Develop deep insights and connections rooted in Buddhist wisdom and humanistic frameworks of the Global North through the certificate in Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling, offered by the only accredited Buddhist-inspired institution in the United States.
About this Certificate
The Graduate Certificate in Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling allows graduates to build dual competencies in foundational clinical practice and specialized Buddhism-informed interventions, preparing them to integrate mindfulness and compassionate presence into a variety of therapeutic settings.
Integrating traditions from clinical mental health counseling with the contemplative wisdom of Buddhism, the curriculum builds upon a pioneering approach to using meditation as a foundation for clinical training. The program challenges and supports students to recognize “brilliant sanity” in themselves and others, discovering compassionate presence as the ground for their clinical work. A strong value of the certificate is training counselors to work skillfully across cultural differences with awareness and humility. The curricular arc is designed to guide students on a journey of practice and study that leads to inner resilience, warmth, and a fundamental confidence in their capacity to help others.
Students participate in process groups that take mindfulness-awareness practice into relationship, allowing them the opportunity to study their relational patterns in real time. Another hallmark of the program is the integration of maitri (a Sanskrit term meaning “unconditional friendliness”) meditation retreats and practices. These experiences emphasize sitting meditation while progressively incorporating practices designed to cultivate relational awareness, compassion, and emotional intelligence—most notably Maitri Space Awareness, originally designed by Naropa’s founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Maitri Retreats
Maitri means unconditional friendliness. One and two-week-long residential Maitri retreats combine intensive meditation instruction and practices, talks, walking meditation, some days of silence, and community work practice. Maitri space awareness practice which is introduced in the second semester fosters compassion for self and others, leading to relaxation and fearlessness in interactions.
Clinical Internships
In your third year, you’ll benefit from on-site supervision in a specialized field at your clinical placement and receive contemplative faculty supervision in the program. This clinical internship prepares you for counseling roles across diverse settings.
Meditation Focus
The master’s program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, with a concentration in Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling, emphasizes meditation, enabling you to deeply understand and navigate your psychological and emotional states with heightened clarity and sensitivity. These skills then support your capacity for discernment and skillful action in relationship with clients.
Quick Facts
- 14-credit certificate program designed for students concurrently enrolled in the 60-credit Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
- Delivery: On-campus only
- Certificate Hallmarks: The integration of maitri (a Sanskrit term meaning “unconditional friendliness”) meditation retreats and practices.
- Experiential learning is central to the curriculum.
- Highly experienced faculty and staff with ongoing clinical and contemplative practice.
- Meditation, Self-Awareness, Compassion & Skill.
- Applications open for Spring, Summer & Fall 2027
Program Format
The Buddhism-informed Contemplative Counseling concentration of the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is a unique, on-campus, three-year program integrating traditions from clinical counseling and psychology with the contemplative wisdom of Buddhism.
A key aspect of the concentration is the five Maitri meditation retreats. Each retreat has a different focus, beginning with a strong emphasis on sitting meditation, and gradually incorporating practices designed to cultivate relational awareness, compassion, and emotional intelligence and their application to the counseling relationship.
The concentration prepares students for a clinical counseling career and meets Colorado’s educational requirements for licensure as a professional counselor. The semester-long practicum and the year-long supervised internship provide essential clinical experience.
Course Spotlight
Buddhist Foundations for Counseling I: Contemplative Views and Practices
Buddhist Foundations for Counseling I delves into Brilliant Sanity or Buddha Nature, emphasizing intrinsic health. The course explores Buddhist psychology, addressing clarity versus confusion in the mind. A central theme is the misconception of a solid self as a source of suffering. Emphasis is placed on understanding impermanence and its implications for behavior. Meditation is introduced as a tool for self-awareness, forming the basis for ethical counseling practices.
