Uncovering Mystery in Everyday Life: Confessions of a Buddhist Psychotherapist

This book is about psychotherapy. Written as a collection of tales about encounters between a therapist and his clients, it reveals why many people would turn to therapy for help, what they might look for, and what they might actually find. For Bob Chisholm, a therapist who draws on Buddhist psychology in dealing with his clients, helping someone find self-insight has less to do with understanding their life diagnostically than it does with appreciating their experience existentially--that is to say, in all its inherent mystery. The idea that uncovering mystery could be a way of freeing someone from their psychological misery may seem almost magical: like consulting a ouija board or gazing into tea leaves. But it is in the details and happenstance of a person's life--in the suspense of the everyday world--that the actual mystery of a person's life is sure to be found. Finding that mystery, and helping people come to terms with it, is what this book is all about.