Course Description

This seminar will focus on the skill and use of cultivating and strengthening the capacity to observe one’s inner process in psychotherapeutic work. It will focus on Buddhist Psychological roots of this process, while also covering Psychoanalytic, Jungian, and Somatic Psychotherapy (Hakomi) theories. A basic understanding of the principles of Buddhist Psychology will be discussed. The importance and function of the inner witness will be traced through the three main schools of Buddhism- Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana- with a specific focus on the Mahayana concept of Bodhicitta. The clinical benefit of building a strong inner witness will be discussed, specifically as it relates to transference, countertransference, affect tolerance, mirroring, empathetic listening, the transcendent function, memory reconsolidation, and the creation of new neural pathways.

Learning Objectives

Identify three schools of Western Psychology with three distinct nomenclatures for the inner witness.
Describe the clinical significance of cultivating an inner witness as it relates to at least one psychotherapeutic phenomenon within the therapeutic relationship.
Articulate three experiential techniques that can be used to cultivate an inner witness.
Conceptualize an experiential technique for oneself, in order to cultivate and strengthen the inner witness.

The Aion Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The Aion Institute (AIO279) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

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AION 414 Buddhist Psychology and the Inner Witness