Certificate
Requirements
Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling Certificate Requirements
- CNSC-603 Buddhist Foundations for Counseling I (Hinayana)(3)
Buddhist-Informed Counseling is based on the view of Brilliant Sanity or Buddha Nature, the idea that health is intrinsic and unconditional. This course presents teachings from Buddhist psychology on the mind in both sanity and confusion. In particular, we examine the mistaken notion of a solid, separate self as the foundation of suffering and misunderstanding. The importance of impermanence and transition is highlighted. We begin an exploration of how habitual patterns of mind may lead to addictive patterns of behavior. Meditation practice is introduced both as a method of self-care and of self-awareness and inquiry. Self-understanding is emphasized as the basis for ethical and helpful counseling relationships. - CNSC-660 Maitri I (SV and 4 foundations) (1)
A two-week residential intensive focusing on the practice of intensive sitting and walking meditation. Students refine their understanding of meditation practice. Self-understanding is emphasized as the basis for ethical and helpful counseling relationships. - CNSC-665 Maitri II (intro to Buddha families) (1)
A two-week residential intensive focusing on the practice of intensive sitting and walking meditation. Maitri Space Awareness is directed toward becoming increasingly at home with oneself and with others. Students are introduced to the Five Buddha Families of Tibetan Buddhist teachings as a way of understanding how the seeds of clarity are often hidden within the manifestations of confusion and suffering. Prerequisite: CNSC660 Maitri I. - CNSC-623 Buddhist Foundations for Counseling II (Mahayana)(3)
The abhidharma teachings on the five skandhas and the six realms provide precise understanding of the development of a false sense of self and how this mistaken view leads to a variety of styles of confusion and suffering. The study of karmic cause and effect leads to an understanding of how habitual patterns and addictive behaviors develop and may be interrupted. Pratityasamutpada is studied as an approach to understanding interdependence and systems thinking. The early ethical teachings of the Buddha are studied, and the practice of mindfulness-awareness sitting meditation is explored further, both experientially and intellectually. Pre-requisite: CNSC603. - CNSC-609 Interpersonal Dynamics Awareness Lab I (1)
A cohort of students participates in a small group throughout their tenure in the program. Emphasis is on providing support for the students’ journey, while providing the students the opportunity to study the many dimensions of small group dynamics as these develop in their respective groups. - CNSC-760 Maitri III (Buddha families and clinical applications) (1)
A two-week residential intensive focusing on the relationship between individual contemplative practice and working with others, both in the maitri community and in clinical practice. Intensive sitting meditation, walking meditation, and community living provide opportunities for increased self-understanding, self-acceptance, and openness to differences. These learnings continue to form the ground upon which ethical and healing relationships may be cultivated. Prerequisite: CNSC665 Maitri II. - CNSC-629 Interpersonal Dynamics Awareness Lab II (1)
This is a continuation of CNSC-609. - CNSC-803 Buddhist Foundations for Counseling III (Varjayana)(3)
In this course, students review the Buddhist psychological teachings and practices that they have studied in Buddhist Psychology I through IV, and they also study further Buddhist teachings drawn from the Vajrayana tradition of Tibet. The emphasis is on deepening students’ understanding of all these teachings and practices as potent resources for counselors engaged in clinical work. Some counseling approaches that have an affinity with a contemplative approach are also introduced, e.g., Focusing, and Feeding Your Demons.
Meet the Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling Faculty
Core Associate Professor; Chair, Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling
Why Choose Naropa?
Contemplative Education
As the pioneer of the modern mindfulness movement, Naropa enhances students' education through meditation and introspective exercises, seamlessly blending contemplative insights with traditional academic studies in every program.
Diversity & Inclusion
Our dedication to diversity is part of our core mission embedded in contemplative learning and exploration. This approach aims to embrace human qualities that foster collaboration among diverse perspectives, paving the way for an interconnected and equitable society.
Hands-On Learning
Naropa students pursuing a master's degree in counseling dedicate 700-900 hours to practical, clinical experiences. During these clinical experiences, students receive consistent guidance from peers and faculty, combining clinical oversight with mindfulness and awareness techniques within the contemplative education framework.
How this Program Prepares You
Clinical Training Program
The Buddhism-informed Contemplative Counseling concentration equips students for the clinical field through a nine-month internship in their third year. Students receive comprehensive training in clinical skills and theory in both individual and group counseling methods. The internship offers valuable experience in specialized areas, enhancing their readiness for professional practice.
