Sandra García Sánchez-Beato: combining psychology and meditation

This psychologist talks to us about what meditation brings to her work.

Psychotherapy does not arise in a vacuum, but is based on a series of ideas and practices that have their roots in history. However, having emerged in Western societies, it has not always been in direct contact with ideas and practices from other cultures.

That is why in recent decades, as globalization has intensified, psychology has been incorporating other approaches and procedures to intervene in the management of mental states, such as meditation. We will talk about this subject in the following lines, in which we we interview psychologist Sandra García Sánchez-Beato, who has long been interested in meditation.Sandra García Sánchez-Beato, who has long been interested in these ancient practices.

Sandra García Sánchez-Beato: psychology and meditation working in unison.

Sandra García Sánchez-Beato is a psychologist with an integrative humanistic orientation, and for many years she has been attending people both in person at her practice in Madrid and through online sessions. In this interview she talks to us about how practices linked to meditation and creative thinking reinforce the therapeutic process.

How do you combine psychological therapy, on the one hand, and the millenary practice of meditation, on the other? How do these two practices meet?

Meditation is a vehicle that yogis and great masters have used to deepen the knowledge of the mind. They are great psychologists, scholars of consciousness.

Reflection, analysis, research are also part of the path of meditation. Buddha told us "Do not believe in something simply because you have heard it... Rather, after observation and analysis, when you come across something that is in accord with reason and conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live by it".

Western psychology is a very new stream, if we compare it with the tradition of meditation. It builds on our view of how we observe and analyze the world. The integration of both is a way to join paths and offer a language adapted to our current world. Today, fortunately through scientific exploration it is being demonstrated how the practice of Mindfulness generates changes in the brain by thickening the prefrontal lobe, our most evolved area as a species.

In meditation we have direct perception of the mind observing itself. We promote metacognition and self-awareness. It integrates values such as empathy and altruism and favors a better management of emotions. This helps us to disidentify ourselves from our conditioning, to observe our neuroses from a kinder space and gives us the experience of resting in our own nature. Something that is not achieved from the conceptual, because the essence of the mind is, precisely, non-conceptual.

Psychology follows a complementary path. It helps us to build a strong, centered Self and to soften emotional burdens. With meditation we let go of the clinging to the self and discover our true essence. It may seem a contradictory path, but we cannot let go of the clinging to self, if we do not have a well anchored and integrated self. If this is not done in this way, it can lead to serious emotional problems. In psychology we work from duality.

The experience of meditation leads us to unity. To a space where the barriers of yours and mine fade away. Not from a psychotic aspect, but from a non-conceptual space free of suffering. It fosters the values of compassion and altruism because it distances us from egocentrism. To the extent that we are psychologically more stable and integrated, we will be able to take that step.

What kind of problems do you find meditation particularly useful for?

When there is a limiting emotional identification that suppresses our life, or conditioning that traps us in harmful behaviors over and over again, meditation helps us to realize the inherent qualities of our mind, such as its spaciousness, luminosity and goodness.

This very simple thing allows us to perceive that there is nothing fixed or solid in it. We can observe how thoughts, emotions, feelings, ideas... are manifestations of the mind that arise and dissolve in the mind, as waves melt in the ocean.

This experience helps us to trust that we can transform our suffering into an opportunity for growth and free ourselves from it, because it is not part of our primordial nature. People with low self-esteem, insecurity, anxiety, obsessions... feel better and are surprised when they connect, even for an instant, with that direct experience: the inherent goodness and calmness of that inner space. They discover their potential by strengthening their self-confidence. They look inward and begin to take responsibility for their lives.

The management of conflicting emotions also changes as we train in meditative practice: anger management, impulses, self-injury, emotional dependencies, jealousy, disruptive behaviors, attention deficit, limiting thoughts, obsessive thoughts, fears, etc. By realizing their insubstantiality we become less reactive and give them less power. We get less hooked and get used to going through them, letting them go and transforming them.

How does the process of improvement through meditation take place? How do the people who come to you notice it?

Patients notice that they are less reactive to external circumstances, increasing their capacity for reflection and acceptance. They are more in tune with their reality, without dramatizing situations or devaluing or idealizing. This favors their ability to focus on the present, enjoy what they have, and not spend so much time projecting negative events or getting caught up in a painful past.

The disidentified observer's practice of meditation is integrated into their mental continuum, providing a protective space of awareness in the face of conflicting emotions. By not identifying so much with them, they are less conditioned.

Another benefit is that by being more centered and integrated, they allow themselves to be more equanimous and stable in adverse situations. They learn to love themselves, take care of themselves and take responsibility for their lives, becoming aware of the causes and conditions of their actions.

Observing the mind, investigating what happens within it, gives them a sense of control over themselves and offers them the opportunity for change. They become more flexible in their mind and more compassionate towards others because the ego is dissolving and resting more in its primordial nature. This is especially trained in meditations with visualizations, where they connect with this subtle energy of the mind.

I presented a clinical case at the first Congress of Humanistic Psychotherapies in Barcelona, with whom I worked from the method of psychomeditation, a term I coined years ago to define this integration of meditation and psychotherapy. This was a patient who began to practice meditation, in a weekly group, and we introduced the practice in the sessions.

Today she has integrated meditation into her daily life and the changes are very significant. She is very conscious of the benefit it has brought within her therapeutic process, in aspects such as her emotional stability, autonomy, her ability to cope with difficulties (for example this pandemic), the decrease of her reactivity and the confidence in her nature as a space without emotional damage.

As a professional, what do you think are the advantages of adopting an integrative perspective when offering psychological assistance services?

Human beings are complex and multifaceted. We relate to each other cognitively, influenced by our thoughts; we speak and communicate with our words and our body, which gives rise to a certain behavioral conduct.

We possess a varied and complex emotional world, which conditions our relationships with ourselves, with others and with the systems in which we live. We enjoy an inner and spiritual world that some people leave aside, but it is an inherent part of our human nature.

It seems to me incoherent to approach a therapeutic process from reduced plots, when we live from a whole. Our body, words and mind form an indissoluble unit. All our areas must be integrated and coordinated, it is a team work that we can approach from therapy, meditation and body work. To achieve a full brain, and an integrated personality, we must work holistically.

Your training in Fine Arts is also one of the influences you draw from in your work as a psychologist. How do you use drawing in this field?

I love art and all its manifestations, that's why I studied Fine Arts as my first choice. Art and psychology are very closely linked. Now I incorporate it in my sessions because it is related to that unique and creative expression that comes from a more intuitive and less rational space. Drawings give me a lot of information because they do not go through reason. I usually use them after psychomeditation dynamics, where we reach more subtle and deeper spaces of consciousness, obtaining very interesting results.

Through a sequential process of drawings, one can follow the track of how the unconscious, which may harbor traumatic events, unveils these experiences in a transforming and healing way. Sometimes there are very revealing sequences about denied or repressed facets of oneself. It works very well with all ages, with adults as well as with children and adolescents.

With patients with rigid or obsessive traits, I like to use it (not so much with them), because they discover facets or cores of conflict that otherwise would not be allowed. Suddenly they see something unexpected reflected and comment "I didn't want to draw that...", "I don't know why this image came out..." and that surprises them because it helps them to become aware of what they have denied. It opens a more subtle door to the unconscious which, when expressed with an image, does not leave so much room to escape with words or logic.