Polly Young-Eisendrath

Polly Young-Eisendrath (born 1947) is a psychologist, feminist, author, teacher, speaker, Jungian analyst, Zen Buddhist, and the founder of Enlightening Conversations: Psychoanalysts and Buddhist Teachers Talking About Enlightenment and Awakening. She has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival,[1] TED-X,[2] and is the recipient of the Otto Weininger Award for Lifetime Achievement in Psychoanalysis. Polly maintains a clinical practice of Jungian psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Vermont, U.S.A.

Biography

Raised as a Catholic, Polly Young-Eisendrath was born and grew up in Akron, Ohio, where she graduated first in her class from Akron East High School. As a teenager, Young-Eisendrath worked as a long distance telephone operator.

Young-Eisendrath attended Ohio University where she met, among other scholars, Huston Smith. Smith's work in comparative religions had a profound and transformative influence on her, leading her to search for a religion that was not fundamentally ritualistic or dogmatic, but experiential and connected with daily life.

Buddhism

Young-Eisendrath began Zen training in 1970 at Rochester Zen Center with Philip Kapleau Roshi when she became a student of Shinzen Young in 1998. She is currently a Mindfulness and Dharma teacher in the tradition of Shinzen Young, and practices both Soto Zen and Vipassana, and has also practiced Phowa with his Eminence Ayang Rinpoche and with Anyen Rinpoche. She directs Waysmeet Sangha, a friendship-based Buddhist sangha, which she hosts in Vermont.

Education and career

Young-Eisendrath attended Ohio University (OU) from 1965–1970 and graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors in English Literature. While at OU, Young-Eisendrath was an Ohio Fellow and a student in the Honors College. She earned a Masters of Arts from Goddard College, a Masters of Social Work in Clinical Social Work and a Ph.D. in Developmental and Counseling Psychology from Washington University. She is also a diplomate Jungian Analyst and completed her training through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. She has maintained an independent clinical practice as a psychologist since 1982: in Pennsylvania from 1982 - 1994 and in Vermont since 1992. She has been a Clinical Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College since 1994 and is a Clinical Supervisor at the Norwich Univeristy Counseling Service.

A prolific writer, Young-Eisendrath has published fifteen books and numerous academic articles. She is influential in the fields of Jungian analysis, feminist psychology, and the application of Zen Buddhist concepts to psychoanalytic theory. Translated into twelve languages, her books have been characterized as "scholarly and thoughtful, yet totally accessible,"[3] and "incisive, persuasive, practical and wise."[4]

With her late husband, Ed Epstein, she created Dialogue Therapy for Couples, a time-limited couples therapy done by one or two therapists, designed to help couples to handle their conflicts respectfully through the use of a combination of psychoanalysis, mindfulness and psychodrama. Epstein died of Alzheimer's disease in 2014 and Young-Eisendrath's memoir of the experience, The Present Heart: A Voyage of Love, Loss and Discovery, narrates the process of the disease from the lens of a practicing Buddhist, offering insight into methods of coping with loss, death and grief.

Young-Eisendrath is the director of the Mustard Seed Project: Research and Application of a Buddhist Model for Transforming Loss and Bereavement, and the Founder and Director of Enlightening Conversations: Psychoanalysts and Buddhist Teachers Talking about Enlightenment and Awakening, which was described by Mark Matouse in Psychology Today as "fascinating, potentially life-changing."[5]

Bibliography

Published works

External links

References

  1. Aspen Institute. “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy: Overparenting and Its Perils.” Accessed November 4, 2016
  2. TEDxMiddlebury 2013. "Getting Free of Self-Importance Is the Key to Happiness: Polly Young-Eisendrath at TEDxMiddlebury." TEDx. TEDx, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 03 Sept. 2016
  3. Kirkus Reviews. "YOU'RE NOT WHAT I EXPECTED by Polly Young-Eisendrath | Kirkus Reviews." Rev. of You're Not What I Expected. Kirkus Reviews 10 May 1993: n. pag. Kirkus Reviews. Web. 31 Aug. 2016
  4. Hallowell, Edward, MD. (2008) Cover Review of the book The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Children in An Age of Self Importance, by Polly Young-Eisendrath
  5. Matousek, Mark. "Two Ways to Listen: A Visit to "Enlightening Conversations" Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 10 July 2014. Web. 31 Aug. 2016
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