Love in Buddhism & Psychotherapy: A Contemplative & Clinical Exploration with Dr. Pilar Jennings

Love in Buddhism & Psychotherapy: A Contemplative & Clinical Exploration with Dr. Pilar Jennings

This four-part in-person course will explore the teachings on love offered in Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapy. While both traditions emphasize the role of compassion and insight, love is central to the healing potential offered in either tradition. Together we will explore the original teachings of Buddhist psychology that encourage active engagement with love that is more readily accessed, and psychotherapeutic theories that underscore our developmental and life-long need to both generate and receive love in all forms.
All are welcome.

November 15 – Class #1: Lovingkindness toward self and other. In this first course, we’ll explore one of the Four Immeasurables that offers a powerful way to cultivate and sustain love for oneself, for intimate friends, family, and mentors, and even for those with whom personal relationship has not developed. We will examine how lovingkindness is fueled by compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

December 13 – Class #2: 11 Step Method for Love & Compassion. In this second course, we will explore the foundational teachings of the great 4th century teacher Arya Asanga, and the great 8th century teacher Shantideva, that came together in an 11-step roadmap for developing lovingkindness in relationships of all kinds.

January 24 – Class #3: Love & the Psyche. In this third course, we will explore a psychotherapeutic and developmental understanding of love across the life-cycle. Themes will include early childhood experiences of love in primary attachment relationships, and the ensuing beliefs about love that are often enacted in adult relationships.

February 28 – Class #4: Love in the Clinical Space. In this fourth course, we’ll explore how love is expressed and worked with in psychotherapy, both for the therapist and client. Themes will include the emergence of dependency needs that awaken longing for love, and the struggle to expose this longing with trust that these needs can be responded to with care, appropriate boundaries, and receptivity.