Contemplative Therapy

I had the privilege of engaging in a 3 year intensive study with a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village Buddhist tradition. This deeply informs the way I think about how the mind works and the art of healing and transformation with clients. Where appropriate, I offer teachings and practices that I have learned, in conjunction with traditional Western modalities. I also invite the integration of clients' own spiritual practice(s) into their healing work.

With a master's degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy, I specialize in using mindfulness and present-moment awareness to help you explore your thoughts and emotions with compassion. This approach allows us to uncover patterns and beliefs that may be holding you back, creating space for deeper understanding and healing. By fostering a connection with your inner self, we can work together to find clarity and cultivate personal growth.

With a master's degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy, I specialize in using mindfulness and present-moment awareness to help you explore your thoughts and emotions with compassion. This approach allows us to uncover patterns and beliefs that may be holding you back, creating space for deeper understanding and healing. By fostering a connection with your inner self, we can work together to find clarity and cultivate personal growth.

Jodi is a graduate of Naropa's Contemplative Psychotherapy Graduate Program. Naropa University’s concentration in Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology master's degree is a counseling program that grounds itself in the Buddhist contemplative wisdom tradition and includes current humanistic psychological approaches to give insight and skills to show up fully for one's self and others.

I completed my master's degree in contemplative psychotherapy (now titled Buddhist Psychology) at Naropa University. This included a great deal of study beyond traditional therapy programs to learn Buddhist philosophy and practice meditation and mindfulness techniques. We embodied these practices beyond just intellectual understanding by undertaking two-week-long meditation retreats every semester, during which we would implement what we were learning to better understand it within ourselves.

Buddhism + psychology is an incredibly powerful combination for personal growth. Buddhism provides the analogy and wisdoms for living a life free from suffering — we are lotuses that transform the murky mud of our world and its challenges into nutrients for growth — psychology provides insight and guidance into the process of human development and offer tools for change. Up for the challenge? I will dive deep with you to tackle the most fundamental questions about life and who we are.

Contemplative practices include contemplation, meditation, and yoga, and are usually part of a larger worldview and way of life, optimizing well-being. These practices offer psychological and psychosomatic benefits. Through contemplative therapy, we can train and develop the mind, resulting in enhanced mental capacities, well-being, and maturity. This training therapy can heighten calm, concentration, insight, and joy.

Masters of Clinical Mental Health - focus on Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology

My master's degree focused exclusively on contemplative, or mindfulness-based, therapy. My work integrates a lot of mindfulness skills and coping skills. Many forms of visualization, relaxation, meditation, mindful movement, are ways that we can reconnect, ground, and center our lives. Some primary contemplative therapy models I use are dialectical behavior therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.

Contemplative Psychotherapy is based on a Buddhist view of how mind functions. Within a contemplative view the mind is fundamentally sane and confusion is temporary. Like the body, the mind is instinctively moving toward clarity. By reflecting this view client and clinician learn to recognize islands of clarity rather than only focusing on defilements.

I have found mindfulness and contemplative wisdom (often from cultures outside of our Western mindsets) to be very helpful in radically transforming the most stubborn patterns of suffering. I love to teach mindfulness and meditation, and to share helpful concepts with my patients. Therapy can help patients to deepen their awareness, and I often talk with patients about concepts like compassion, self-compassion, acceptance, responsibility... and ways to put this in practice.

I am a trained spiritual director, and I have been formed in both the Christian and Buddhist contemplative traditions.

Contemplative psychotherapy is a frame based on integrating the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition with modern psychology. We use our own meditation practice as a foundation for our work with clients. We emphasize the present moment experience and each client's 'brilliant sanity'- their inherent mental and emotional well-being, and strive to help clients recognize this quality in themselves.

We work toward deep and transformative reflection together in sessions.

I am trained in contemplative therapy. While I can teach meditation, I often do not in individual therapy. The contemplative approach is rather to cultivate awareness, curiosity and friendliness toward ourselves. Easier said than done. We are often harder on ourselves than others. Through my own meditation experience and social justice work, I bring a nonjudgemental attitude that fosters safety and openness to all the parts of your experience.

I graduated from Naropa University in the Contemplative Psychology program. Currently work as a professor at Naropa in the Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Program. My approach is rooted in the contemplative tradition. This approach is acceptance based, present moment centered, and works by recognizing the wholeness of my client. Who you want to become is already within you, let's uncover who you are together.

Just as the breath calms the body, meditation calms the mind. Meditation has physical, emotional, mental and spiritual benefits. Elizabeth guides her clients in different styles of meditating to determine which form is most effective in giving them the deepest sense of wellbeing, maintain equanimity and handle difficult situations. Meditation has been proven to change the brain in ways that correlate with less stress and depression, less pain and anxiety, and a stronger immune system.

I integrate the Contemplative Theory seamlessly into my approach. By recognizing and embracing our strengths, often overlooked or dismissed, we gain the confidence needed to explore painful experiences. As humans, we thrive in a constant state of change, and the Contemplative Theory aligns perfectly with this perspective. It fosters ongoing self-exploration, guiding us towards our truest selves in this ever-evolving journey of life.