About the Low-Res MTC Program
What Makes it Unique?
Here & Now Focus
This concentration is designed for individuals who want an overall orientation to the field of counseling from a transpersonal and humanistic orientation. The program emphasizes experiential learning with a strong focus on presence in the here and now. This focal point of study is grounded in the counseling relationship, meditation practice, and Gestalt principles. Theory is integrated in classes that emphasize direct learning through personal growth and the guided development of interpersonal skills. A nonviolent approach to communication is part of our fundamental approach.
Developing Personal & Professional Identity
Students are encouraged to develop a therapeutic approach which matches each individual’s interests, abilities and talents. Learning to “know thyself” is a tenet of the field of transpersonal psychology. Students are encouraged to listen within to discover the unique gift each has to offer others. Feedback from faculty and peers in the program enhances the growth and personal discovery that students experience in the program.
Understanding the Roots of Suffering
A strong understanding of the root causes of human suffering is explored through multiple lenses that include meditation, human development, family systems, body awareness and the interactive field of healing relationships. Students learn to sit with whatever arises as they are exposed to a broad spectrum of problems, emotions and situations that may be encountered in actual counseling settings. Learning to trust the process of compassionate healing develops from receiving and giving compassionate presence in practice throughout the program.
Diversity & Intimate Learning Environment
A selective admissions process admits up to 36 students into each cohort of the Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling program . Each semester of study involves concentrated learning experiences with small groups. These classes, of no more than ten to twelve students, provide yearlong experiences of working intimately with peers.
Mindfulness in Psychotherapy
Students in this concentration take seven credits of meditation instruction as part of their required course load. These courses integrate the contemplative qualities developed through meditation with the practice of counseling. Focus is on the development of the therapist and the compassionate field created with the client. An understanding of the essential principles of meditation and how meditation supports the counseling relationship is explored in depth.
Gestalt Awareness Practice
An understanding of Gestalt therapy is developed and practiced in two consecutive courses during the second year of the clinical sequence. Gestalt emphasizes the principles of awareness, contact and responsibility. It is rooted in the disciplines of existential and eastern philosophy and psychodynamic, perceptual and body psychologies. Balancing the inward focus of meditation, Gestalt offers an interpersonal awareness practice that emphasizes personal presence within the I-Thou relationship. Gestalt works directly with the emotions of fear, grief, anger, and joy and is applicable in diverse settings and with other methodologies.
- Gestalt I: Awareness
- Gestalt II: Experiment
Contemplative Approaches
Contemplative studies are designed to increase mindfulness and the awareness of the practitioner. A number of courses in this area are offered including:
- Psychology of Meditation
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- Extending Mindfulness: Cultivating Resilient Presence
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- The Mindful Counselor: Applying Mindfulness in the Therapeutic Context
Transpersonal Approaches
Explore various approaches to Transpersonal Psychotherapy and the evolution of the field.
- Transpersonal Psychology
- Advanced Topics in Transpersonal Psychology
Connect
with your counselor
Matt Powers
Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions
The Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling concentration supports Naropa University’s mission by training students to become master’s level graduates of Clinical Mental Health Counseling and licensed professional counselors.
Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling recognizes and integrates the insights, attitudes, and practices of world wisdom traditions with modern psychological approaches. This integration provides the context for training students within the program, and it offers a context and a variety of techniques for the practice of professional counseling following the program. The program seeks to provide training that is grounded in rigorous academic work, a blend of critical thinking and contemplation, and skillful application of effective clinical skills, and it seeks to integrate this training with the practice of moment-to-moment awareness and present-centeredness.?
