Origins

Tara Rokpa Psychotherapy¹ brings together Buddhist understandings of the human mind with relevant Western discourses coming from several disciplines, especially Constructivist and Systemic Psychotherapy, for the purposes of relieving mental suffering and fostering well-being. As the growing popularity of mindfulness-based² and compassion-based³ approaches demonstrates, many health care professionals and others are progressively showing an interest in Eastern ways of working with the mind⁴. These are more and more recognised in the health sciences as being relevant in helping people to overcome what they see as problems in their lives, as well as for a range of clinically defined conditions. 

The founder of Tara Rokpa, Akong Rinpoche, came to the west in the 60's from Tibet already trained as a doctor of Tibetan Medicine and meditation teacher in his own country. From the beginning he emphasized the importance of both the significance of cultural milieu and the need to proceed cautiously in applying Eastern based practices to western contexts. Early on he identified lack of compassion for self and others as a primary cause for mental suffering. This is consistent with current research into compassion-based approaches within psychology⁵. An emphasis on developing compassion for ourselves and others has been held at the core of the Tara Rokpa approach from its earliest beginnings. The core of the work is summarised by Akong Rinpoche as compassion through understanding.

In response to many requests, especially from psychotherapists and other health care professionals, in 1980 Akong Rinpoche began to work with a number of people to share his knowledge. This began a collaborative process which has integrated the feedback and results of early experimental workshops. This collaboration developed into a method of psychotherapy.

Reworking of the Tara Rokpa training has aimed to explicate the work more fully through attempting to distill the key areas, in collaboration with Professor Millar Mair⁶ from Strathclyde University, Glasgow. In doing so we have framed regions of enquiry which we feel are fertile ground for those who wish to pursue the venture of training as a psychotherapist within our method. We have, for this purpose, named 6 areas of exploration, three of which are strongly influenced by Western thinking and practice and three which we propose are richly relevant to the venture of psychotherapy and are substantially informed by Buddhist contemplation and practice. These areas which we have called ports are named as Enquiry and Science, Ethics and Values, Politics and the Power of Social Context, Awareness, Compassion through Understanding and the Innate Perfection of the Human Mind⁷. These are conceived of as areas of individual and social enquiry worth visiting and exploring. They have been chosen carefully but are hardly exhaustive or even fully-inclusive of the journeys which people might choose to take in engaging with this work. These areas are chosen as special topics of particular relevance to training psychotherapists and to reflect the work of integration of Eastern and Western approaches to mind. They are also seen as relevant irrespective of whether one approaches as a client, a fully trained psychotherapist or a human being on a unique path of becoming. They are not to be seen as solid entities or categories, but rather as rich areas for exploration and discovery both within ourselves and with others. Journeying to and between these ports encourages a measure of personal reflexivity and readiness to face whatever life may bring, which gives a sound basis for working with others.