Healing Stress with Pillar Jenings

Learn methods for transforming anxiety into heightened awareness and insight.
Be able to identify primary causes, both historical and current, for anxiety and apply needed antidotes to the symptoms generated by anxiety.
Learn to utilize the autonomic nervous system as a signal for increased reflection, that reduces anxiety and its aftermath.
Develop tools for working with anxiety as a psychological indicator that needed change is on the horizon.
Enhance abilities to express and navigate anxiety within interpersonal relationships, fostering a more open and supportive dialogue.
Learn to utilize creative outlets such as art, writing, or movement as alternative avenues for self-discovery and emotional release.

The brain is the central organ for adapting to experiences whether or not we call them “stressful”. With adaptation, the brain changes its architecture and alters systemic function via regulation of neuroendocrine, autonomic, immune, and metabolic systems. Those systems, in turn, alter brain structure and function, including their effects upon higher cognitive function, mood, and self-regulation. The healthy brain has a considerable capacity for resilience in the aftermath of stressors or health damaging behaviors but when it “gets stuck” it may need external intervention. This is based upon its ability to respond to interventions designed to open “windows of plasticity” and redirect its function toward better health.

The true nature of our mind is brilliant, clear, and joyful. But we don't experience this reality amid the swirl of stresses, thoughts, and emotions of day-to-day life. This talk will offer practical suggestions on uncovering our naturally comfortable state of mind and reconnecting with the unconditional happiness that is already within us. Using straightforward, accessible language, Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche discusses the path of Pristine Mind meditation, a practice from the profound teachings known as Dzogchen. This path is a realistic, natural process that can be practiced and experienced by anyone.

Why and how some individuals are more resilient and others more vulnerable, is a question that has perplexed me and other scientists who study trauma and the clinicians who work with the survivors. Polyvagal Theory provides a conceptualization of how physiological state and the regulation of physiology were intertwined in both resilience and vulnerability. The theory helped fill a gap in our understanding of human behavior and provided an understanding of the mechanisms that determine vulnerability to traumatic events.

Pilar Jennings is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She received her Ph.D. in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary, and has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2000. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; and teaches internationally on the intersection of Buddhist psychology and psychoanalysis. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications; 2010), and a memoir about her entry into clinical work: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism & Psychotherapy in Action (Shambhala; 2017).

Healing Stress

A Buddhist & Psychoanalytic Approach to Working with Anxiety in Body, Mind & Spirit