I’m not sure how it works for others, but for me, being and feeling a part of a community of like-minded therapists on a journey of experiential learning and good fellowship is an important thing. I am referring to the mindfulness meditation group that I meet with the second Friday evening of every month. Therapists in other cities maybe doing similarly already – they call it ‘convergent evolution’ – but, if they aren’t already, I put it out there as something to consider.

Here’s how it’s been looking so far these first few months. Each in our group of ten take a turn hosting.  The host mcees the evening and introduces whatever suggestions for ritual they’d like to put in place. After a number of meetings now we’ve adopted a basic structure for how we like to do the evening. We begin with meditation for fifteen-twenty minutes.  Always so nice after a busy week, I have to say. We then breath into a ‘mindful sharing of the moment’ check-in, that is surely guided by the spontaneous impression, perhaps gestalt, of the moment that emerges. Being therapists it is not hard to imagine that there is a level of open and natural sharing of ‘what’s up’.   Most of us can’t but help ourselves here. We meditate a second time for twenty minutes. Share ‘mindfully’ a second time, this time usually with a guiding theme, question or consideration. We then meditate a third time before we smile a deep inner satisfaction, and move into the closing of the evening – the mindful ‘breaking of a little bread’, potluck style. This past group we ate in mindful silence!

As far as the background of how we came together and why therapists all over might do the same, there are a few things to mention. First, there was desire to come together as therapists to pursue a group practice of mindfulness and meditation. In the group there are varying personal histories with mindfulness, meditation and/or Eastern thought and each wants to explore a deepening personal practice. There is a clear sense of the benefits of bringing mindfulness into the therapeutic space. So it is a little that on those Fridays we come together to practice what we we preach. But, on this note there is perhaps another instrumental and more profound reason why we are drawn together to discover the experience of mindfulness. Ten years ago, mindfulness meditation was hardly what it is now.   In that time, more and more are undertaking lifestyle shifts towards the mindful. Those who are mindful begin to understand the power to slow the frenetic and noisy mind. Those who undertake mindfulness together, as in our mindfulness meditation group for therapists, contribute to a new culture of living and sharing the being more aware together.

 

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA