I spent many years in traditional talk therapy earlier in my life. At the time, it was very helpful. However, when I later immersed myself deeply in meditation practice and long silent retreats, I began to notice that therapy had only addressed the tip of the iceberg. Through meditation, much more of my inner psychological world opened up to be met and processed — the considerably larger underwater part of the iceberg.
Meditation opened up a great deal, not only “spiritually,” but also on the level of psychological processes. Many things within me began to move. At the same time, I had to recognize that certain deeply rooted, life-limiting behavioral patterns, emotional reactions, and habitual ways of experiencing myself and the world did not change very much. I recognize what John Welwood describes in his book Toward a Psychology of Awakening: after a retreat, it could feel for a long time as though I were a different person than before. It was easy to stay balanced and open-hearted toward others. Yet sooner or later, a situation would arise that triggered old reactions and behavioral patterns — and they had not, in fact, diminished very much.
Thus, therapy-like psychological processing once again became an important part of my path. Particularly valuable has been therapy that includes meditative presence and embodied awareness, such as Core Process Therapy, which I myself offer. Entirely new depths of the iceberg have revealed themselves.
In the following, I will reflect more closely on the relationship between meditation and psychological processing: in what ways meditation can support psychological healing, and on the other hand, why it often is not sufficient on its own. It is, of course, important to remember that there are many kinds of meditation; I approach the topic from the perspective of my own experience. My background includes, among other things, the Insight meditation tradition and deep rest meditation.
Does meditation work like therapy?
Meditation can open up many things psychologically as well. We easily tend to avoid facing our difficult feelings. Often, we do not even notice how this drives us into constant doing or into seeking relief from something outside ourselves. In meditation, we relate to our experience in a different way. We notice the impulses to do something else, but we do not follow them. Gradually, we may begin to see more clearly what is happening within us and to meet even our difficult inner states. When we stop fighting against them, the experience often becomes easier.
Meditation can also gradually bring more material to the surface, to be seen and met. Especially body-based meditation practices may bring up past experiences — including difficult ones — that continue to live within us, often held in the body in one way or another. Meditation can also bring a sense of peace, well-being, and kindness toward oneself. This may make it easier to open to difficult inner states. We may dare to see aspects of ourselves that we would otherwise want to reject. Sometimes it can feel as though, when a deeper presence opens in meditation — along with the capacity to meet experience warmly and with acceptance — more material begins to arise from the inner world, as if “queuing up” to be met as well. If meditation opens up something good to rest into, it may also become easier to gradually let our various protective layers and survival strategies soften.
Why, then, is meditation not enough for everything? Welwood suggests that some of our strategies are such central, early-formed ways of surviving that they do not easily loosen their grip. At the same time, there may be much within us that does not even come up in meditation. Certain challenges, for instance, may appear only in relational situations. Or we may keep something about ourselves so thoroughly hidden from ourselves — for example, completely denying that we could ever feel anger — that it goes unnoticed even in meditation.
Meditation may also take us to a deeper level where the psychological processes are less active. It can be profoundly important to find an inner peace beneath everything difficult — in some way independent of it. On the other hand, the more psychological layers may then remain untouched. A similar question arises, as I understand it, in the much-studied field of psychedelic-assisted therapy, when determining a dose of a psychoactive substance appropriate to the intention of the session. With certain substances, a higher dose may lead to “spiritual realms” in which the sense of self fades, whereas a lower dose keeps the experience at a level where psychological processes can be explored.
What else may be needed?
In meditation, one does not always need to go that deep. At times, it may be fruitful to remain at the psychological level and observe what is happening there. Often in meditation practice, the mind is gently brought back to the present moment when we notice it wandering. We let go of wherever it was heading. The meditation teacher Martin Aylward has encouraged experimenting with a practice in which attention is instead directed toward what was pulling the mind away from this moment. What directions does my mind typically move toward? What was happening within me when the mind began to wander? This kind of inquiry can help us come into contact with our own psychological structures. Focusing — an approach that turns toward inner experience through bodily felt sense — is another way of staying at the level where psychological processes unfold and of reaching their core.
Challenges at the psychological level do not necessarily resolve just by seeing what is happening within us. In meditation, things are often lightly noticed and then let go of. At times, however, it may be helpful to give more sustained attention to something within us — to allow it to be seen more fully, to let something further unfold from it. In his book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, David Treleaven writes that when there is a traumatized part within us, it is important to gradually build a relationship with it, to interact with it. Focusing offers one way to bring in such attention and interaction with the inner world, and this kind of approach can also be integrated into meditation practice.
Our deepest wounds have often arisen in relationship — or from the lack of connection. In that case, the best conditions for healing may also be found in relationship, for example in therapy. Therapy can be a space for personal growth, even when life feels relatively easy, or for example when meditation brings something to the surface that is not easy to face alone. It may be easier to explore the inner world together. Something within us may need to be shared — to be witnessed and reflected by another. Often, we have also been left needing the co-regulation offered by another’s calm presence in difficult experiences — perhaps even those from early life. Gradually, we may develop our capacity to be present for ourselves, or to feel supported by a more expansive sense of presence in meditation. Yet many parts of our inner world may still be easier to engage with when another is present with us.
Instead of meditating in stillness, it can sometimes be helfpul to allow space for movement and expression. It can be easier to remain present in movement, and movement may help something within us begin to move. It may also be important to create space to become more visible and to dare to express oneself and one’s feelings. Stillness is an essential support for meditation, yet in the body-mind it may also become associated with self-control or with freezing — one of the nervous system’s ways of responding to challenging experiences.
Closing thoughts
Meditation can be deeply helpful, but it is not always sufficient on its own. Meditation or long retreats are also not necessarily the right path for everyone. Nor are they always the right direction at every stage, even for those who have found them valuable at times. Sometimes a different kind of approach may support us far more.
Although I have reflected here on meditation from the perspective of psychological healing, it is important to remember that meditation is also a path toward something beyond that. A spiritual path may continue to call us, even when our wounds have largely healed. It may offer a deeper freedom, a possibility of experiencing ourselves as less separate, and space for a naturally flowing care for others. Perhaps, as psychological wounds gradually heal, more space also opens for walking such a path.
References:
Treleaven, David A. (2018): Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company.
Welwood, John (2000): Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications.
Also, take a look at my other writings that explore the threshold between the spiritual and the psychological:
Spiritual dimension is also welcome in therapy
Spirituality without bypassing our humanity