Kaif Mahmood

M.Phil. in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Ambedkar University, Delhi, India;
M.A. in Psychosocial Clinical Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi, India;
M.Phil. in Religious Studies (Specialisation - Indian Religious Traditions and the Psychology of Religion), University of Cambridge, UK.

Tuesdays to Saturdays

For clients outside India, $85 for a 90-minute session. Somewhat flexible if the client is unable to afford this fee.

Non-duality is a contemporary word for an ancient perception that all that we perceive in our inner and outer worlds, from our emotions and thoughts to objects and other persons, emerge from a silent, imperceptible, yet deeply present reality that is the ground of all being.

Non-duality is not a belief that someone needs to be converted into. It is an experience that one can have when one enters the witnessing space, and simply observes the emotions, sensations and thoughts in our consciousness at this moment, without grasping at anything in particular or avoiding anything.

Emotional pain, as also physical pain, is an invitation to deepen this perception and immerse oneself into deeper layers of this perception, for this perception is not something we come to once and for all time, but a journey we are on that is ever refining itself.

An open, explorative conversation with another human being who understands such a perspective on reality can help us deepen our own relationship to it.

When we perceive things in this way, we see that there is a letting go of our defences against painful emotions and sensations, as against new, unexpected emotions and sensations.We are able to feel, express and understand more of our reality.

This has a therapeutic effect of reducing our sense of struggle in day to day life, and softening the harsh intensity of painful emotions. It also has a contemplative aspect of helping us understand our inner and outer world more deeply.

The therapist is simply a companion. The moment he becomes an authority figure for you, you are not in a relaxed, explorative state of consciousness, but rather, in a grasping and avoidant state, since authority evokes both a sense of control that we grasp at by identifying with the authoritative person and a sense of fear that we avoid.

English, Hindi, Urdu