Meditation For Therapists

Written By John Clarke

Meditation For Therapists

In this meditation, I guide therapists through an Internal Family Systems meditation focused on connecting with inner parts related to client work. The meditation encourages tuning into the body, reflecting on the therapist’s journey, and engaging with any fears or protective parts that might arise when working with clients. 

  1. Hands to heart and belly.

  2. Notice any sensations in your body.

  3. Generate heart energy.

  4. Send it to parts of you that need it.

  5. Reflect on your client list: those that are doing well and those that are suffering the most.

  6. Do you and your parts all agree to work with this client?

  7. What fears do you and your parts hold around being unable to help everyone?

  8. Notice what parts of you come up.

  9. Be with their fears, send them love.

  10. What do they need from you before, during, or after the next session with this client?

  11. What do they need from you as a follow-up after today?

  12. Wrap up mindfully.

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  • Connect with me:

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Transcript:

[00:00:00]  This is an internal family systems therapy meditation for therapists. My name is John Clarke. I'm a licensed therapist, and I'm going to be walking you through this guided meditation.

[00:00:15]  Start by just settling into where you are. And if it feels right, you could bring a hand to your heart, a hand to your belly or anywhere else, and just start to tune into what's here and who's here.

[00:00:37]  Start by noticing your bodily sensations, your physical experience. Good, bad, and neutral. See if you can just notice it

[00:00:57]  for a moment. I want you to bring both hands to the center of your [00:01:00] chest, and I want you to see if you can generate more and more energy here in your heart. You

[00:01:12]  might even imagine a white or golden energy coming in through the top of your head, spreading down into the center of your heart, and you might already know, or get a sense intuitively of where to send it, whether that's to parts of you that need it. Whether it's to parts of someone else that need it, or both.

[00:01:44]  Just take a few moments to play around here with whatever's happening. For

[00:01:58]  a moment, I want you just [00:02:00] to meditate on what it means to you to be a therapist.

[00:02:08]  How did you get here? Why did you become a therapist? What was the original reason and how has that changed? What's it like being a therapist today at this point in your life?

[00:02:31]  What is your current definition of healing? What is healing and how do you help that process?

[00:02:45]  See if you can just generate lots and lots of curiosity inside about what's happening for you about the experience of being a therapist or a practitioner.[00:03:00] 

[00:03:08]  Now I want you to shift to thinking about your client list. You might even imagine your calendar and all the names on it.

[00:03:21]  Imagine just softly gazing upon that calendar and you might just know by gazing upon it, those clients that are doing well. Those clients that are suffering the most or the most difficult for you and everyone in between,

[00:03:46]  you may choose to use this meditation to focus on one client in particular. And if that's the case, see if one client stands out to you right now, see if you can just ask your parts inside. [00:04:00] Which client do we need to focus on today for this meditation? Knowing we can always come back and do this meditation again, or spend more time working with your parts and your clients.

[00:04:20]  As you focus on one client in particular, I want you to ask inside to all your parts, Do you and your parts all agree to work with this client?

[00:04:36]  You might get an immediate yes or an immediate no. You might get a physical felt sense of a yes or no. You might get a variety of answers or opposing answers. See if you can just listen.[00:05:00] 

[00:05:01]  Next, I want you to ask your parts, what fears do they hold around this client, around working with this client or around not working with this client around saying, I can't help you Taking you as far as I can. I'm no longer available to you. I need to meet less often or whatever it is.

[00:05:38]  See if you can just notice and honor whatever parts of you come up here. And again, if there's one part in particular that needs your help here, As it relates to this client, see if you can just focus on that client on that part.

[00:05:59]  See if you [00:06:00] can ask that part about their fears as it relates to this client. What's it like to be with this client? Does this part feel a need to jump in when you're in session with this client?

[00:06:15]  If so, is this part willing to tell you the story about how and why it got involved with this particular client? Or what it is about this client that leads this part to jump in or to worry? Or to work too hard to rescue or to zone out, get bored, to feel annoyed or impatient.

[00:06:48]  See if you can just listen,

[00:06:55]  see if you can just be with the parts fears [00:07:00] and send them love. You can go back to that feeling in the center of your chest, generating more energy here, and just sending them, sending this directly to the part and see how it reacts. To what degree is this part able to take that in from you?

[00:07:22]  Ask the part, what fears around it has around taking in more of this love from you and see if you can just honor and validate those fears.

[00:07:41]  Once you to imagine your next session that you have scheduled with this client, if any, and ask this part, what does this part need from you? Before, during. Or after this next session with the client or any session with this client, [00:08:00] what do they need from you before, during, or after?

[00:08:12]  If you can genuinely offer them that let them know you can offer them that

[00:08:30]  if you're not sure, see if you can just stay in a posture of listening with this part, getting to know it a little better, getting to know its fears a little better, just honoring and validating. Those fears, just being with this part and strengthening this relationship.[00:09:00] 

[00:09:00]  And lastly, I want you to ask this part, what does it need from you as a follow up after today?

[00:09:10]  Maybe the part knows right away. Maybe it doesn't quite know. Maybe it just needs more of you.

[00:09:22]  And if you can offer that offer that

[00:09:34]  this meditation is almost over and you could either choose to still slowly start to wrap it up here, reorienting yourself to your body, to the moment, Getting ready for the rest of your day, maybe journaling about what happened here with this part and this client. Or maybe you're wanting to use this meditation as a jumping off point to just continue your [00:10:00] part's work here on your own.

[00:10:04]  No wrong answers, just see what feels right to you and keep checking with your self energy as you continue the work.

John Clarke
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