our "needs" are not fixed. They are simply a function of what we give our lives to. We work hard, therefore, to go beyond our defences, letting go of the ways in which we ward off the reality of others. This is a life long task, but it is also something in which we make sudden unexpected leaps of progress. It is not so much a matter of accumulating understanding as of gaining the confidence to let go.

The ordinary person's world is implicitly divided into three zones. These could be called the "Me", the "Like me" and the "Not me" zones. When we are not happy, these zones become like three defensive fortifications around our castle. The "me" zone includes everything which we regard as our own: my house, my body, my teddy bear, my cat, my beliefs, my political views, my dinner and so on. It is particularly apparent in the things which I feel 22

"I have to have" or "I cannot cope without". This is the area of compulsiveness (self). Zone two is made up of those things or beings which we regard as on a par with ourselves. Actually, if we are honest, we may not find very much in this zone at all. We may acknowledge the notion that others have the same rights as ourselves in theory, but deep down most of us are really strongly inclined to the view that we ourselves are a special case and that, in practice, "my" comforts and "my" worries are far more important than anybody else's. The Jewish existentialist philosopher Martin Buber wrote about "I-thou" relationships as an ideal. These are what occur when we feel real equalization between ourselves and others. Then, in the third zone, there is everything else, and within this third zone we are likely to find that we have everything classified under "useful to me", "threatening to me" and "neutral". This is the zone of what Martin Buber calls "I-it" relationships. That is, we are appraising the world as if from a distance.

The second zone provides the counter to the self. For many people the "like me" zone only becomes really important in three circumstances. The first is falling in love when the loved one's needs take precedence over our own; the second is having a child when the parent puts the child's needs first; and the third is during war or strife when one is willing to sacrifice oneself for one's comrades. It is worth noting that these are all circumstances in which people feel very alive and their existence seems meaningful. They are no longer driven by the desire to get their own needs met, yet they get met anyway. Their sense is of being part of something greater and, in consequence, their lives become meaningful. They feel liberated. Personal growth means achieving this sense of meaningfulness and vitality in more and more of the circumstances of life. If we can do this we will no longer need wars, love affairs and babies to stop us feeling depressed. We will have expanded our capacity to love. If we do not love we will generally either try to use others for our personal ends or try to remake them to fit an image of how things "should" be. The person who can accept and appreciate another as they are, allowing the other to become real and allowing the subjectivity of the other to matter in the same way as one's own, is a "natural" therapist whether they know it or not.

The tree is sometimes used as a symbol for personal growth. The tree puts down roots, gets grounded, and reaches up toward the heavens. It takes in nourishment and it also bears fruit. It bends but rarely breaks. If one of its branches does break other branches grow to fill the space in new ways. Always the tree is growing beyond the point it has reached, sending out new shoots. Each tree has its own characteristic form, yet harmoniously adjusts to its environment. Within its overall balance the tree has many different branches, each growing in its own direction, seeking out new possibilities for growth and contributing to the health of the whole. Yet this harmony and richness does not seem to be achieved by self-consciousness. The growth of the tree is natural, not contrived.

The tree is intimately involved in its environment. In autumn the leaves fall. In spring the sap rises. A great tree is home to many other forms of life: it supports them all without concern for profit. Reread this paragraph, putting yourself in place of the tree.

Another famous depiction of the process of development is the series of paintings and accompanying poems called "The Ox Herding Pictures". These are available in several translations and are well worth studying. They depict the process of growth as being like the relationship between a man and an ox. In the first picture the man seeks the ox but cannot find it. Then he tracks it down. Then there is a great struggle between the person and the ox.

Then the ox becomes tame and the man learns to ride the ox. Ox and man become friends. Then it is as if they are one, the difference between them transcended. In this harmonious condition the person is able to wander freely in the world "with bliss bestowing hands".

We need to achieve a sense of confidence in the process of growth and personal training in our own life. Many things can help us in this process of heart searching and transformation such as: * Journaling: recording insights, growth points, dreams, resolutions, understandings, discoveries, about one's inner and outer life, about relationships, about nature, about being in the world. Review your journal regularly.

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There is always a danger that journals simply become self-indulgent, so try to introduce structures that bring objectivity. * Quan Work: working with questions to explore your life. A form of quan work is Naikan which generally uses three questions to focus inquiry: What did others do for me? What did I do for them? What harm did I cause?

