CBD 2024: The Contemplative Clinician: A Buddhist and Psychodynamic Perspective with Pilar Jennings, PhD

For more than half a century, there has been a growing and steady interest in bridging scientific and contemplative perspectives in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and many others began to appreciate the critical need for clinicians to address psychiatric and psychological matters informed by contemplative perspectives. In this talk, Dr. Pilar Jennings will address her clinical practice as a psychoanalyst steeped in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Themes will include the clinician’s need for equanimity and compassion, enhanced by meditation and Buddhist teachings, alongside the patient’s need for a clinical container informed by mindfulness and other contemplative methods for affect regulation. Dr. Jennings will also explore her evolving approach to contemplative clinical work when addressing complex trauma, utilizing contemplative methods for enhancing the therapeutic alliance, building trust, and working through entrenched psychological, developmental, and interpersonal struggles.

Pilar Jennings, PhD,  is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She has been working with patients and their families in private practice and through the Harlem Family Institute since 2000. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.  She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; and teaches internationally on the intersection of Buddhist psychology and psychoanalysis. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications; 2010), and a memoir about her entry into clinical work: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (Shambhala; 2017).