Critical Review of Meditation for Psychotherapists

Having recently read Alexander H. Ross’s Meditation for Psychotherapists, I found it to be an engaging and thoughtful integration of meditation practices with a range of psychotherapeutic modalities. Ross, a psychodynamic psychotherapist working in both the NHS and private practice in London, brings a unique blend of professional expertise and personal meditation experience to the text.
What resonated most with me was the author’s framework of three temporal modes of awareness—mindfulness (recalling), alertness (present awareness), and ardency (future-directed effort)—anchored in concentration and discernment. This structure gave me a clear conceptual map to understand how meditation can be adapted to different therapeutic orientations.

The practical application was particularly valuable. In The Psychoanalytic Stance: Internal Listening, Ross offers a step-by-step exercise for “internal listening” that focuses on noticing and working with countertransference in a calm, grounded way. I found the guided format and accompanying audio resource easy to follow and relevant to real clinical situations. Similarly, in Body-Centred Psychotherapy: Somatic Perspectives, his body scan meditation provided a powerful method for deepening somatic awareness—something I could readily incorporate into work with clients experiencing trauma.

His chapter on Person-Centred Counselling connected deeply with my own practice, demonstrating how meditation can cultivate unconditional positive regard and nonjudgmental presence. These examples reinforced the idea that meditation isn’t just a personal wellness tool but can directly enhance the therapeutic alliance. The application of meditation within person-centred counselling lies in its ability to strengthen a therapist’s capacity for unconditional positive regard, empathic attunement, and nonjudgmental presence. By cultivating mindfulness, counsellors can regulate their own emotional states, reduce reactivity, and remain grounded even when clients express distress or challenging material.

In practice, this translates into deeper listening, greater acceptance, and a therapeutic space where clients feel safe and understood. Beyond its personal regulation benefits, meditation also models self-awareness and compassion, encouraging clients to explore their own inner experience with openness. Psychotherapists can take from this chapter the importance of integrating contemplative practices into their professional development—not as an “add-on” but as an embodied skill that enhances relational depth. It highlights that therapist self-care, reflective presence, and authentic connection are not separate from treatment outcomes but are central to building a healing therapeutic alliance.

Ross’s integration of neuroscience, physiology, and early Buddhist perspectives enriched the material without losing its practical grounding. I appreciated his openness in sharing his own meditative background and the humility with which he presents the material—it never felt prescriptive or dogmatic. His balanced approach allowed complex ideas to remain accessible, weaving theory and lived experience in a way that empowers psychotherapists to adapt meditation authentically within their own practice rather than following rigid techniques, making the book both scholarly and deeply human. That said, I did find certain theoretical passages dense, and I can see how those who prefer strictly empirical texts might struggle with sections that lean toward the contemplative. However, Ross consistently frames meditation as an adjunct to—not a replacement for—formal therapeutic training, which I found both realistic and ethically sound.