A Mutual Critical Correlation of Buddhist Meditation and Trauma Therapy by John B Freese

This dissertation is a Buddhist practical theological work that mutually critically correlates theory and practice from Buddhist meditation and from trauma therapy. The scholarly dialogue between Buddhism and trauma therapy in the U.S. has mainly been between proponents of the Western Vipassana Movement (WVM) and trauma therapy scholar practitioners from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and interpersonal neurobiology. The WVM is made up of the teachers of the Insight Medication Society (IMS), Spirit Rock meditation center, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, and Mindful Self Compassion. The trauma therapy scholar practitioners have included both a mainstream tradition of trauma therapy with clinicians such as John Briere and Catherine Scott and a somatic trauma therapy sub-branch with clinicians such as Dan Siegel and Peter Levine. The focus of the dialogue has mainly been how WVM insight meditation (vipassana meditation) can be used by therapists and their clients to deal with trauma, and how the WVM can integrate principles of somatic trauma therapy into its vipassana meditation teachings. Thus, it has focused on empowering Buddhist-informed trauma therapists and trauma-therapy-informed WVM teachers. 

The dialogue has left out the theory and practice of Goekna Vipassana (GV) despite, as this dissertation will demonstrate, significant apparent correlation between GV theory and practice and Somatic Experiencing (SE) theory and practice. The dialogue has also left out the Yogacara Buddhist psychology taught by Thich Nhat Hanh to his monastic and lay ministers in the Order of Interbeing despite apparent significant correlation between OI Yogacra psychology and body-centered relational depth psychology. The dialogue has also not sought to empower Buddhist ministers to develop Buddhist theory and practice to recognize and respond to trauma on behalf of Buddhist ministers. 

This dissertation uses a theoretical framework that distinguishes between an early Buddhist yogic mode of knowledge production, a later Buddhist scholastic mode of knowledge production, and a modern scientific scholastic mode of knowledge production to mutually critically correlate a) theory and practice from early Buddhist teachings on the four establishments of mindfulness, b) later Buddhist scholastic teachings on the four establishments of mindfulness and on Yogacara psychology, and c) modern scientific scholastic theory and practice on trauma therapy. It demonstrates that early Buddhist teachings on the four establishments of mindfulness contextualized within the teachings on the links of dependent origination can be combined with later Yogacara teachings on the eight consciousnesses to create a relational Buddhist psychology that includes a somatic trauma counseling technique. It argues that such an integrated theory and practice is in keeping with a best practice in trauma therapy that calls for a relational psychology combined with a somatic trauma therapy technique. 

Core texts from GV and SE theory and practice are mutually critically correlated to develop a Buddhist approach to somatic trauma counseling. Phenomenological interviews of six OI psychotherapists are analyzed to develop a Buddhist body-centered and relational approach to trauma counseling. These two Buddhist approaches are combined in a prototypical model of Buddhist counseling that uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a contemplative matrix for the application of Buddhist theory and practice on trauma counseling