Often these questions are directed to reflection on a particular person and period of time. You will find that we use this form from time to time, but if you want to read more about it, David Reynolds’ books will be helpful.

Quan work can be done alone, and can be a useful way to bring edge to your journal work. * Meditation: developing awareness, stability, insight, mindfulness, contentment, spaciousness, deeper understanding, compassion, love, joy and equanimity. Developing a regular practice can be sustaining to your work as a therapist. * Being in therapy oneself: to grow, increase sensitivity, complete unfinished business, move toward maturity, reconciliation, appreciation of others, purposefulness and freedom. * Using expressive arts, bodywork and dance: all powerful ways of discovering new potentialities and gaining respect for the process of growth and for the multi-dimensional quality of experience. * Writing can help us to both express and structure our experience. Poems, stories, fantasies, and just keeping a "scrap" book of thoughts, feelings and images, can all help us to explore new areas.

The most important medium of growth, however, is everyday life. Everyday we can appreciate others and enjoy the world around us. Giving our energy to the task in hand, letting go of selfishness whenever we notice it arise in us, saying tender words and caring for others, living purposefully in the moment and appreciating each new circumstance which arises, we gradually come to embody the spirit of awakening in all the things we do.

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PART V: PROGRAMME REQUIREMENTS & REGULATIONS Summary of Requirements Years (min)

Attendance (contact hours)

Peer Learning

Practicum (face to face hours)

Academic

Personal Therapy

Certificate

1

130 hours

Advanced Certificate

2

320 hours

30 hours + 1 project

100 hours externally supervised

18 unit taught distance learning sequence

40 hours + personal report

Diploma

1

300 hours

30 hours + 1 project

150 hours externally supervised

4 written assignments

20 hours + 10 days retreat

Learning Journal

CONTINUITY OF STUDIES Students must remain continuously enrolled throughout the period in which hours or credits have been accumulated. Hours from courses (not including day seminars) accumulated in the six months immediately prior to enrolment may be included, provided these have not already been used to obtain another award. Enrolment on the next level does not necessarily follow completion of the previous level. A break may thus be taken between the Certificate and Advanced Certificate or between AC and Diploma if desired but this may prevent carry over of credits under the 6 month rule. Where a student discontinues study without completion, existing credits may be "frozen" for up to a year provided the student applies in advance for a study break and provides full explanation of appropriate reasons for the discontinuity. Students taking a year out in this way must remain enrolled as students under general registration. Absence of more than a year will result in erosion of existing credits at a rate of 15% per annum. Special cases will be

considered on their merits. Students wishing to rejoin after withdrawing without having been granted a study break will follow the same procedure as new applicants.

REGISTRATION Most students on longer courses will register under Certificate or Advanced Registration. Full time registration is also available. Details of registration categories and fee structures can be found in the course prospectus. A student who completes the Foundation Certificate in under a year may register for the Advanced Certificate straight away on completion, but will need to pay the Advanced Certificate registration on commencement of the new programme.

Certificate registration: is for students joining a certificate programme, whether Foundation Certificate or Post Qualifying Certificate. There is an initial registration fee, with a renewal fee payable if the course is not completed within the year. Initial registration includes 18 days of psychotherapy course attendances and leads to 25

the award of a certificate. Students on the postqualifying certificate pay additional fees to cover three additional days, since the requirement for this programme is 21 days. Students must have completed the appropriate application and been accepted onto the course to take this registration.

This registration also includes membership of the Amida Learning Community which gives you a number of benefits. With Foundation Registration you get five extra free days of attendance on non-psychotherapy courses and events (blue or yellow courses) and as many red courses as you like. You also get Amida Trust membership and Running Tide journal.

Re-registration includes four free days attendance per year (2 on any course and 2 on any but green) just as for students on the general registration.

Advanced Registration is open to students accepted onto Advanced Certificate and Diploma courses. Initial registration involves payment of a lump sum and includes basic registration plus 18 days of psychotherapy (green) courses and 9 days of blue/yellow courses, plus tutoring.

Students purchase additional days to meet course requirements through season tickets listed in the prospectus. Yearly re-registration is required, which includes four free attendance days, two on psychotherapy courses, two on others.

