getting centred
therapy for Buddhist practioners and meditators at mindfulness for life
therapy for Buddhist practitioners and meditators
Your inspiration for meditation and contemplative practice comes from a deep place in you. It will be part of how you approach difficult life events, mental health challenges, and a path of personal growth and exploration.
It may be important to you to work with therapist who shares this inspiration and experience.
contemplative and mindfulness-based psychotherapy
Your experience and traditions of meditation, contemplative or Buddhist practice may be different than your therapist’s. There are so many paths in culturally diverse time and place. Our therapists draw on their own significant practice history, as well as specialized training in psychospiritual care at the university level – to meet you with openness, curiosity and flexibility.
work with a spiritual friend
- mindfulness practices
- compassion practices
- radical acceptance
- confrontations with impermanence and no-self
- challenging spiritual bypassing
- healing from spiritual harm and religious abuse
- keeping a big view while staying fully engaged in ordinary life
therapy for wisdom and compassion
Psychotherapy is not just about symptom relief. It can be about making a connection with your innate wisdom and natural compassion, to help you be more skillful in day to day life.
It’s not often easy or peaceful to try to be awake to ourselves and our world. You don’t have to try alone.
contemplative therapies will support: :
- inherent wisdom
- compassion for self and others
- radical acceptance
- warmth and loving-kindness
- present moment awareness
- somatic awareness
- softening towards pain
- accepting paradox and uncertainty
Buddhist therapists and therapists working with meditators at mindfulness for life
Oona: “My work as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist is grounded in my own personal practice. A practitioner of meditation since 1999, I am a graduate of a Buddhist seminary and meditation instructor training program.”
Bronwen: “My work is shaped by my long-term mindfulness practice and training in spiritual care and mindfulness support, which informs how I understand the path to healing.”
Leonora and Jessica are experienced meditators and practitioners offering low cost therapy through our affordable therapy program
contemplative therapy F.A.Q.
What does contemplative therapy cost? Is is covered by insurance?
Our therapists charge between $170-$200 for a 50-minute appointment. We also have an affordable therapy program, offering a reduced fee of $60 to those who would not be able to access therapy without this support.
Psychotherapy is not covered by OHIP, but is covered by most private insurance plans. You must check with your individual provider to find out the details of your coverage.
Where are you located? Do I have to come in person?
We have offices for in-person therapy appointments located in Downtown Kitchener, and Toronto in the Dundas West and Roncesvalles neighbourhood.
We can offer online therapy appointments to people anywhere in Ontario.
Many people find that meeting with their therapist in person allows them to experience greater focus and depth, but this is not true for everybody. Online therapy appointments can help you make time for yourself in ways you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
How long will I be in therapy?
The length of time you spend in therapy will be a collaborative decision with your therapist, and varies person to person. Let your therapist know what’s important to you about how long and how frequently you want to work together.
According to psychotherapy research, many people will find new perspectives and skills in the first 6-12 meetings that make a significant difference in their lives. When people are able to do long term therapy work over the course of a year or more, they can find they are able to experience a deeper and sustained process of change and personal growth.
What kinds of therapy integrate meditation and mindfulness?
Contemplative Psychotherapy is an approach that explicitly integrates Buddhist thought and practices with psychotherapy.
Beyond that, there is a long history of mindfulness-based psychotherapies that integrate world wisdom traditions and traditional Buddhist practices – these include MBCT and MBSR, DBT, ACT, CFT, and IFS. Many people also find that somatic psychotherapies inherently involve and strengthen mindfulness.
These integrations have usually been uncredited and removed from their cultural context – which in some ways has made these approaches more accessible to modern people, and more able to be assessed within evidence-based psychology practice. In other ways we can recognize the loss of meaningful ethical, cultural and spiritual contexts that human beings may need and long for.
There is room in therapy to talk about these missing pieces and what they mean to you.
What if I'm not a Buddhist?
We notice that a lot of people, including some of our therapists, find value in mindfulness and other Buddhist ideas without identifying as a Buddhist or having any interest in religious or spiritual beliefs.
Our therapists are open, flexible and have a sense of humour – you will find it easy to explore what you’re interested in without judgment.