How it began
Tara Rokpa Therapy is a unique system of psychotherapy which brings together ways of working with the mind from West and East. It has been developed over the past twenty-five years by Akong Tulku Rinpoche, Tibetan Lama and physician of traditional Tibetan medicine, in an ongoing collaboration with a small group of Western mental health professionals (psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, art, family and massage therapists). It developed out of Akong Rinpoche’s wish to share his knowledge and insights with Westerners in a form which would be accessible to all, whatever their belief. The resulting therapy has now been presented worldwide and has evolved into a 7 to 8 year programme.
Tara Rokpa Therapy is based on a Mahayana Buddhist model of the mind and holds the Buddhist understanding of compassion at its core. It also draws upon several western psychotherapies, especially the radical/experiential constructivist approach, which holds a compatible philosophical view.
As demand for this work has grown, so also has the need for trained therapists to present it. In 1993 a four year professional Tara Rokpa psychotherapy training was established. A second training was completed in 2001. Since 2004 both the Irish and UK councils for psychotherapy have accredited this training. Many of its graduates hold the European Association of Psychotherapy Certificate. Tara Rokpa Therapy will begin its third four-year professional psychotherapy training in 2007.