Meditation and Psychotherapy*

Abstract

Meditation has been increasingly recommended as a practice with potential psychotherapeutic benefit. This paper provides a description of meditative practice and discusses selected issues related to the conceptual and technical integration of meditation with modern psychotherapeutic interventions. Evidence suggests that meditation may contribute to psychotherapeutic change and that the disciplines from which meditation arises are in some respects similar to modern psychological formulations, and in other respects are complimentary. It is hoped that improved understanding of meditation will contribute to an increased acceptance and use of these practices as aids to psychotherapeutic change and will facilitate meaningful research regarding meditation.