May Mindfulness on the Mountain

Meditating and Relating: You, Me, Us, and Our Parts 

Over the course of fifty years of training and practice as a psychotherapist, meditator, and meditation teacher, I’ve watched the previously separate worlds of psychotherapy and meditation increasingly come into conversation with one another.

In this retreat I will teach from two best-selling books I’ve often recommended to psychotherapy clients:

            Richard C. Schwartz, No Bad Parts — for intrapersonal exploration

            Terrence Real, Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship — for interpersonal exploration

Both Dick Schwartz and Terry Real are meditators, and while the emphasis in their writings is explicitly on intra- and inter-personal relating, I want to tease out how their teachings on can be enhanced by the practice of meditation.

No prior experience, either in psychotherapy or meditation is required. Only the willingness to take what the late Father William McNamara, called “a long, loving look at the real.”

As is our custom for these Mindfulness on the Mountain weekend retreats, I’ll be joined by Ryan Black, who will lead our Qigong mindful movement, and Kenneth Robinson, who will lead our devotional chanting of kirtan.

Gordon Peerman is an Episcopal priest, psychotherapist, and mindfulness meditation teacher. He is the author of “Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists about Suffering,” and his most recent book, “The Body Knows the Way: Coming Home through the Dark Night.” He leads retreats and workshops at the intersection of contemplative practice and psychological growth. With his late wife Kathy Woods, he led interspiritual gatherings through One River Wisdom School and taught mindfulness practices at Vanderbilt’s Osher Center for Integrative Health. At Vanderbilt Divinity School, he taught courses in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue and Pastoral Theology. He leads meditation retreats at St. Mary’s Sewanee.