Nigel Wellings

I have been interested in the relationship between psychotherapy and spirituality since my early twenties and have, in different ways, throughout my professional life tried to understand how they may mutually enhance each other. Because of this I value the spiritual life of those people who work therapeutically with me and do not either ignore it, or worse still, treat it as a psychological illness. What ever a person's particular beliefs and practices I have found that these can make important contributions to the work - even when they are themselves sometimes the very thing that is causing concern.

Further more I particularly value the Buddhist practices of mindfulness meditation, unconditional friendliness and compassion. Mindfulness has recently come to the attention of the NHS and clinical psychology principally in the form of mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT).