Student Profile
Interview with Mike Lewis

Name: Mike Lewis
Degree program: MACP
Age: 32
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
# of semesters at Naropa: first year
Organizations: Great Mountain Zen Center

Off-campus activities/hobbies/interests: skiing, mountaineering and movie watching , I volunteer at Shared Parenting and Attention Homes.

Past experiences in mental health field and/or meditation: I have been a Zen student for five years. I worked for Outward Bound for six years.

What do you wish you had known about Naropa and MACP dept. before arriving here?   The estimated non-class time spent, so I would know if I could carry a job or not. I wish somebody had told me to wait until the third week of classes before taking on extracurricular activities.

What is challenging about going to Naropa and the MACP dept? It is challenging to be unrelentingly confronted with my self from many angles that I would normally not consider. Fulfilling the coursework requirements doesn’t allow for much retreat from facing the parts of myself that are uncomfortable.

What is rewarding about going to Naropa and the MACP dept? I feel rewarded because I am not allowed to step out of this confrontation with myself. It is also rewarding to develop relationships with others as well as faculty, and through these relationships relearning how to connect through other human beings. It feels good to carry on a new tradition of contemplative psychotherapy.

What have you learned about yourself by going to Naropa and the MACP dept? Many of the habitual and patterned mysteries that have directed my life are becoming clearer. I’m learning why I’ve felt disconnected from my purpose and from being able to understand other people’s choices.

Complete this sentence: Contemplative psychotherapy is . . . a therapeutic process in which the therapist comes to a continued awareness of his or her relational agendas through contemplative practice and therefore is able to be truly genuine and present with the client’s process.

Life at Naropa and the MACP dept is… a disciplined mentorship and being a heart centered human being.

Do you feel that you are being well prepared to work in a clinical setting? Absolutely. I appreciate the emphasis on the idea that knowing oneself enables one to know others. I feel so far that there’s adequate emphasis on clinical terminology and classical Western theories.

How did you find Naropa? Initially through the internet. Then I visited two or three times. I feel confident in being here and that I’ve come to the right place because I thoroughly researched the program and the faculty, and the roots and history of contemplative psychotherapy. Because of this preparation my expectations are realistic and are being met.