Online Zoom Forum: Zen and Buddhist Therapy: Towards Healing and Psychological Well-being.
Date: Wednesday 15 July 2026.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 15 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Chanan Tej:
Bio: Chanan Tej is a Buddhist psychotherapist, community herbalist, and yoga teacher, dedicated to the harmonious integration of healing, nature, and spirituality. With over a decade of experience, she skilfully weaves together psychotherapy, yoga, sacred sound, and a profound respect for the natural world.
Her holistic approach emphasises the inseparable connection between spiritual and ecological well-being. Residing on a small farm, Chanan nurtures her bond with the land through practices such as foraging, plant medicine making, forest bathing, and nature resonance. These daily experiences continually enrich her understanding of the spiritual and ethical dimensions of our relationships with ourselves, our communities, and the Earth.
Speakers:
Hakuün Roshi, lay name David Brazier, MA, PhD:
Title: Samadhi, Healing or Awakening.
Description: This talk invites an exploration of how we think about the vicissitudes of life and relates this to the functions that meditation has played in the life and history of Buddhism from abhidharma through to zen. It touches on the increasing medicalisation of how we regard our mental states, on different attitudes to karma and the cleansing of the mind and on the reception of the Dharma in the West in the difficult conditions of the contemporary world.
Bio: Hakuün Roshi, lay name David Brazier, MA, PhD, is a Buddhist monk and lineage holder in the Soto Zen line of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He is an author with fifteen books on Buddhism, psychology and poetry, lead tutor of a two year on-line Buddhist psychology training, <buddhistpsychology.ning.com> and creator of a Dharma Entrustment Programme for serious practitioners. When not travelling internationally he resides in a small private temple in central France.
Mo Bankey:
Title: Brilliant Sanity, Impermanence, and Possibility in Buddhism-Informed Therapy.
Description: This talk explores what is possible when the inherent wisdom of clients is centered in the therapeutic frame. Brilliant Sanity recognizes the inherent clarity, openness, and compassion within human experience. Remembering buddha-nature in the form of Brilliant Sanity opens client and therapist heart-minds to the possibility of insight and wakeful action even in the midst of confusion and suffering.
Bio: Mo Bankey (they/them) is Assistant Professor and Chair of Naropa University's Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling program where they teach Buddhist Psychology courses, counseling skills courses, and lead Maitri Space Awareness retreats in Boulder, Colorado. Mo's 28 years of dharma practice focuses on how meditation can support courageous action in the world and heart-felt tending to our relationships with all beings. Mo is also a social justice-oriented psychotherapist and clinical supervisor with a small private practice focused on working with trauma, chronic illness, grief, and relationship counseling for activists, educators, healthcare providers, and LGBTQIA2s+ populations. Mo's teaching is infused with kindness, clarity, spaciousness, humility, and humor.
Dr Chia-Ying Chou:
Title: Letting Go for Compassion, Connection, and Healing.
Description: This talk will weave the clinical practice of Compassion Focused Therapy with Zen Ancestor, Eihei Dōgen's teaching: "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things". It will attempt to convey how "letting go" plays a role in compassion, connection, and healing. Presenter will exemplify the talk with clinical experiences working with individuals experiencing hoarding. An invitation to consider a Dharma-aligning way of practicing psychology - walking alongside the pain and suffering (and joy) of life - will be offered.
Bio: Chia-Ying Chou, PhD., is founder and director of the San Francisco Center for Compassion Focused Therapies (@SFCompassion), and a Buddhist who received lay ordination in 2018 in the Soto Zen tradition. Born and raised in Taiwan, Dr. Chou obtained her PhD from University College London with a focus on trauma. She spent her postdoc years at University of California, San Francisco working with individuals experiencing Hoarding. Dr. Chou’s interest focuses on the connection between trauma and the blocks and fears of letting-go and letting-in. She provides training and consultation for clinicians on CFT and Hoarding worldwide.
Assoc. Prof. Uğur Kocataşkın, PhD, LPC, CAT:
Title: Emptiness and Non-doing Paradox in Buddhism-based Mental Health Counseling.
Description: This talk examines the apparent paradox between interventionist effort in counseling and a non-doing approach that allows a therapeutic space to arise spontaneously through the relationship. It also considers how action of non-action relates to teachings on emptiness and to the counselor identity within this approach.
Bio: Uğur is a Buddhism-based contemplative social justice counselor in private practice and a Core Associate Professor at Naropa University. He is a dedicated student, educator, and facilitator in Buddhist study and practice, social justice, intersectionality, and multiple areas of focus within the counseling relationship. As a counselor educator and mediation instructor, Uğur loves teaching and strives to cultivate joy in both Buddhist and counseling practice through relationship—and sometimes a touch of mischief.
PhD, Transformative Studies, California institute of Integral Studies, CA. Dissertation topic: Somatic Awareness of Internalized Supremacy and Dominance in Mental Health Counseling and Counselor Education; MA, Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling; Graduate Performance Certificate in Opera Performance, Boston Conservatory, MA; Bachelor of Music, Opera Performance, Boston Conservatory, MA.
Dr Jeffrey B. Rubin:
Title: A Life of One’s Own: The Gifts of Meditation and Psychoanalysis.
Description: What happens when a gifted Zen master who has trained with some of the greatest Buddhist teachers of the twentieth century still feels invisible, divided, and unable to claim a life of his own? This talk explores that question through a clinical case and a methodological reflection. Drawing on four decades of parallel practice in psychoanalysis and Asian contemplative and somatic disciplines, it argues that meditation and psychoanalysis each has extraordinary gifts and a blind spot the other can illuminate. The talk explores what becomes possible when the two wisdom traditions are judiciously blended.
Bio: Jeffrey B. Rubin, Ph.D. practices psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy in New York City and North Salem, NY. He teaches at The Object Relations Institute of NY and The American Institute of Psychoanalysis. He is considered one of the leading integrators of the Western psychotherapeutic and Eastern meditative traditions. A Sensei in the Nyogen Senzaki and Soen Nakagawa Rinzai Zen lineage and the creator of meditative psychotherapy, a practice he developed through insights gained from decades of study, teaching, and trying to help people flourish, he is the author of eight books (Psychotherapy Case Studies: Escaping the Prison You Didn't Know You Were In, Meditative Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Pathways to Healing and Transformation, A Psychoanalysis for Our Time, The Good Life, Psychotherapy and Buddhism, The Art of Flourishing, Meditative Psychotherapy, and Practicing Meditative Psychotherapy). He has taught at various psychoanalytic institutes and meditation and yoga centers and lectured around the country and abroad on psychoanalysis and Buddhism/meditation. His pioneering approach to therapy was featured in the New York Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/magazine/26zen-t.html. He can be contacted at drjeffreyrubin.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Paypal:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.
NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.
Here are the bank transfer details:
Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:
The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
BIC:
BOFSGB21168