Tao Studies Center (Dr. Dennis Pearne)

East Meets West

I have moved along from my 40-year mainstream practice in psychotherapy to founding an alternative, non-profit institute, the Tao Studies Center, in Framingham, MA.  The therapy work here is the study and practice of Chinese health and self-healing, especially through the wisdom of the Tao, as put forth in the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, an early and unwitting purveyor of Taoist philosophy — and also through the study and use of the many Tao-influenced disciplines evolved and practiced in China and throughout the world for centuries.

Some of these practices include the popular self-discovery art taught in I Ching: the Book of Changes; the practices of Tai Chi and Qi Gong; the immense body of knowledge comprised in Chinese  Medicine, Acupressure, and Acupuncture; the relational and loving arts in the Kama Sutra; and the elevation of music, poetry, and visual arts so that they are key elements in modulating states-of-consciousness and states-of-health. Those who are musicians and artists may find this arts/self-discovery work to be especially deep, exciting, and self-revealing.

“Taoism”  is not a religion, or some god that requires worship and prostration. It is a philosophy for health in daily life, minimizing or moving through conflict, and harmonizing with nature, often in surprising ways.

From the beginning of our work, you and I assess the reasons you have come, consider all the tools available, watching for how your individual therapy would be addressed and furthered by working with one or more of the manifestations of wisdom mentioned above.  I also have come to believe that for anybody doing this work, it is furthered, if not dependent on, study of the poetic/philosophical Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, referenced above, which we can do together at your pace.