Full-time registration offers an opportunity for students who want to send an extended period living in The Buddhist House. It includes 27 days of green courses and 18 days of blue/yellow courses every year. This is the way to register if you want to do everything. It can be used by students wishing to complete a Certificate, Advanced Certificate or Diploma full time provided an application has been accepted.

Clearly though you get much more than simply the programme on which you are enrolled.

TIME LIMITS Minimum permitted time in which the programmes may be completed are indicated above. Please note that there are only 18 days of psychotherapy courses offered per year so full time students cannot complete a psychotherapy

Advanced Certificate or Diploma within the year.

Other certification options can, however, be discussed. Students are enrolled for up to 2 years for the Foundation Certificate; 3 years for the Advanced Certificate and 3 years for the Diploma. In this respect there are no maximum time limits but you must attend at least two courses per year unless you agree a period of absence. Students who extend their studies over a very long time span need to be aware that the course evolves over time, so may change substantially over a long period. If a student is registered for a long period and is not deemed to be doing sufficient work to sustain progress, a deadline for completion may be set.

CONTACT HOURS This means time spent at designated Amida psychotherapy (green) courses, tutorials and seminars at which staff are present. Green courses are credited at 7 hrs per day (residential courses: 8 hrs per day). Attendance hours requirement are listed in the table.

PEER LEARNING Peer learning takes place where at least 3 students are present. (Groups may include 2 students plus other AT members where student numbers are low.) Certificate or Modular programme students are encouraged but not required to join in. Peer learning gives students scope to develop work on their own initiative and encourages mutual support. Non students may attend but not to the point where they out number the students. Attendance at non-Amida events may not be counted for this purpose.

Students who have difficulty meeting with other students may count extra course attendance hours as peer learning.

LEARNING JOURNAL Students following the Foundation Certificate Programme will keep a Journal in which they: 1. Keep a log of all courses attended 2. Record significant learnings (theoretical, practical and personal) from each event 26

3. Write down other learnings or observations relevant to the course.

The learning journal should be of sufficient length to adequately reflect learning on the course.

TABELLA Students fill in a tabella issued to them for the purpose listing what they have done in all aspects of the course. This should be kept up to date and should be submitted to the tutor annually for comment. Before graduating the completed tabella is submitted and this forms the basis for course completion discussions.

TUTORIALS The minimum requirement is one hour tutorial per term (3 per year) for all students. More frequent tutorials are recommended.

DISTANCE LEARNING SEQUENCE The academic content of the Advanced Certificate is organised as a Distance Learning sequence of 18 units covering the essentials of Buddhist therapeutic psychology. The programme runs through two academic years with flexibility within certain parameters to cater for slower students. The Distance Learning programme is also available in its own right for students outside the main programme. Some studentsprefer to start it alongside the Foundation Certificate. The sequence involves study units, recommended reading, written assignments, projects and some student interaction.

Each Unit is one months work. The course starts in October and normally you should register for this when you start the Advanced Certificate if you haven’t already. You must have completed the 18 units before you can complete the Advanced Certificate so delaying your start may involve extra fees in the long run. Written work for each Unit should be sent in by the appropriate deadline, which is six weeks from the date of issue.

Enrolment for the Advanced Certificate may take place at any time during the academic year, but

students may need to wait until the following October to begin the Distance learning sequence.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS Written assignments for the Diploma Programme are as follows: 1. A paper on ethics, values and boundaries This paper shows that you have studied, thought about and understand the part that ethics and values play in therapy, personal growth and the professional role, in theory and in practice, and provides evidence that you know how to appropriately manage your personal involvement in and contribution to the process of psychotherapy that you practice.

2. Personal Integration of Theory and Practice This paper demonstrates that you can explain and justify your approach to psychotherapy from a theoretical perspective.

3. A Case Study The case study demonstrates that you can conceptualize a piece of therapeutic work from initial engagement and assessment through to termination, including your rationale for key interventions made and your understanding of reasons for changes which you observed in the client. The study focuses on therapy work done by yourself with one client or one group, extending over a complete course of therapy of at least six hours. Case studies should be presented in a way that preserves anonymity of clients. They need not be circulated to AT members if this is felt inappropriate.

