My Learning From Buddhist Psychotherapy Certificate Course

-A A +A
Kuek Chuan Sheng

The Than Hsiang Mitra Welfare Association, in collaboration with International Buddhist College conducted a 6-day course on Buddhist Psychotherapy from 14 Dec to 29 Dec 2013.

Mitra had the honor to invite Dr Wasantha to be our teacher for this course.

My personal impressions after attending the course are as follows:

In Buddhist counseling, a person’s problem is not only affected by his psychological issues, but is also influenced by issues in relation with physiological, cultural, ethical and even para-psychological aspects. Dr. Wasantha was fond of putting it as the Theory of Dependent Correlation.

During the class, Dr. Wasantha gave us many examples for his teachings so that we were able to grasp his points. In addition, he would encourage us to ask questions and would always give us a detailed explanation for any question raised.

Furthermore, our students had learned a lot from his tutorial class offered to us out of his kindness and generosity. He taught us topics such as Buddhist views on sociology and family so that we could have a more comprehensive understanding of human behaviors and the environments we live in. Finally yet importantly, attending the last 2 classes was the most exciting experience for me. Dr. Wasantha gave us several challenging case studies from which I benefited a lot and actually hoped to have more case studies so that I could have more opportunities to practice my counseling skills.