At one end of the spectrum of integration, meditation is used as a generalised 'stress therapy' (Selye,1978) and indeed a lot of early research into the therapeutic effects focussed upon relaxation response.(Benson,1975) Studies have found lasting effects from meditation: perceptual sharpening and decreased distractibility (Pelletier,1974:Van Nuys, 1971) autonomic stability and quickened recovery from stress arousal (Orme-Johnson,1973: Goleman & Schwarz,1976) and lowered general anxiety (Davidson,Goleman &Shwartz, 1976). Such findings suggest possibilities of using meditation in a prescriptive, piecemeal fashion. Early research work attempted, in deference to empiricism, to define meditation as a technique independent of it's cultural and/or religious content. Shapiro (1990),however, in a long paper reflecting upon his 21 yrs in meditation research, warns against:

"certain limitations to a context free study of meditation....ie, the risk that the technique may become an amoral technology to serve the culture's (often unexamined) goals and values...." (p.25)

At the other end of the integrated spectrum there is Core Process Psychotherapy, developed by Maura Sills at the Karuna Institute which:

"incorporates a wide range of concepts and skills that have been developed in the West, but the conceptual framework, the focus on awareness and presence in the work, derive from a Buddhist perspective..."  (Donnington 1988, in Rowan & Dryden1988,p.51)

Psychosynthesis (Assagioli,1965) is probably one of the best known and most established schools of psychotherapy which pay careful attention to transpersonal concerns and find an exalted position for it in the famous 'egg diagram' by which they model the self and it's constituents (Ferrucci, (1990).

Meditation appears, in some form or another in most Transpersonal psychotherapeutics. In A Textbook of transpersonal psychiatry and psychology, (Scotton,Chinen, & Battista,1996),the editors preface section 2 of the book with an introduction entitled "Meditation: Royal Road to the Transpersonal" In annexing Freud's description of dreams as the 'royal road to the unconscious', (Freud,1900) they illustrate their contention that meditation performs a similarly crucial role in accessing the transpersonal realm. In the same section, Kornfield, who is both a meditation teacher and a psychologist suggests that "Even the best meditators have old wounds to heal" (in an article with the same name) and indicates how a skillful combination of meditation and psychotherapy may be superior to either alone.

There is an ever growing bibliography concerning the subject of integrating meditation with the more traditional schools of counselling/psychotherapy. In Thoughts without a thinker , (Epstein,1996) offers an integration of psychodynamic practice with Theravadan Buddhism, in Zen Therapy (Brazier1995) presents an integration of person-centred practice with Zen and inPsychotherapy,Meditation & Health (Kwee,ed;1990) the integration is explored at an international conference from a cognitive-behavioural perspective. And Boorstein(1996) provides numerous illustrations of meditation in Transpersonal Psychotherapy. and in Clinical Studies in Transpersonal psychotherapy (1997) Despite his observation that: "meditations have generally salubrious effects"

he goes on to say that intense meditation may become problematic to people with less stable ego-boundaries, and altered perceptions of body sensations and mind states may become frightening to people who are borderline psychotic. Another potential pitfall of psychospiritual work is

" the tendency to retreat into a 'spiritual' space as a means of avoiding painful and difficult feelings" (Donnington,1988, in Rowan&Dryden 1988,p.65 )

Clearly, the judgement of the therapist - regarding the timing and kind of meditation to be used - is a crucial factor in this. It is clearly important that she has familiarity with the technique she and her client are working on. This familiarity is likely to have benefits over and above the effective presentation/teaching of a practice. Keefe(1975, p284) argues that:

"the practice of meditation should lead to a greater awareness of feelings, enhance interpersonal perceptions, and increased present-centredness."

These are all qualities cherished within the therapy community.

There is research evidence to show that meditation practice increases empathy in counsellors (Leesh,1970; Leung,1973) More recently (Sweet & Johnson, 1990) report on the use of 'Meditation Enhanced Empathy Training (MEET)', using Benjamin's(1974) structural analysis of social Behaviour (SASB). It - MEET - is found to aim at:

"an empathically friendly and autonomous stance toward self and other, and to be congruent with the objectives of contemporary psychotherapies"

Speeth(1982) suggests that meditation practice can be a highly effective form of attention training for a therapist. Both the 'narrowing down' - as in concentration practice - and the 'panoramic view' - as in awareness practice - are useful in therapy. She goes on to describe a 'higher' level of attention which she calls 'witness consciousness' which involves and awareness of the kind of attention being given (narrow/panoramic) as well as the object of attention (ie, client's behaviour, words and other co-related events) Freud's (1900) suggestion that the analyst should maintain an 'evenly hovering attention' between themselves and their patient is similar to this 'witness consciousness' stance. (Epstein,1996).

And, from his perspective of twenty five years of therapy supervison, Dubin (1991), describes how he uses meditation techniques in his supervision practice to challenge what he sees as the typical supervisees' preoccupation on 'what to do with a client, as contrasted with how to be with the client.

The therapy profession may have ambivalence about the integration of meditation into practice; some meditation teachers regard therapy as a serious distraction to the work of achieving enlightenment (Cohen,1994: Khemadhammo,1995) in that it encourages a preoccupation with the (illusory) self and it's story.

The last word in this section, before specifically exploring the transpersonal perspective, comes from Goleman, who best sums up this researcher's thinking on integration.

"Consciousnesss is the medium which carries the messages which compose experience. Psychotherapies are concerned with these messages and their meanings; meditation instead directs itself to the nature of the medium, consciousness. These two approaches are by no means mutually exclusive; rather, they are complementary. A therapy of the future may integrate techniques from both approaches, possibly producing a change in the whole person more thoroughgoing and more potent than either in isolation" (Goleman,1988)

Updated 16 June 99
by Martin Wilks