4. A Paper on a Topic of your Choice This is an opportunity to go into a subject of special interest to yourself.

Students write papers to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship of theory, practice and personal development. You choose your own titles in consultation with your tutor.

Papers are assessed in terms of: a. Structure: material is sensibly organized. b. Personal dimension: something of the writer's personality shows through. c. Readability: clear and interesting. d. Argument: clear theme/purpose.

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e. Content: important points are made. f. Perspective: evidence of understanding of Buddhist psychology g. Links between theory and practice. h. Evidence: points made are supported by reference to other writers, case material or other factual data. i. Scholarship: there is evidence that you are familiar with what other writers have written on your topic.

PROJECTS A project is the creation, by 2 students working co-operatively, of a product relevant to therapy which is of use to therapists, students, clients or the public. The product might be a report, a directory, a bibliography, a film, a game, a training pack, a manual, an index or similar item.

Please discuss your project intentions with your tutor before getting committed.

PRACTICUM: Advanced Certificate For the Advanced Certificate, a practicum involving 100 hours face to face work with clients is required. This practice is externally supervised by an agreed supervisor at a rate of one supervision session for ten counselling sessions and not less than one and a half hours of supervision per working month. External supervisors should be people who can show evidence of appropriate qualification and experience, and should have a compatible approach to therapy. Students are responsible for making appropriate financial arrangements with their External Supervisor, who will often remain their supervisor after the completion of the course. Supervisors complete an agreement to provide a report for the course completion.

Students should also submit: - a diary listing counselling sessions by date, client code and a summary of session theme is a few words.

- Two casestudies, one demonstrating your ability to work in an integrated way consistent with the teaching on the course and the other demonstrating your use of supervision.

- One taped session with brief notes If a student needs to change supervisor for some

reason during the time on the course the matter should be discussed with the tutor and an interim report be provided.

PRACTICUM: Diploma The external supervisor chosen by Diploma students must be able to supervise you satisfactorily up to UKCP registration standard.

Diploma students should submit: - a supervisor’s report - one case study - one taped session with notes PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT The hours requirement refers to time spent in therapy yourself. Students training as individual therapists who have not experienced long term individual therapy, must complete 40 hours of one to one therapy; groupwork students must similarly experience substantial time in group therapy.

Students who have previously been in therapy may discuss other options with their tutors. Students working toward the Diploma should, in addition, spend at least 10 days on retreat at a retreat centre approved by the staff. Generally any bona fide retreat centre of a well established spiritual tradition will be approved for this purpose.

Your individual therapist should not be an Amida staff member, though the Centre can sometimes recommend therapists to you. Some of the groupwork you do for personal development may be within Amida, but some must be elsewhere.

Hours cannot be counted twice. If you attend a group as personal development, it cannot count again as contact time.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT For the Advanced Certificate, students write a report on their own personal development over the period of their studies. This will describe how you have grown as a person and therapist over your period of studies. It should include: (a) your experience of keeping a personal development journal; and (b) personal issues you have worked on and the changes of feelings, attitudes and behaviour that have resulted; and 28

(c) the emergence of your sense of professional identity as a counsellor, therapist, groupworker or helper; and (d) your ethical development and personal discipline; and (e) whatever other relevant material you would like to include.

ETHICS Students should give careful consideration to questions of personal and professional ethics, be able to discuss ethical issues intelligently and be committed to an acceptable ethical position.

While on the Programme, students are required to adhere to the code of ethics in force at the time (See Part VI of the Handbook). Students should be familiar with the Codes of Ethics of bodies such as the UKCP, BAC, or other institutes to which they may wish to seek membership at a future date and should ensure that their practice does not infringe the standards established in such codes. Students should also make a serious attempt to advance their personal ethical standards and discipline and seek to eliminate compulsive and/or harmful behaviours from their life generally, not simply from the therapy setting..

COMPETENCE A certificate will not be issued until the staff are satisfied that the student is competent at the level appropriate to the award sought. The standards required are summarized at the beginning of this handbook for the different levels of award.

Competence includes skills, attitudes and values and the meeting of specific course criteria.

Appropriate attitudes and values include 1. Adherence to proper professional ethics; 2. Ability to relate to other workers in a proper professional fashion; 3. Positive non-discriminatory appreciation of clients as persons; 4. Confidence in the basic process of personal development; 5. Commitment to on-going professional development throughout one's professional life.

