Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (part 2)

The second phase of AMI"s mindfulness based cognitive psychotherapy is the development of mental clarity and healthy behavior. Aristotle once said, "Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."

This second stage is a deliberate and liberating process of examining the client"s major behavioral patterns and then asking, "Will this behavior pattern produce happiness, neutrality, or sorrow in my life?" Since all human behavior begins as thought and/or emotion, if a behavior is unhealthy it undoubtedly has unhealthy thoughts and emotions underneath it. For all the behavioral patterns that produce sorrow, the thoughts and emotions underlying those behaviors is sought out and analyzed. AMI"s psychology in Denver uses mindfulness meditation and a deep consideration of personal ethics to help the client cultivate healthier thoughts and emotions. At this point, mindfulness and psychotherapy again come together in that the client"s new and healthier thoughts and emotions will now yield healthier behaviors. The effect of these healthier behaviors now begins to create a distinct mind state characterized by an increased sense of stability, calm, balance, peace, and happiness.

The final phase of AMI"s mindfulness based cognitive psychotherapy is the cultivation of penetrative insight. As Caitriona Reed said, “It is by the patience you call forth by returning your awareness to this very moment that you enliven your life, not by your aspiration to gain or attain. By coming home to this still center of awareness the way is made clear.” Based on the foundation of mindful awareness and upon the psychological effects of increased positive behavior and decreased negative behavior, the client has now eliminated much of the confusion, emotional overwhelm, insecurity, and disorientation that had plagued him or her. Because these afflicted mental states have been lessened, the client has automatically increased their mental awareness, clarity, and insight. With these increases in awareness, clarity, and insight the client is now capable of making profound changes in his or her life. The client is now capable of working with their own mind.

Moreover, using AMI"s techniques for cultivating equanimity, compassion, and kindness, the phase three client is now capable of nothing less than emotional alchemy; in essence, the client can now frequently and increasingly transform wrath into patience, depression into satisfaction, greed into generosity, grief into meaning, and pride into humility. These transformations simply add to the client"s already increased sense of awareness, clarity, and insight. This is what creates such positive results from psychotherapy Denver, and this does not necessarily require long term psychotherapy. As the client continues to foster and reinforce these new and healthier mental patterns (which only lead to increasingly positive words and behaviors) their sense of mental stability, balance, peace, and happiness continues to grow ever stronger. The experience of psychotherapy Denver now grows even deeper. Often, at this point, couples or a family therapy process can be added to deepen the effect.