Skip to content 
According to the University of Toronto, Buddhist psychology is defined as the deep understanding of yourself, your choices, actions, emotions, and ideas.
The buddhist school of thought believes that truly knowing yourself and possessing a transformative attitude are essential to achieving happiness.
And we couldn’t agree more.
Buddhist psychology also focuses on the lessening of human suffering, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction.
However, it’s important to note that the Buddhist idea of suffering may slightly differ from the mainstream.
It includes the complete range of human unhappiness, and not just the diagnosis of disorders that psychology uses to measure mental health.
That means everything from little everyday events, like getting in a small argument with a friend, to bigger circumstances, such as a tough breakup or the death of a loved one.
Buddhism and psychology share a central tenet: that much of human behavior is unconscious and the more conscious awareness we bring into our lives, the more present we can be.
Using mindfulness and Buddhist principles incorporated with psychological interventions, we will strive to penetrate the conscious mind and unveil the deepest and most powerful force in our lives: the unconscious.
When you notice a discrepancy between the kind of life you want to live and the life you are actually living, it usually means there is a disconnect between the unconscious and the conscious mind.
This split can lead to anxiety, depression, addiction and relationship problems.
Our task is to bring greater consciousness to every part of our lives.
As we bridge the gap and embrace every part of ourselves, we create a sense of wholeness, integration, and peace.
We’re so confident in our extraordinary therapists that we guarantee you’ll love your match – or your money back.
At My LA Therapy, our highly-vetted Anxiety experts are selected not only for their clinical acumen but for who they are.
As mentioned above, Buddhism and Psychology share many of the same principles.
Like Psychology, Buddhism embraces the principles of compassion for self and others, mindfulness, non-judgmental awareness, non-resistance, and embracing the polarities and paradoxes in life.
Through this integrated approach, together we will learn to enter into the present moment, learning neither to cling to what we may perceive as pleasant nor to avoid what we may perceive as unpleasant.
Much of the suffering we experience is perpetuated by trying to control the uncontrollable.
As we let go and enter into the present moment, without avoidance or clinging, we find freedom and peace unlike we’ve never experienced before.
Consciousness is also a monumental part of Buddhism.
While a lot of psychological methods have ignored consciousness, it’s a central focus in Buddhist ideology.
Mainstream Psychology prioritizes the science of experience, while Buddhism promotes the feeling of subjective experiences.
Every truth—it seems—is a paradox.
Which is why a strictly deductive and rigidly applied system of thinking can wreak so much unforeseen damage in our lives.
Through Buddhist principles and mindfulness, we will strive to deconstruct the limiting categories of our minds that categorize things into good and bad, right and wrong, and black and white.
This dichotomous mentality contributes to a distorted worldview, which accounts for so much of the anxiety, shame, and depression we experience.
According to the University of Toronto, Buddhist psychology has five main components:
With a Buddhist-based approach to therapy, we will draw you into a different kind of existence—a way of being in which you are more present and aware of your experience, rather than addicted to your thoughts, attachments, and your illusory sense of control.
As the former system melts away, you will begin to connect with and embody a more authentic, alive, and peaceful self.
To experience true and lasting joy in our life, we must face and conquer our pain by healing our underlying trauma and confronting our fears.
Therapy can successfully improve your life by helping you minimize the anxiety in your life, identify and change underlying thought and behavioral patterns that contribute to your struggles, and provide you with strategies to decrease discomfort while restoring an overall sense of peace.
Mindfulness has been empirically validated to reduce anxiety and depression, improve mood and focus, and even improve your sex life and relationships.
Clinical Director, Founder, Therapist
Therapist
Therapist
I am blown away! I don’t write testimonials, unless I have been extremely moved by something. I was blessed to work with Brooke on a single session, and before this I was in therapy on and off with multiple therapists for the last 20 years of my life. Brooke was able to do more in one session than many years of work with my previous therapist. She has the true gift of great insight and compassion while also getting straight to the heart of your blind spots and unconscious issues in a way that has truly changed my life.
Skyler J.
There are people who are good at their work there are people like Brooke: who are born to do it. I cannot recommend Brooke more highly. I can only imagine where I would be today if I had started working with her years ago. From the beginning of our session, she knew exactly what tools and questions that would work for my particular psychology and my personal experience. No other therapist has been able to do that or anything close.
What I also really appreciate from our session is Brooke's ability to go directly to the source of the issue while also keeping a very gentle and kind energy with me. I felt very seen, understood, and supported. Everything and more that I could have ever asked for from a therapist. I have a severe trauma history and complex issues she was able to immediately identify and help. If she could help me, I know she can help you too.
Taylor E.
You did more in 45 minutes than my last therapist did in a year.
Jamie
With your help, I've finally started to understand that while my vivid imagination often wants to create terrifying monsters under the bed, in a lot of cases those monsters are nothing more than a heap of decidedly less-terrifying laundry I've avoided for too long that just needs to be aired out and put away. Which is definitely a lot easier than monster slaying. Thank you for shedding light in the dark places I was too afraid to face alone.
Morgan B.
I am extremely fortunate to work with Sydney, who is helping me create real internal change. The talent to listen well is Hall of Fame stuff, and she has that. She then follows with questions, strategies that are organic to the moment. I have come to believe that deep, radical, if occasionally deeply painful change ... and, then, healing can happen. I'm just at the lip of that last part - but would not have gotten there, AT ALL, without Sydney
Ric K.
The best therapist ever! Life-changing 🙂
Catherine H.
Right now, the work is changing my life, sometimes in inches, sometimes in miles.
Ric K.
