Our Approach
For more than three decades Karuna Institute has been offering accredited psychotherapy trainings that synthesise a Buddhist understanding of the nature of body-mind with a diverse integration of personality theory and psychotherapeutic practice.
Training at Karuna Institute is a unique experience. By joining our courses you enter into a profound exploration of what it means to be human. Our teaching draws from Buddhism, transpersonal understanding, trauma theory, attachment theory, psychodynamics, humanistic psychology and cultural exploration.
This is a deeply experiential training. Central to every year is the development of the inner ground of the psychotherapist. We journey into our personal histories and develop our own supportive practices, such as Mindfulness. Each module includes time for meditation practice as well as taught theory, skills development, and group work.
We enquire at depth into the nature of suffering, exploring processes of conditioning including personal, intersectional and cultural. Our training opens us to the potentiality of transformation that emerges through relational mindfulness. Central to this possibility is the cultivation of compassion and the responsive internal ground of the therapist.
Our courses are founded on the development of embodied awareness, presence, and open-heartedness in relationship. We believe our modality offers a truly integrative model of modern psychotherapy. It is our hope to offer a compassionate response, as we all seek to find ways to meet both the individual and collective challenges of our times.
Karuna Institute is committed to actively promoting and developing a culture that promotes inclusivity, diversity, and openness as an organisation and in all our trainings. Understanding systemic models of intersectionality, power and transgenerational conditioning is central to training with us.
The group is the heart of the transformational journey and students can develop lifelong meaningful friendships and collegiate relationships. It is our hope that training at Karuna will be a life changing and transformative experience.