KNOWLEDGE This requirement is fulfilled when you are familiar with and can sensibly discuss the material included in the course syllabus. There are no written examinations. Staff will consider the written work you have submitted and your contribution to discussion and debate while on the course. If there is doubt about your level of knowledge, you may be asked to complete further written work to ensure that the syllabus has been covered.

Where a student has completed the Distance Learning sequence prior to starting the Advanced Certificate, staff may require some further written evidence of the student’s developing knowledge in the form of an agreed additional paper. In general it is not recommended that intending students take year two of the Distance Learning programme until they have started the course, and preferably, begun to work with clients.

EXTERNAL ASSESSOR UKCP requirements include the following: “The assessment of students’ functional competence at qualification shall involve appropriate professional scrutiny independent of the particular course”. At the Diploma level, therefore, it will be necessary to produce a positive report from your external supervisor or from another person holding UKCP registration or equivalent who is in a position to vouch for your competence.

Work arising from other aspects of the course may be viewed by external assessors from time to time, as deemed appropriate by staff on the course.

COMPLETION PROCESS MEETINGS When, as a student, you believe you have completed all the work necessary to qualify for a particular award, you may request that a Completion Process Meeting be arranged. This will generally be a meeting of four people: yourself, two members of staff and the course moderator. A week prior to this meeting you should submit: 1. Your completed Tabella 2. External supervisors report 3. Your portfolio containing all written work 29

completed during the course. This should include case studies.

be dealt with through the IBAP complaints procedure.

You will be invited to discuss your experience of being on the programme and to describe your current work and understanding. You may be asked questions about what you have done and about what you understand. Your assignments will give evidence of your understanding of many aspects of the course syllabus, but probably not all and this meeting will also provide opportunity for you to show that you have an understanding of those areas not covered in written assignments.

The meeting will record a decision which will either be (a) to award you a specified certificate; or (b) to ask you to complete specified further work.

In this case, a date may also be set for a further meeting.

APPEALS In the (unlikely) event that there is failure to reach agreement at the completion meeting, a further meeting will be planned and a decision should be made to invite a suitably qualified and experienced agreed external party to participate.

In the event of this step involving the payment of a fee, this will be divided equally between the student and the course.

Students who have concerns about their treatment at any other point in the course should raise the matter initially with their tutor, and if they fail to gain satisfaction at this point with another member of staff from the programme.

Concerns which are not resolved in this way should be referred to the course moderator or to the trustee of Amida Trust responsible for overseeing the running of the Psychotherapy Training Programme. This person may act as arbitor or may appoint a suitable external party acceptable to both student and staff to act as arbitor. The decision of any arbitration meeting will be final.

ETHICAL COMPLAINTS Ethical complaints relating to the course should 30

PART VI CODE OF ETHICS The Code of Ethics and Complaints Procedure of the Institute for Buddhist Analysis and Psychotherapy INTRODUCTION All ethical systems inevitably highlight the contrast between ideals and actuality. The guidance in this code helps us to think through and understand the importance of ethics in therapy. Having rules does not eliminate the necessity to make choices. Personal ethical growth is an essential dimension of becoming a therapist. These guidelines are therefore both an aid to growth and a protection for ourselves and others. They incorporate the idea that ethics do not cease as soon as we leave the consulting room: a therapist attempts to develop a healing attitude to the world generally, not simply to those who are paying for a service.

The spirit of this guidance, therefore, is that by working with ethics we can grow as people. If, for instance, we make a serious and thorough attempt to avoid criticising others, even if only for one day, we will probably not succeed, but we will learn a great deal about ourselves and about how we actually regards other people. Through such an exercise we will advance, even if we do not become instantly perfect.

IBAP is an institute for the advancement of Buddhist psychotherapy. Some members may use such terms as counsellor, facilitator, trainer, mentor, guidance worker, befriender or volunteer for some aspects of their professional work. In such cases the same ethical guidelines apply as though this term stood in the place of the word psychotherapist. These guidelines therefore apply to all members in all their human relations work and, in some respects (as specified) to the conduct of their lives outside of the purely professional situation.

