The integrated heart of cultural and mindfulness meditation practice in existential phenomenology and humanistic psychotherapy.

Abstract

At this time, it does not appear that existential phenomenology and humanistic psychology (PHP) have formed inclusive, process-oriented frameworks that reference the sociocultural and contextual significations embedded in the flow of everyday human experience. And yet apart from the welcome variety of psychotherapy approaches comprising PHP, the founding existential phenomenological and humanistic thinkers had already addressed cultural issues in their writings. In addition, these same founding thinkers had already developed mindfulness meditation perspectives well ahead of the mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral therapy third wave. This article considers the link between PHP's emphasis on attuned mindfulness and meditative sociocultural awareness as part of an emerging mindful and multicultural humanistic-existential psychotherapy (MMHEP) approach. MMHEP fluidly supports both mindfulness and meditative attunement to clients' culture-near or context-near experiences as part of an experience-near attentiveness to the groundless ground of experience. By reuniting the landscape of "inward" possibilities for bare and present moment mindfulness with the meditative awareness of "outer" sociocultural realms, a client may integratively connect with a greater sense of wholeness as a sociocultural-being-in-the-world.

Transformative Learning and Well-Being for Emerging Adults in Higher Education

“…She cited “a growing intersection of their theories and practices” (p. 211) despite “distrust of the contemplative and subjective in cognocentric and rationalist approaches to education” (p. 212). Felder and Robbins (2016) referred to “the heart -centered art of the attunement process” (p. 122) as a way of characterizing this more unified conception of how ontology and epistemology are related in human experience and require this convergence of mindfulness and CT for a more comprehensive understanding of self-other-world relations.…”

Approaching mindful multicultural case formulation: Rogers, Yalom, and existential phenomenology

“…'Mindfulness can be viewed as inherently phenomenological, in part because of its emphasis on nonjudgmental presence to the phenomenon of experience' (Felder & Robbins, 2016, p. 116). Specifically, phenomenological mindfulness is informed by Husserl's (1913Husserl's ( /1998 bracketing (epoché) of biases or judgments so that the present moment immediacy of the things themselves can be experienced in the stream of 'pure' awareness (Brown & Cordon, 2009: Felder et al, 2014Felder & Robbins, 2016;Hanna et al, 2017;Husserl, 1913Husserl, /1998. From the perspective of Martin Heidegger, a 'mindfulness of being' (Yalom, 1980, p. 31) occurs through a noninterfering phenomenological effort 'to let that which shows itself be seen from itself in the very way in which it shows itself from itself' (Adams, 1995;Heidegger, 1927Heidegger, /1962.…”

“…From the perspective of Martin Heidegger, a 'mindfulness of being' (Yalom, 1980, p. 31) occurs through a noninterfering phenomenological effort 'to let that which shows itself be seen from itself in the very way in which it shows itself from itself' (Adams, 1995;Heidegger, 1927Heidegger, /1962. This mindfulness of being's spontaneous unfolding can also be followed by a meditative hermeneutic disclosure of situated being and its meanings (Felder et al, 2014;Felder & Robbins, 2016;Heidegger, 1959Heidegger, /1966Nanda, 2010). From a third phenomenological perspective, Merleau-Ponty (1945/1968) placed emphasis on the direct and nonjudgmental perceptions that range across the body's world-bound senses (Felder et al, 2014;Felder & Robbins, 2016).…”

“…Carl Rogers As the contemporary voices of protest opposing racial, gendered, and socially charged violence, inequality, and inequity in the U.S. grow, the Western and Humanistic Existential Psychotherapy's (HEP) aspiration to begin developing and integrating a multicultural approach that addresses mindful and meditatively grounded case formulation remains vital (Felder & Robbins, 2016;Masuda, 2014). Attending to the impacts of discrimination and race-based stressors is an important part of multiculturally attuned psychotherapy (Comas-Díaz et al, 2019;Lago, 2011).…”

“…Notably, Person-Centered Therapy (PCT) and existential phenomenology have, in combination, maintained that the cultural landscapes or interconnected world horizons of context and culture are inseparable from lived experience. From a non-Eastern perspective, the nonjudgmental and presence-centered 1 emphases of PCT and existential phenomenology can be viewed as inherently suited for mindful meditative attunement to socioculturally diverse clients (Felder & Robbins, 2016).…”