Which tool to use and when: psychotherapy or spiritual practice?

In this conversation with Integral psychotherapist Mark Forman we explore the differences between psychotherapy and spiritual practice and the specific contexts when each of these methods is most appropriate. For example your meditation practice may bring up psychological issues that your meditation teacher will likely be unqualified to help you with and you would get more effective help from a psychotherapist. If you are having transpersonal experiences with meditation or psychedelics then a psychotherapist may not have the relevant skills to unpack them. Unfortunately many spiritual traditions and teachers claim that meditation and psychedelics are the complete answer to everything in your life, and lots of ‘spiritual’ people wreck their personal and family lives by neglecting psychotherapy. On the other hand if you only explore psychotherapy then it’s likely you will never tap into the depths of experiences beyond your personality that are brought forth by spiritual practices.  For more information on Mark Forman’s work please visit http://www.drmarkforman.com/ For more information about my work please visit www.bodyheartmindspirit.co.uk To hear more of my music please visit my soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/ralphcree My YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfQp5jM16pPB7QX2zmMYbQ My Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/bodyheartmindspirituk/ P and C owned by Ralph Cree 2021

Om Podcasten

Spiritual practice, like everything else in life, is evolving. What does this mean? By ‘Spiritual Practice’ I mean any activity that expands your sense of identity, for example meditation, contemplative philosophy, prayer, yoga, martial arts, psychedelics, transpersonal psychotherapy, fasting, visualisation, lucid dreaming, conscious parenting, forgiveness and much more. By ‘Evolving’ I mean that everything develops and adapts over time. Most of the spiritual traditions that have spawned these transformational practices emerged hundreds and often thousands of years ago in the pre-modern era. Modernity (rationality and science) and post-modernity (cultural diversity and the information age) are hugely influential historical periods that have happened since then, and I believe that contemporary spiritual practice needs to integrate the insights of these two worldviews as well as the premodern in order to keep being relevant and adaptive in a changing world.