Blog: Personal Responsibility: An Interview with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

, , , , , ,
Question: How would you define personal responsibility? Isa: Personal responsibility is a process of becoming more self-aware, understanding your motivations, your intentions, and the effect your actions and thoughts have on you and those around you. It involves a willingness to contemplate the consequences of your emotional responses, and the ability to recognize when those expressions are harmful and when they are beneficial.

Blog: Finding Power in Powerlessness

, , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

The roots of anger, and indeed, the roots of many potentially destructive emotions, lie in powerlessness. Most people would not choose destructive emotions as a way to gain control over circumstances if they could learn to tolerate not having control over the situations around them. It is important to be gentle with yourself and have self-compassion as you learn to be present with your anger. It is easier to be compassionate with yourself if you can trust your ability to take responsibility for any way you may have harmed yourself or another with anger. In this way, you won't look for the easy "out," but instead learn everything you have to learn from the way you have related to your anger. In this way, you can understand the roots of your anger more fully, make amends where needed, and honor the information contained in your anger.

Blog: Listening to Anger

, , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

There is a Mahayana Buddhist idea that everything in our experience is part of the path to enlightenment. This is very important to remember when we find ourselves wanting to avoid relating to others because it seems too overwhelming. We must remember that everything that comes up in our experience is workable.

Blog: Having Compassion for Yourself and Others

, , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

How attentively do you listen to yourself? Are you engaging in negative self-talk? Are you seeing your own self-talk reflected in how you talk to others? Are others having a reaction? Is it hard to ignore or deny that reaction? Here’s a hint: There is probably a part of yourself that is hearing that negative self-talk and having a reaction similar to those around you who you might be treating in the same way. This is one of many benefits of being in relationship. We can learn about ourselves and see ourselves through the lens of relationship.

Blog: Being Present in Relationship

, , , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

It is a common tendency to think that if we just ignore a problem, it will either go away on its own or we won’t feel its effect. Ignoring our problems leads to confusion about what is real and what is true. Unfortunately, one of the most common responses to this state of confusion is to go into denial about the fact that the effect of not being present is causing a problem.

Blog: Interdependence

, , , , , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

In a recent podcast, Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, asked, "What would you do if you realized that you would never be able to get off the subway car you were on this morning – that you were going to be with those people for infinity?" For one thing, it would probably change the way we viewed those people. If we are all in a subway car together cruising through eternity, it would probably be a good idea to start figuring out how to get along. I have spent many years trying to help people figure out how to get along through my Depth Hypnosis practice and teaching. Mostly I try to help people figure out how to get along with themselves – because you really can't get along with anyone else until you have yourself figured out.

Article: The Eightfold Path as an Ethical Compass in the Therapeutic Environment

, , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

Ethics is generally defined as a process of determining right and wrong conduct or as the study of morality. In many traditions, both sacred and secular, there is an effort to come up with a set of principles to govern behavior. In many traditions, there is an emphasis on "what bad thing will happen if you don't do the right thing." The motivator to good behavior is fear. This is an effective method of crowd control when the luxury of understanding personal motivation and intention cannot be understood on a case-by-case basis. But it falls short in creating conditions under which people can learn how to truly trust their motivation and intention in making decisions regarding their conduct.

Article: Depth Hypnosis: Where Fierce Compassion and the Path of the Wounded Healer Converge

, , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

Dr. Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, has stated that the future of Buddhism in the West lies in meditational therapies. One such meditational therapy is Depth Hypnosis. Depth Hypnosis is a therapeutic model that incorporates the wisdom of two very ancient healing and spiritual modalities (Buddhism and shamanism) with two more modern approaches (hypnotherapy and transpersonal psychology) to address emotional and spiritual imbalance.

Article: Personal Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective on Relationship

, , , , , , , ,

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

Relationship forms the core of our experience as humans. We define ourselves and are defined by the nature of our relating. In Buddhism, there is a concept called “interdependence” which postulates that nothing exists independently. Everything exists interdependently. Applying this concept to relationship implies that we do not and cannot exist independently of one another.

Podcast: Episode 27: Empathy and Compassion in Buddhism

, , ,
In today’s episode, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the roles of empathy and compassion in Buddhism, and offers a practice for maintaining balance when faced with the suffering of others.