In this presentation, Franklyn Sills will give an overview of the role of presence, or sati (mindfulness) in Pali (the language of many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures) in relationship to the nature of being, early experience and attachment issues, the origins and generation of selfhood and the nature of healing the wounded self. He will also contextualise this in more traditional psychodynamic and analytical understandings of the importance of the therapist's presence and holding field.

This seminar will offer an opportunity to share experiences of 'work in progress' with patients who might benefit from presence-centred psychotherapy. We will start with mindfulness practice and then I will present an example of work with a severely depressed patient, who is learning to create and nourish a space which is not dominated by her depressive mental constructs. Please bring cases to discuss in the confidential mindful space of the seminar.

Jon Kabat Zinn's Eight Week Mindfulness Course for anxiety, depression and physical pain has taken both the NHS and the private sector by storm over the last five years. NICE has recognised mindfulness based cognitive therapy as a treatment of choice for depression and one in three GP's in England now have access to the course. This workshop gives a taster of the course, emphasising its key skills, mindfulness, compassion and loving kindness, and how these may be taught to groups who, initially at least, have no explicit interest in Buddhism.

I will demonstrate a mindful approach to being present in the moment-to-moment interaction with the client. This method pays attention to the immediate moment via the concept of ‘choiceless awareness’. We will explore the capacity for remaining comfortably present to the other human being, meditating on your client, and maintaining the ability to remain present during more challenging moments. I will introduce the concept of responding, not reacting to your client’s behaviour, offering a pure, nonreactive communication. We will consider how to receive communications with an empathic yet neutral response, thus encouraging communication and, eventually, moving beyond the initial client-chosen focus.

In 1958 C.G. Jung and one of the most important post war Zen masters, Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, met at Jung's home in Switzerland to discuss psychoanalysis and Buddhism. During their conversation they explored the nature of ultimate reality, suffering and the self - all topics still central to our Buddhist-Psychoanalytic dialogue. However, towards the end of their conversation Jung says something so un-Jungian that his guests can not quite believe their ears - can we, now just over half a century later, believe ours?

Presence is centred, not static; it is fluid, rhythmical and elusive. A differentiated awareness of the body¹s structure bone, muscle, skin, fluids, sense organs and vital organs can help us develop presence. Each body system contributes its own qualities of spatial awareness, focus and intentionality, responsiveness, rhythmicity, and an antenna-like capacity to resonate with the client. In this workshop we will go on an experiential journey, paying attention to the dynamic resources in each body system, to develop a full-spectrum awareness.

In this presentation, Franklyn will look at some of the basic neurobiology of presence and trauma, and why a return to present-time awareness helps heal traumatisation and the cycling of the wounded self. He will look at how traditional Buddhist mindfulness practices helps down-regulate the stress response, allows a resent-time inquiry into the nature of suffering and a return to the possibility of present-time inquiry into meaning, context and the self-system. He will also explore the neurobiology of the mindfulness of sensation and feeling tone, and how it helps down-regulate traumatic cycling and states of anxiety and depression.

PDF brochure of full programme.