Counselling Psychotherapy Unit

OPD Consultation

Mental Health Workshop

Clinical Training Programme

Mental Health Research

Introduction

Mental Stress has developed rapidly in the modern world. Competitive life style has deprived man of simple life style, unselfishness and mental relief. Man’s attitudes, thinking patterns have declined. Therefore the root cause of many mental disorders has been mental restlessness. Many students and school children, youth and adults have been subjected to mental restlessness.

As a result of this, many addictions have developed in the society today. Many people who are addicted to smoking, drugs and alcohol, babul, cannabis and internet pornography can be seen at our BACP clinic. We also can meet many people who have lost their mental balance, disappointed, cheating, economic difficulties and negligence.

Mind being subjected to intense restlessness has been the major root cause for the development of latest mental disorders. The way six BACP approaches with Buddhist Counselling Psychotherapy was successfully used for the five common mental disorders listed below is described as follows.

  1. Depression.
  2. Phobias.
  3. Stress and Anxiety Disorder.
  4. Psychogenic disorder.
  5. Personality disorder.

In considering the above-mentioned disorders, for diseases such as, Schizophrenia, BAD, Psychotic depression, drugs with BACP cognitive therapy was used. We were able to normalize

Behaviour using simple sedatives, sleeping induced drugs for two or three weeks. After that, we were also
able to normalize behaviour without drugs.

Many young people have destroyed their lives during their young stage. It is of no use to advise those
people who refuse parents advice do not pay heed to their teachers, elders who have stopped their education halfway and got addicted to various addictions. To turn their abnormal behavior into normal behavior a turning point is necessary, BACP with Buddhist counselling psychotherapy approaches to develop positive attitudes in the mind were immensely helpful to rectify the life of people who fell into an abysmal depth and wasted their time.

  • Historical Background of Buddhist Counselling Psychotherapy

There is a historical and theoretical background to Buddhist Counselling and psychotherapy. Equally there is a historical background to Buddhist practices especially regarding healing psychogenic disorders. There is a series of factors in Buddhist psychology that confirm this fact.

E.g. Kisaothami, being unable to bear the death of her one and only child was walking along the road calling for help to give life back to her child. The Lord Buddha convinced and consoled her that death is a common phenomenon by asking to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where a death did not occur. This approach is known as Insight Therapy in modern psychology. The manner in which the Buddha practiced this kind of counselling is very clearly mentioned in discourse/Sutta literature. The various unusual and abnormal behavioral patterns of characters such as miserable and hapless Patachara,
ferocious Alawaka, brutal and fierce Angulimala, innocent Suneetha, Sopaka and Chullapanthaka have been relieved all through Buddhist Counselling with Behavioral Therapy. This has been properly analyzed in Buddhist literature texts such as Jataka Pali, Psalms of Thera and Theri, and Dhammapadattakata. Psychological Counselling Theories can be found in these methods of treatments. Discourse recitals also have been used to develop mental immunity and strength in mental patients. A good example for this is the discourse recitals such as Karaneeyametta Sutta and Ratana Sutta throughout Visala Mahnuwara to ward off the malefic influence of the three-fold fear i.e. fear of disease, fear of devils, spirits and demons and fear of starvation. Another good example for this is the auction of the dead body of a famous prostitute called Sirima and showing it to a monk engrossed in lust and carnal and sensual desires. This approach is introduced in Western psychology as Aversion Therapy. Yet another very good example is to make prince Nanda who was madly in love with his fiancée bored with Janapada Kalyanie by showing the carcass of a burnt she-monkey.

Together with these methods of Buddhist Counselling Treatment and the methods which can build up physical and mental immunity found in ancient medical texts such as Ashtana Herdhaya, Besajjamanjusa and Charaka Sanghita have been used in this research. In a word, according to Besajjamanjusa, the well-developed mind with properties of understanding (Dhee), stamina (Dhruti) and recalling (smruti) can be considered a very strong mind. These properties can be found in Gotukola. These herbal plants are prescribed for mental patients to develop their immunity, for relieving constipation and to develop their memory power. In prescribing these kinds of leaves, it is important to advise them to prepare it in a way that its medicinal value is not lost.

According to Ashtana Herdhaya, waking up early in the morning, doing mindfulness exercises, bathing daily, drinking medicinal cunjee are prescribed as per the principles of treatment found in ancient medical texts. Therefore, BAT Counselling method is an approach that can rebuild the already defunct immunity system of a person. It is also a kind of mental treatment that can mould the inner restraint of a person. Therefore, it is named as BATC because it has been built on the principles and fundamentals of Buddhist and Ayurveda Sources. At the same time, behavioural treatment methods are absolutely necessary to balance and relieve the developed mental states caused by jealousy, anger, hatred and lust which are psychogenic root causes. According to Madhava Nidhana medical text, psychogenic disorders are caused by due to the development of lust and carnal and sensual desires, grief and fear. According to Charakasanghita, the above emotional conditions can be cured by building up opposite conditions and resolute determination. Our general impression is that building up opposite conditions and resolute determination cannot be developed by medicine. Instead, it should be built and developed inside the mind. Therefore psychogenic disorders developed through mental state cannot be cured only with prescribing medicine which is not a sufficient and authoritative treatment. Therefor prescribing therapy found in sources, training and feedback are all well done in our clinics.

