E-ISSN : 2733-4538
There has been an increase in the application of meditation to psychotherapy based on research showing that mindfulness meditation helped people improve their mental health and wellbeing as well as change their brain functions. Researchers in Korea have reported that meditation positively influenced clients with diverse psychological problems. However, a few researchers have warned us that meditation could be causing latent psychiatric problems or neurosis in clients with vulnerable ego function. Some of the psychological disorders, called majang, have also been presented in Buddhism literature. If psychotherapists want to apply meditation in psychotherapy, they should be understanding of its positive and negative effects. This study, therefore, examines not only the benefits of meditation, but also its side effects based on psychiatric studies in Western and Buddhism literature. Furthermore, this study examines the adverse effects of meditation and effective solutions to counter these adverse effects through Buddhism studies. Finally, there are different points of view as well as common factors of healing between psychotherapy and meditation. This study suggests that clinical therapists should be aware of some of the different views about the application of mediation in psychotherapy.
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