Zen & Psychotherapy: Integrating Traditional and Nontraditional Approaches

by Christopher J. Mruk, Joan Hartzell

Overview

With over 80 years of combined experience in the mental health field, Mruk and Hartzell explore the role of spirituality and religion in treatment and provide a sound clinical and academic rationale for integrating principles of Zen and traditional psychotherapy. They offer help to clinicians, supervisors, and educators in understanding specific Zen principles that can hold significant therapeutic value, and how they are compatible with traditional, empirically oriented, scientifically based education and training, regardless of one's particular academic or disciplinary orientation.

The authors, one a clinical educator and social scientist, the other a nurse psychotherapist and practicing Buddhist, present a fascinating dialogue on the "science" and the "art" sides of the art-science debate. This allows their different points of view to come together in both academic and personal communication, offering practical suggestions for achieving a balance between these two views on the helping and healing process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826120335
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	804 KB

About the Author

Chris Mruk, PhD, was trained in general psychology at Michigan State University in 1971 and in clinical psychology at Duquesne University in 1981. His clinical background includes working in inpatient and outpatient mental health settings, supervising a methadone program in Detroit, working in emergency psychiatric services, directing a counseling center at St. Francis College in Pennsylvania, doing some private practice, and serving as a consulting psychologist to Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky, Ohio. He is licensed as a clinical psychologist in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Chris's academic experience includes some 20 years of teaching psychology and training mental health professionals. He is a professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University, Firelands College, Ohio, where he has won the college's Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Scholar awards. His publications include a number of academically oriented articles, several chapters and, coauthored with Joan Hartzell, Zen and Psychotherapy: Integrating Tradition and Nontraditional Approaches (2003, paperback 2006, Springer Publishing Company). Chris and his Wife Marsha, whose career involves directing large-scale mental health programs, live in Sandusky, Ohio.

Table of Contents

"Foreword

1. Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Therapies
2. The Basic Principles of Zen and Their Psychotherapeutic Implications
3. From Realism to Idealism: Traditional Therapies and Zen
4. Practical Applications: Zen in the Clinical Setting
5. Integrating Zen and Psychotherapy: Connections and Limits

Appendix I: Glossary
Appendix II: Zen Resources
References
Index"

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...gives us a detailed and instructive presentation of the different therapeutic approaches to mental illness....A few books have recently been published on Buddhism and psychotherapy. This particular one is clinically practical and at the same time quite rigorous and comprehensive. It often takes the form of a dialogue between the two authors, which makes it easy to follow and understand. It is a good addition to this specific topic."—Korean Buddhism