Aim & Ambition

Today psychogenic disorders have developed rapidly in the society. Long term mental stress, oppressive memories and unsolved mental problems will be greatly conducive to develop these disorders. The main cause for these disorders are negligence, phobia and fear, failures, disappointment, cheating and abuses.

Symptoms such as insomnia, intense anger, poor appetite, restlessness, less productivity, intense forgetfulness can be seen in these patients. There is ample evidence found in our BACP clinics that some of these symptoms can be seen in some people together with burning sensation, incurable headache, numbness in hands and legs, semi-consciousness, abnormal behavioural patterns all of which are caused by psychogenic reasons. These patients have taken sedatives, anti-depressive drugs and pain-killers for a long time. Although symptoms have been subdued, many patients come to our clinic complaining that these symptoms reappear causing their daily work being disrupted. It was also revealed that as a result of side effects of these medicine have caused intense physical weakness, inability to wake up early in the morning. This state has affected and disturbed their education and employment badly.

In order to remove the root cause of the disease, BAC, Buddhist Psychotherapy and Behavioural Therapy with medicine are applied. The main purpose of this is to see whether productivity and mental happiness could be developed and doses of medicine could be reduced or completely omitted. Another specific purpose is to propagate and disseminate the method of treatment sans side-effects. Another specific purpose is to provide case study reports to our post graduate students and professionals, thereby to develop their counselling skills.

Services Provided

  1. Clinical Counselling Psychotherapy through BACP Consultation for OPD patients. (Every Wednesday 09.00 a.m. – 04.00 p.m.)
  1. Diploma in Counselling Psychotherapy with Meditation Clinical Training Course for Internship & Professionals, Post Graduate, Undergraduate, Interns and any other interested in this. / Diploma in Buddhist Counselling Behavioural Therapy with Aroma Therapy for recovering Phobias, Addictions & Abnormal Behaviour.
  1. Advanced Diploma in Mental Health Research through BACP Buddhist Psychotherapy with CBT (One year Project). For: professionals, Post Graduate, Undergraduate, Interns and any other interested in this.

Abstract

Today Psychogenic Disorders have been developing rapidly in the modern society. The root cause of these disorders is the unsolved mental problems and oppressive remembrances. When a person is living under stressful conditions for long time, primary symptoms such as insomnia, poor appetite, extreme anger, restlessness, less productivity etc. can be observed in him. In case of the disease becoming more chronic, incurable headache, shivering of hands and legs, stupor, unusual body pain, burning sensation, forgetfulness can be observed in patients in our clinics.

Many patients to suppress the impact of these disorders by taking pain-killers, sedatives and anti-depressive drugs. Therefore, with passage of time, the dose of medicine is increased which ultimately result in many side effects. At the sametime, when taking of medicine is stopped, again this disorder will appear in them. As a result of this, inability to wake up early in the morning, loss of mental happiness, decline of both mental and physical immunity and stamina are the major drawbacks. But the complications are not found in their investigation reports. But, they are suffering from the disease. Eventually majority of patients take refuge of various types of oblations saying that doctors find it very difficult to diagnose their disease.

The treatments prescribed in ancient medical texts such as Madavanidhana, Ashtana Herdhaya and Charaka Sanghita for these conditions and disorders are building up opposite conditions and resolute determination. These treatments have been tested for its effectiveness through BAT Clinical Counselling in our clinic. Our general impression is that a clinical research has not been done so far based on BATC and Buddhist Psychotherapy.

The main objective of this research is to investigate whether these patients could be cured through BAT Clinical Counselling and Buddhist psychotherapy.

Key Words: BAT Counselling, Psychogenic Disorders, Aversion Therapy, PRT, Mindfulness.

Supervision Board

Ven. Dr. Bodagama Chandima Thero
Vice – Chancellor

DampeThero

Ven. Dr. Dampe Vijitharathana Thero, Dean of FBS

Dr. Kalyani Ruwanpathirana, Head of the Counselling Psychotherapy Unit.

Associate Dean – (Research) Academic Advisor – Mental health research

Academic Staff :

  • Ven. Dr. Dampe Vijitharathana Thero, Dean of FBS
  • Dr. Kalyani Ruwanpathirana, Head of the Counselling Psychotherapy Unit.

Non Acedemic Staff : W.M.H.A.Wasalamudali, Computer Application Assistant

Conducted by: Dr. Kalyani Ruwanpathirana (Ph.D) PG.Dip Buddhist Āyurvedic Counselling (Hons). Dip. in Clinical Psychology. Lecturer / Senior Medical Officer. Head of Counselling Psychotherapy Unit

Telephone Number: 0777 230 490

Application form : https://forms.gle/T6k2d6Ek73Lk1dF76