No Cure For You: If Buddha were your Psychoanalyst?

Secular Buddhism & Existential Therapy, What is therapy?
I was deeply privileged to have the opportunity to present my ideas for Professor Julie Reshe on her Patreon platform.  Her work introduces “negative psychoanalysis” as an alternative to the therapy provided by conventional psychology and psychoanalysis.  Her work is more of a philosophical shift than a specific methodology and, in this presentation,  I attempt…

Introducing Existential Analysis

Beyond Snake Oil
Issue#1 – Beyond Snake Oil: The anti-cure of Existential Practice Introducing Existential Analysis From the onset of my training in psychology, I had reservations about how psychology was being done. My English professors seemed to have a much better grip on an understanding of the human condition than my Psychology lecturers. Classes on Samuel Beckett’s…

Self-Retreat Therapy

Buddhism, Existentialism & Psychotherapy, Secular Buddhism & Existential Therapy, What is therapy?
This past weekend, Fiona and I found ourselves entranced by a Leonard Cohen tribute show.  I wouldn’t usually be inspired by the idea of anyone attempting to emulate the grand master of melancholy, but a dear friend’s sister was performing, so I thought I would take a Sunday afternoon break from writing my thesis and…

On the Marginalising practices of Psychology

Existentialism & Psychotherapy, , What is therapy?
Interviewer:    Do you think that if you had paid for the train your life would have been entirely different?” JG:                      Listen, do you believe in God? Interviewer:    Sometimes. JG:                      Well, ask him.  Ask him if my life would have changed – I don’t know.   The psychological consultation can easily take the form of this…

Renewal 2024

What is therapy?
Dear Clients [current & future],   As we enter into a “new year”, a renewal, I would like to revisit what it is that therapy is, perhaps, about.  The word “renewal” does not only imply to “make new”, or to “begin again”, but also to simply resume: to go on.  Much of therapy is about…

The Myth of Addiction

Existentialism & Psychotherapy
A practical application of Existential Phenomenology to human cravings in developing a Contemplative Existential Therapy. September 2023, by Jason Ross (MA Counselling Psychology, PhD student GCAS). What if, what we are in the habit of calling “addiction” is not a break down in personal ethics, not so much an issue of being “out of control”,…

On Being “no-thing-ness” (Day4/5)

5day Emoyeni Retreat 2023, Existentialism & Psychotherapy,
Mind as Relational It unlikely that we emerge from the womb with a distinct sense of self. Rather, we are born crying-feeding-defecating blobs, with no sense of what is me and what is not me. A psychoanalytic premise is that it is through the process of soothing and frustrating of our basic needs that we…

On being “no-thing-ness” (Day 3/5)

5day Emoyeni Retreat 2023, Buddhism, Existentialism & Psychotherapy, , Secular Buddhism & Existential Therapy, What is therapy?
The Psychology of meditation Ultimately, through a meditative approach to analysis, we are hoping for a different kind of insight. We are hoping for something more felt and instantaneous in consciousness, something that words can only try and make room for but that cannot be found in words themselves, but in the pauses between them.…

On being “no-thing-ness” (Day2/5)

5day Emoyeni Retreat 2023, Buddhism, Existentialism & Psychotherapy, , Secular Buddhism & Existential Therapy, What is therapy?
An existential Buddhist analysis of the self as the “struggle to exist” Day 1: The Phenomenology of Consciousness as Sunyata For Sartre, consciousness is a lack. To understand consciousness is to understand lack. It is a “lack” because consciousness is only ever consciousness of some “thing”. Consciousness, in itself, is empty. It is from an…

On being “no-thing-ness” (Day 1/5)

5day Emoyeni Retreat 2023, Buddhism, Existentialism & Psychotherapy, , Secular Buddhism & Existential Therapy, What is therapy?
An existential Buddhist analysis of the self as the “struggle to exist” Day 1: A view on Self (Day 1 of a retreat hosted at Emoyeni Retreat Centre, Mooi Nooi, South Africa)   This retreat considers an intersection between Existential Philosophy, Buddhism and Psychotherapy. It is based on the assumption that we all bring our…