GROWTH NOT PUNISHMENT Ethics are not about punishment. Punishment itself is not ethical. On the other hand, ethical mistakes do bring unhappiness to ourselves and to other people and we should, therefore, strive to avoid making ethical mistakes and to recognize and learn from those we do make. When serious mistakes with harmful consequences are made, third parties inevitably become involved and we have to consider how best collectively to heal such situations and grow from the experience.

HOW TO USE ETHICS There are three levels of ethics described here. The first set are inspirational, the second normative and the third minimal. IBAP members are expected to at least maintain a level of practice which meets the third set, to make every effort to adhere to the second set and, as far as they feel able, to aspire to the first set. They are all three provided to help us work upon ourselves. It would be a contradiction of terms for them to be used oppressively.

Unfortunately, in many social settings, rules are used in harmful ways. We should, therefore, be careful to ensure that while seeking to reach the highest level of personal development of which we feel ourselves currently to be capable, we do not seek to oppress others nor get caught in moral competitiveness.

THE FUNDAMENTAL BASIS As therapists we are here to bring healing to ourselves and others. A therapist, therefore, does not cause harm, helps others and cultivates a wise and compassionate human heartedness. All ethical precepts are contained within these three. The purpose of ethics is to achieve inward peace, outward kindness and social harmony.

INSPIRATIONAL ETHICS 1. We do everything we can to remove the obstacles within ourselves which impede our ability to offer help to 31

those who come to us in need.

2. We have an accepting attitude to others and do not harbour judgement or resentment. We respect everyone, irrespective of their age, sex, religion, race, social class, sexual orientation, ability, appearance, affiliations, habits or past conduct.

3. We listen and attend to others without reserve.

4. We actively work for peace and reconciliation between people known to us and in the world at large. We find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent destructive conflict.

5. We regard all beings as our potential friends, no matter what may have happened in the past and are willing to learn from whatever situations arise.

6. We build a sense of community and harmony among people, respecting the individual natures of each, good or bad, and we do not say nor do things which will create destructive strife within the groups to which we belong.

7. We work for ecological harmony.

8. We use what we have for generous, hospitable and wholesome purposes, avoiding selfish accumulation in a world where poverty and exploitation persist.

9. We are guided by kindness, learning to understand others and help them to become successful, each in their own way.

10. We cultivate peaceful minds by appropriate attitudes such as contentment, appreciation and wise acceptance, and by practices such as meditation, relaxation and contact with nature.

11. We avoid supporting harmful actions by others by not purchasing nor consuming products which can only be produced by cruelty or unjust exploitation and not investing in ventures which do harm to living beings or the environment.

12. We work to create harmonious and aware communities in which people can find secure conditions for wholesome lives and relationships.

NORMATIVE ETHICS 1. We are not sectarian and do not disparage the views of others, accepting that all views are only partial expressions of truth.

2. We care for and do not mistreat our bodies or the bodies of others.

3. We are hospitable and generous.

4. We support those who are working for compassion and harmony in the world.

5. We speak words of peace and reconciliation, avoiding gossip, dishonesty and any form of harmful speech.

6. We are careful in our intimate and personal relationships to be truthful and honest, and not to harm or exploit others or undermine their commitments.

7. We work to eliminate compulsive habits from our lives.

8. We try to achieve insight into ourselves and transparency in our dealings with others. In particular we do not seek to keep people in a relationship of dependency, care or help seeking in relation to ourselves longer than is appropriate to their needs.

9. We encourage free exchange of views and do not think that the knowledge we presently possess is changeless or absolute truth.

10. We recognize and acknowledge the good done by others.

11. We are willing to acknowledge mistakes and to go on learning from them 12. We contribute to the life and growth of our own professional group and the therapeutic professions generally and avoid behaviour in professional or social settings which may tend to bring our own or other people's therapeutic work into disrepute.

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MINIMAL ETHICS 1. We do not physically harm people nor give support to situations which foster violence and do all in our power to prevent physical harm coming to anyone in our care.

2. (a) We do not take anything which rightfully belongs to others. (b) We do not become involved in financial transactions for our own profit with those who seek our help beyond receiving appropriate and agreed fees for our work.

