RUNNING HEAD: PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC MEDITATION SESSIONS 1

Psychotherapeutic Meditation Sessions Observation

Dolores J. Thackrah

Wilmington University
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I have observed many sessions during my internship at Psychotherapeutic

Meditation Center (PMC) and have found each observation exciting and enlightening;

here are a few notable experiences during these sessions that I have been on observer

of.

The first thing I noticed about these sessions was the diversity of the people who

came to participate. In my own naivety, I was expecting certain cultures to be less open

to the meditation sessions as other but I quickly realized that this was wrong. The

clients that were participating in these sessions were young and old, black, white and

other and come from backgrounds that varied from gambling addiction, substance

abuse and even bullying.

Another thing I found fascinating was the response of the clients to the

meditation practice. All of the clients that participated in the traditional Eastern

meditation stated that they felt light and peaceful after but even the younger clients,

one in particular who was nervous about the traditional meditation was able to

participate in a meditation that included him, simply, listening to the song that took

him to his happy place and then processing the lyrics, what they meant and what they

meant to him. The latter was my favorite session that I observed. I loved that Dr.

Karnik was able to think so quickly and think outside the box and personalized the

meditation session for the young man.

I learned that meditation is not only mantras and candles and incense but that it

could be anything that brought a person peace and just using that thing, in a very

focused fashion and that became the clients meditation. I learned a lot about the power

of positivity during my observations. Dr. Karnik focused on this regardless of the

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client and their situations and truly believed that whatever you put out in the world,

like positivity, will come back to you. I now understand the power of positivity and

am very grateful that I was able to share in the experience.

Overall, all of my observations were positive, educational and enlightening

through my internship. I definitely find myself much more interested in meditation and

Eastern studies as a result of my internship at PMC. I look forward to a future with

PMC, have been offered a job already even but have decided to postpone accepting a

position until I finish my Masters program.