Barbara Miller Fishman, Ph.D. is an author, psychotherapist, and meditation teacher who has extensive experience working with people on a psychological and spiritual path toward healing and wholeness. After years of working with women as a psychotherapist, she developed the discipline of Mindfulness Psychotherapy, a combination of mindfulness meditation and psychotherapy.
Fishman’s book, Emotional Healing through Mindfulness Meditation: Stories and Meditations on the Search for Wholeness (Inner Traditions, 2002), features healing stories of eight women who faced serious trouble before discovering the will to walk “on the path toward wholeness.”
Excerpts from her web site, EmotionalHealing.net:
“This commitment came with a heavy price. If they wanted to truly live, they had to penetrate the inner turmoil that comes with trouble, be it shame, despair, or any one of a number of difficult emotions… Getting to know the emotions that drove the old patterns, the women felt more grounded… Emotions that once raged became quiet. The women felt at peace with themselves; they had more energy for life.”
Fishman writes about the importance of naming the emotions that accompany trouble. “Naming these emotions, even if it is painful, produces a more authentic, genuine response to life.”
She also writes about “cultivating complete acceptance,” and “developing equanimity” – referring to emotions that are in balance.
“After each story, you’ll find the instructions for a mindfulness meditation. Taken together, these meditations are a course in what I call Mindfulness Psychotherapy. Try taking the course; perhaps it will help you heal your own emotions. For those who prefer to hear rather than read, an accompanying 70 minute CD provides four of the meditations.”
“The narratives are punctuated at points when the women had insights that shifted the ground on which they stood, if only a millimeter or two. These insights led them to make choices that freed them from patterned, habitual behavior and moved them forward on their path toward wholeness.”
In her blog, Barbara Miller Fishman writes, “If an emotion is too powerful, it overrides other emotions. When that happens, it’s important to look for the presence of other feeling states (body sensations indicative of an emotion.)”
Fishman, who lives in Pennsylvania, is also co-author of Resonance: The New Chemistry of Love.
Web Site: EmotionalHealing.net
Blog: meditationexperience.blogspot.com