3.(a) We respect the confidences of others, not divulging information that has been given to us in trust, nor that confidential information has been given to us, without the clear and informed consent of the client. (b) In exceptional circumstances where suicide or harm to a third party is likely to occur, or where legally required to reveal information, the therapist should discuss with the client what action should be taken.(c) We are careful to keep any records we generate secure. We ensure that the room or situation in which clients are seen affords privacy.(d) Where psychotherapists are working in an institutional setting which requires them to share information received more widely than is specified in clause 3a, they should make this clear to the client.

4. When we use information in supervision or in publications or training situations, we ensure that individuals are protected by changing identifying details.We clarify with our clients the nature, purpose and conditions of any research in which they may be involved and ensure informed and verifiable consent.

5. We do not have sexual relations with persons who come to us in a role of dependency or seeking help.

6. (a) We do not make statements to our clients which are untrue. (b) We disclose our qualifications when requested and do not misrepresent our qualifications, experience nor membership of professional institutes either directly to clients or in advertisements, publications or any other public medium. (c) We disclose on request, the terms and conditions of our practice, and, where appropriate, our working practices. We adhere to the contracts, explicitly or implicitly formed with our clients, or, when it is impossible to do so, we deal with this situation in an open and straightforward way with proper regard for the client's interests. (d) When it is necessary for us to represent our clients to other professionals or in public situations, we do so with great discretion and regard both for accuracy and avoidance of condemnatory language.

7. (a) We do not practise under the influence of alcohol or other mind altering drugs. (b) We do not practise when our ability to do so is impaired by ill health or emotional disturbance. (c) We recognise the own limitations and take into account the client's best interests in making professional referrals.

8. We do not conduct our professional practice in ways that indicate condemnatory attitudes toward social groups designated in terms of age, sex, religion, race, social class, sexual orientation, ability, appearance, affiliations, habits or past conduct. This clause will not be taken, however, to prevent a practitioner specializing in offering services to one or more specific groups and not to others.

9. (a) We do not act in ways which will bring the profession of counselling and psychotherapy nor the agencies for which we work into disrepute. (b) A practitioner who is convicted in a court of law for a criminal offence or in a tribunal of any professional institute shall report this fact to the Institute. (c) Psychotherapy practitioners shall ensure that their work is adequately covered by professional indemnity and public liability insurance. (d) A practitioner who becomes aware that a colleague's behaviour has become detrimental to the profession shall take appropriate action in bringing the matter to the awareness of the ethics committee.

10. We continue to improve our ability to help others throughout our careers by training and attention to personal development.

11. We ensure that our helping work is properly and regularly supervised. Guidance on this will be issued by the Ethics Committee from time to time.

VIOLENCE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONS Therapists heal and do not harm. Although therapeutic work may involve helping individuals to get in touch with and explore their own rage and violence, it is important that neither they nor others are actually physically harmed 33

in the process. Similarly, clients may need to work through their feelings about ill-treatment they have suffered and it is important that this is done in a way which does not retraumatize them.

RELATIONSHIPS Therapists do everything they can to provide a safe environment for the provision of therapy and avoid getting into situations which could compromise their relationship with clients, trainees or other professionals. Therapists do not allow themselves to become sexually involved with their clients. A therapist who engages in a sexual relationship with a client is open to charges of serious professional misconduct.

ENDING RELATIONSHIPS The therapeutic relationship does not end when formal therapy ends. It may be superseded by a different form of relationship. Thus a client might eventually become a student or colleague of the person who was their therapist or they might become friends. If such a transition is not initiated by the client, the therapist should endeavour to remain available to the client as therapist. Accepting a client is a long term responsibility and we should always be willing to see a client again even if they return after an interval of years. If the client does seek to change the nature of the relationship, the therapist should be cautious since although such change may involve the client gaining a teacher or colleague or friend, it will also mean them losing a therapist and this is not to be taken lightly.

Every effort should be made in such circumstances to achieve frank dialogue so that the client's best interests may be carefully considered and given primary consideration, and that the therapist only offers what can genuinely be given by way of friendship, teaching or other increased contact. Even after such a change, both parties should remain alert to the fact that there will almost inevitably be some carry over of feelings from the previous relationship and they should take care to be sensitive to each other's needs. If in doubt about such a situation a therapist should consult with their supervisor or other responsible colleague.

THE THERAPEUTIC SETTING The therapist will ensure that the setting in which therapy takes place is suitable for the purpose and provides adequate privacy and freedom from interruption.

