Contemplative Therapy

Masters of Clinical Mental Health - focus on Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology

With a master's degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy, I specialize in using mindfulness and present-moment awareness to help you explore your thoughts and emotions with compassion. This approach allows us to uncover patterns and beliefs that may be holding you back, creating space for deeper understanding and healing. By fostering a connection with your inner self, we can work together to find clarity and cultivate personal growth.

I had the privilege of engaging in a 3 year intensive study with a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village Buddhist tradition. This deeply informs the way I think about how the mind works and the art of healing and transformation with clients. Where appropriate, I offer teachings and practices that I have learned, in conjunction with traditional Western modalities. I also invite the integration of clients' own spiritual practice(s) into their healing work.

Jodi is a graduate of Naropa's Contemplative Psychotherapy Graduate Program. Naropa University’s concentration in Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology master's degree is a counseling program that grounds itself in the Buddhist contemplative wisdom tradition and includes current humanistic psychological approaches to give insight and skills to show up fully for one's self and others.

Buddhism + psychology is an incredibly powerful combination for personal growth. Buddhism provides the analogy and wisdoms for living a life free from suffering — we are lotuses that transform the murky mud of our world and its challenges into nutrients for growth — psychology provides insight and guidance into the process of human development and offer tools for change. Up for the challenge? I will dive deep with you to tackle the most fundamental questions about life and who we are.

I completed my master's degree in contemplative psychotherapy (now titled Buddhist Psychology) at Naropa University. This included a great deal of study beyond traditional therapy programs to learn Buddhist philosophy and practice meditation and mindfulness techniques. We embodied these practices beyond just intellectual understanding by undertaking two-week-long meditation retreats every semester, during which we would implement what we were learning to better understand it within ourselves.

Contemplative practices include contemplation, meditation, and yoga, and are usually part of a larger worldview and way of life, optimizing well-being. These practices offer psychological and psychosomatic benefits. Through contemplative therapy, we can train and develop the mind, resulting in enhanced mental capacities, well-being, and maturity. This training therapy can heighten calm, concentration, insight, and joy.

With a master's degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy, I specialize in using mindfulness and present-moment awareness to help you explore your thoughts and emotions with compassion. This approach allows us to uncover patterns and beliefs that may be holding you back, creating space for deeper understanding and healing. By fostering a connection with your inner self, we can work together to find clarity and cultivate personal growth.

Contemplative psychotherapy is a frame based on integrating the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition with modern psychology. We use our own meditation practice as a foundation for our work with clients. We emphasize the present moment experience and each client's 'brilliant sanity'- their inherent mental and emotional well-being, and strive to help clients recognize this quality in themselves.

I received my Master's Degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. I believe in the power of presence, which we can access through meditation and mindfulness. Contemplative Therapy embodies these principles; by staying with our present experience we are able to understand our patterns and behaviors that no longer serve us, and then work towards change.

Contemplative therapy promotes qualities of mindfulness and compassion in order to help clients access their fundamental goodness and natural wisdom.

"Contemplative psychotherapy, a branch of therapy integrating Eastern Buddhist philosophy and practice with the clinical traditions of modern Western psychology, is rooted in the belief that all people are granted the internal wisdom necessary to heal from pain." For more information follow the below url: https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/contemplative-psychotherapy

Compassion Based Resilience Training (CBRT)

My focus is on the person and their narrative, and the work is based on contemplative, humanistic, and experiential principles. It includes looking at emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and memories while cultivating heightened mindfulness throughout the process. This is the path to connecting one’s response (mind, body, spirit, emotion) to experience, and bringing them to a fuller understanding and integration. This may ease some suffering.

As I am animated by the contemplative traditions, my intention for you is no less than that you learn to live in an abiding awareness of your own preciousness.

Just as the breath calms the body, meditation calms the mind. Meditation has physical, emotional, mental and spiritual benefits. Elizabeth guides her clients in different styles of meditating to determine which form is most effective in giving them the deepest sense of wellbeing, maintain equanimity and handle difficult situations. Meditation has been proven to change the brain in ways that correlate with less stress and depression, less pain and anxiety, and a stronger immune system.

My graduate school training was at Naropa University in the Contemplative Psychotherapy program. The premises of Contemplative Therapy is a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies and practices, like mindfulness and meditation, self-compassion, and compassion for others. It encourages clients to connect with their present experience without judgement therefore promoting a sense of peace and clarity. It is a holistic approach the emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of well-being.

I am a trained spiritual director, and I have been formed in both the Christian and Buddhist contemplative traditions.