Learn to guide others with humility and compassion by earning your master’s degree from the only Buddhist-inspired institution to offer a degree in Buddhist Psychology.
Earn your Clinical Mental Health Counseling degree from Naropa, named one of the best counseling psychology colleges in the United States. The Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology concentration offers a counseling degree grounded in the Buddhist contemplative wisdom tradition. You’ll develop deep insights and connections, as well as outstanding mindfulness skills and awareness, using current humanistic psychological approaches to show up fully for yourself and others.
The root teaching of the master’s program in contemplative psychotherapy and Buddhist psychology is the notion of “brilliant sanity.” Practitioners of Buddhist psychology and contemplative psychotherapy become experts at recognizing sanity within even the most confused and distorted states of mind and nurturing it in themselves and in their clients. Our alumni earn doctoral degrees, establish new treatment programs, or go on to teach nationally and internationally.
Discover Career Pathways for Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology Graduates
Quick Facts
63
Credits
Hours
700
of Clinical
Internship
Experience
Hours
9
of Intensive
Community
Practice
Connect
with your counselor
Matt Powers
Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology Courses
Supported by an experienced staff, you will discover your inherent compassion to guide others with humility and grace through large and small group process classes and cultivate self-awareness through meditation practice and retreats.
The first year of the Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology concentration emphasizes deepening your meditation practice and relationship with your own mind. The second year focuses on integrating meditation practice with clinical perspectives. The final year examines the teachings on the bardo—the time between death and rebirth—providing a powerful metaphor for the ending of your Naropa journey.
Courses in this concentration include:
Areas of Concentration
This master’s program for counselors is firmly rooted in mindfulness traditions. Learn to transform yourself and others at the only Buddhist-inspired university in the West.
Nature’s power to improve our mental health is profound. Gain counseling skills, wilderness experience, and leadership capabilities in this interdisciplinary master’s program.
Earn a master’s degree in counseling that helps you utilize the mind/body connection for healing. Become a somatically informed counselor prepared to work with individuals and families in diverse settings.
Harness the joy and healing power of movement for yourself and others. Prepare to be a movement/dance therapist in this somatic counseling master’s program.
Your passion for art can be used as a tool for healing—for both yourself and others. Learn how to leverage creative energy for the greater good through contemplative and clinical approaches.
The Naropa Difference
Maitri Retreats
Clinical Internships
The third year of study centers around the nine-month, 700-hour clinical internship with a community agency. You will receive on-site supervision while working in a specialized area, as well as weekly meditation practice and small tutorial group work. Clinical internship experience helps you qualify to work as a counselor or psychotherapist in a variety of settings, such as community mental health centers, residential treatment facilities, and social service agencies. The Louise Fabbro Memorial Scholarship is awarded to one or more Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology graduate students during the internship year of study.
Meditation Focus
With a strong focus on meditation, the master’s in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology degree program will allow you to become extremely sensitive to your own psychological and emotional states. This familiarity and level of comfort with your inner self in turn helps prepare you to work with clients who are in immense psychological distress and empathize with them in ways that counselors without psychotherapy degrees and meditation experience would not be able to do.
Students Transformed
Student Transformed
Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology
Professor MacAndrew Jack, PhD, describes what sets this three-year clinical training program apart. Founded on the view that health is intrinsic and unconditional, the Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology program combines a commitment to intensive individual self-study, an exploration of therapeutic relationships, and an active engagement in community.