RESOLVING COMPLAINTS, DISPUTES AND BREACHES OF ETHICS 1. Procedure Any complaint made against an IBAP member should be lodged in writing with the Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Institute. The Institute will inform the person(s) complained against promptly. In the first instance, where both parties feel able to do so, the disputing parties will be invited to meet to see whether the matter can be resolved informally. A neutral Facilitator will be found for this meeting. No records will be kept of the content of this meeting which is an attempt to settle the matter informally. Where resolution is not reached by this method, the complaint moves to a second stage.

Where informal meeting has not succeeded the Ethics Committee will appoint a senior member, who shall not be the Facilitator, to act as Mediator. Both the complainant and the complainee may appoint for themselves or have provided for them another member of the Institute who will act as friend and support through the ensuing procedure and the Mediator will ensure that this happens. The Mediator will have discretion how best to investigate and resolve the matter, within the principles set out in section 2 below, and having due regard to all the circumstances. The Mediator may call on the assistance of other person(s) as appropriate. In any case, the Mediator will seek to bring the parties together and to resolve the matter without undue delay. The Mediator will keep, or arrange to have kept, a full record of all proceedings. The aim of mediation shall be to arrive at a written "final statement" agreed to and signed by the complainant, complainee and Mediator which brings the matter to a close. Such a statement may include (a) statements of apology by either or both parties, and/or (b) the specification of actions to be carried out by either party within a specified time span. The Mediator shall report 34

to the Ethics Committee when a complaint has been heard and resolved and when all actions agreed to in its resolution have been satisfactorily carried out. All records will be kept confidential.

In the event of a dispute still not being resolved by the above method, the parties now involved shall attempt to agree a best procedure for resolving or arbitrating the matter acceptable to both sides. If no such procedure can be agreed, the Ethics Committee shall appoint one or more neutral Adjudicators, who may or may not be members of the Institute who shall investigate the matter and give a final ruling to which all parties will be bound.

Subject to any general rules in force affecting the profession as a whole, any further appeal beyond this point will be to the General Meeting of the Institute. Whether such appeal may be allowed will be at the discretion of the Ethics Committee. Appeals will only be allowed where (1) new evidence has come to light or (2) there are grounds to question whether the code of ethics has been correctly interpreted or (3) bias on the part of the adjudicator is alleged. The General Meeting may rule directly on the point at issue or may delegate the task as it sees fit.

The Ethics Committee may from time to time issue further guidance on how each or any of the above stages are to be conducted.

2. General Principles Where a member has engaged in unethical behaviour and has caused some harm to another person, the aim will be to achieve reconciliation, learning and restitution so that peace may be restored and the wounds of the community healed in ways which do not set up the causes for further damage. What might constitute an appropriate way to remedy the situation is a matter for discussion by all concerned and every attempt will be made to achieve consensus on this. It is expected that any IBAP member who has done harm to another person will take all possible steps to make amends and not seek to protect their own interests in a narrow sense.

It is not our policy that wrongs done should generally lead to the suspension of the person concerned provided that there is evidence of appropriate learning, change and, if appropriate, restitution. In some cases further training, supervision and/or a period of withdrawal from client work may be indicated. On the other hand, if a person has been falsely or mistakenly accused then there may be need for apology or even remedial or conciliatory action on the part of the complainant. As therapists our task is to resolve disputes and learn from them. Every effort will be made to reach a constructive resolution helpful to both parties and to avoid stigma and embitterment. Parties involved should listen to one another with respect, no matter how strongly personal feeling may run, and all should regard conflicts as opportunities for learning, not arenas for the pursuit of personal interest. Punishment plays no part in this procedure. The expulsion of an individual from membership should be considered only in extremis and regarded as a failure by all concerned.

SUGGESTIONS PROCEDURE Any IBAP member may make suggestions for the improvement of this code and procedure. Suggestions should be addressed to the Ethics Committee. Suggestions which may have substantial repercussions for other members will become part of a consultation procedure. Consultation will generally be by publication of the proposal in a "green" paper circulated to and inviting response from other members. In the event of there being no adverse response the suggestion will be adopted. In the event of adverse response being received to a suggestion, debate will continue through the various forums of the Institute until a consensus is reached. In the event of no consensus emerging, the General Meeting of the Institute has final authority.

Revised March 1998

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