ZEN
ZEN THERAPY
The teacher (therapist) and the student (patient) meet. The therapist teaches the patient a way to understand themselves by analyzing their personality structure. The student learns concentration via meditation. Self-awareness and insight are built from analysis of one’s behavior. Behavioral and character change stem from thinking and acting in the here and now from the here and now. Zen therapy.
ZEN THERAPY
ANDREW ARCHER, LICSW
Andrew Archer, LICSW founded Minnesota Mental Health Services in 2017. He is a clinical social worker, author, meditation instructor, and national speaker. Andrew is the host of “The Subversive Therapist” podcast, which examines Big Tech, mass shootings, Transactional Analysis, and Zen. Andrew has also been a professor in various academic settings including the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives with his wife Lindsay and their three children (ages 7, 5, and 3) in Mankato.
I'm a teacher and a student. As a teacher, I teach Transactional Analysis and a form of meditation practice for concentration. As a student, I meet with you for one hour in our first meeting. We sit down to learn the story of your life.
THE SUBVERSIVE THERAPIST
PODCAST
ABOUT ZEN THERAPY
AND TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
The founder of Transactional Analysis, psychiatrist Eric Berne, MD, outlined a personality structure as well as methods of combating passivity and optimizing an individual’s ability to control their own states of mind. The central features of Transactional Analysis are how one spends their time (time structure), how we enter into symbiotic relationships that result in passivity (adaptations), and how we can develop social control.
The three ego states of Transactional Analysis are Parent, Adult and Child. These three states are distinct, separate, contradictory, and autonomous. They each have their own voice, body language, rhetoric, and vocabulary. The three separate ego states make up the structure of the personality, which means there are essentially three different personalities (people) in your head. To put it simply, each of us has a copied version of our parents' (Parent) in our heads as well as the one that feels like our own or “me” (Child), which was internally programmed. But, there is a third ego state called the Adult. When we were babies we developed the awareness that we could move our bodies (locomotion) in order to move and appraise our environmental conditions. Therefore, the Adult (mindful) is a state of mind for survival via learning.
The psychotherapist Muriel James summarized how this mindful and analytical method frees us up to be a Real Person: "With the use of Transactional Analysis techniques, therapists, as well as patients, have the opportunity to become free—-free to be “real” because they have attained some measure of autonomy." We are all interdependent and interconnected. Autonomy is a mature balance of dependence and independence. I will help you help yourself. You will think for yourself (autonomously) as you undermine the authority of your cultural conditioning (Zen).
The method of this therapy is based on a teacher-student relationship. The therapist will teach you meditation, i.e., zazen, and learn with you using Transactional Analysis. Why? To cure you of your problem. What is the problem? The problem is most of us made a decision when we were little as to how we would be as a person, how to understand other people, and most importantly, how to live our life: “Never again will I…” or, “I’ll always…” because “Nobody is going to…”. We are following a life Script based on an existential position (e.g., I’m Not OK, You’re OK), which is promoted by the Games we play in relationships. How do I change? You learn how to control yourself through self-study, interpersonal analysis, and meditation practice (mind control).
We structure our time playing psychological Games with people. Part of us knows that we are intentionally being a jerk in situations, but, lo and behold, despite this so-called self-knowledge you continue to repeat destructive patterns. Why do you keep doing that thing that causes people pain and anguish? It is unfortunately part of our human nature to be competitively selfish and self-destructive.
The Games were taught to us by our parents and these Games further the life Script. The Script is an artificial blueprint for how to live your life based on a Decision in childhood. The Script answers three questions: Who am I? What am I supposed to do? And, who are these other people?
“Andrew taught me to incorporate mindfulness into my daily life... to control my anxiety and feelings by recognizing them and working through them. I was able to live without any meds from doctors and live naturally, all from being more mindful!”
—34 Year Old Male, Patient