Korean dynamic psychotherapy integrated with the Tao

Domain I · Psychodynamic & depth psychology · Rhee Dongshick · 1990 · Korea

What it is

A Korean dynamic psychotherapy. It keeps Western psychoanalytic and existential technique (alliance, history-taking, interpretation, resistance, transference, working through). Its aims and its view of the therapist come from the Eastern Tao traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism (especially Zen),…

Format

• Length and format:
• No standard course length.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Rhee Dongshick's (이동식, Lee Dong-shik, pen name Soam) Taopsychotherapy (도정신치료), as set out in Rhee (1990) and in Rhee's Taopsychotherapy: beyond Freud and Jung (2008). The clinical steps come from the Korean Academy of Psychotherapists (founded 1974) tradition as written up by Oh et al. (2021) and Jeong (2011). Kang Suk-Hun (1990) is used for the training and integration aims. Kang's own distinct…
• Rhee compares insight to Zen's sudden enlightenment and working through to Zen's gradual training. The end point is resolving or transcending dependence (love) and hostility (hate) and seeing reality as it is. How far a client can go depends on how far the therapist has resolved their own nuclear feeling.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• psychoeducation taking the place of feeling. Keep it short.
• the client feeling criticised. Recognise the survival value first.
• the client offering material on their own. That shows the stance is landing.
• interpretations that show off theory. Rhee's "forget the theory" principle argues against them.
• the client getting impatient that it is "the same thing again". Explain that repetition is how it works (4.16).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.