Community Connection
Navigating the program with peers allows students to refine interpersonal skills and offer mutual support over three years, fostering both camaraderie and occasional challenges due to familiarity. Through community and meditation practices, students cultivate “Maitri,” or self-friendliness and acceptance, leading graduates to excel with client-centered approaches, and prioritizing client needs over personal agendas.
Integrated Wisdom
By completing a counseling degree rooted in Buddhist wisdom and frameworks of the Global North, students weave together their comprehension and embodiment of Buddhist teachings with various counseling approaches, and skillfully apply these learnings to inform and enrich their clinical work.
The concentration curriculum emphasizes awareness practice based on the reality of self as always embedded in socio-cultural, and systemic dynamics and blends related multicultural counseling theory with contemplative teachings. This integration provides students with opportunities to explore related dynamics from their own experiences while expanding their awareness to others’ experiences, including their clients’.
Learning Outcomes
Students recognize and point to moments of brilliant sanity in themselves and others.
Students articulate core Buddhist teachings.
Students integrate their understanding of Buddhist teachings with other counseling and psychology approaches and apply them in their clinical work.
Students know how to practice the meditation methods drawn from the Buddhist Meditation tradition and use them as a foundation for their work with themselves and others.
Students articulate their theoretical and experiential understanding of dynamics that arise in relationships including but not limited to transference, countertransference and exchange.
Career Opportunities for Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling Graduates
Graduates of the Buddhism-informed Contemplative Counseling Concentration work as counselors in diverse settings working with individuals, couples, groups, and families. They can go on different career pathways, and pursue doctoral studies, initiate innovative treatment programs, or engage in teaching roles both nationally and globally. Discover career opportunities and alumnx stories.
Hear from a Graduate
What I was offered in the [contemplative psychotherapy and Buddhist psychology] program was basic goodness and brilliant sanity… I learned that I don’t have to doubt your inherent dignity, wisdom, and autonomy. It’s there. So, when I sit with somebody, I am not doing any healing. All I’m reflecting is what’s already there, so that they can see it. The healing is already in them. There is a natural healing intelligence that moves through each one of us and you can access it at any time if you choose.
Lauren Ciovacco
FAQS about the
Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling Certificate
What is Buddhism-informed Contemplative Counseling?
How are Buddhism and Counseling connected?
Buddhism and counseling are connected through the exploration of the mind and human behavior. While traditional counseling uses empirical methods, Buddhism offers insights from mindfulness, awareness,and compassion practices.. Naropa University is the only Buddhist-inspired institution to offer a degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, with a certificate in Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling
Are Buddhism and Western approaches to counseling compatible?
Buddhism and counseling share compatibility in areas like understanding the mind and well-being, especially with concepts like mindfulness, awareness, and skillful action. While they have different origins and methods, many integrate these traditions for enhanced therapeutic results. Both fields recognize the crucial role of the counselor’s clarity, spaciousness, and compassion in influencing well-being.
Learn More About the Certificate Program
Connect with your counselor
Junia McGillen
Admissions Counselor
- Schedule a Meeting
- junia.mcgillen@naropa.edu
- (303) 276-6005
Connect with your counselor
Junia McGillen
Admissions Counselor
Ready to Apply?
Admission Requirements
At Naropa, we value both academic excellence and the willingness to carry out introspective work. Our application process encourages your openness and contemplation.
Learn more about admission requirements and the application process for the Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling Certificate.
Costs & Financial Aid
At Naropa, we believe quality education should be accessible. More than 75% of our graduate students receive some form of financial aid to help cover their costs. Our graduate costs & aid page covers costs and financial aid opportunities for graduate students, like scholarships, student employment, and loan options.
Graduate Scholarship Opportunities
Scholarships are a great way to help with the costs of going to school. Naropa University offers an array of scholarship opportunities to graduate students. Students may be eligible to receive scholarships by applying for scholarships or by being nominated for a scholarship. For more detailed information about the different scholarships available and how to receive them, please review our graduate scholarship page.
Interested in Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling?
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