Something that's similar to this is 'Acceptance and commitment therapy' or ACT. This therapy may have been influenced by Zen. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy | Psychology Today
I practice Zen Buddhism. I cringe every time someone uses the term "Zen master". It is not a term I've ever heard used by any of my teachers. The Japanese term "zenji" is generally appended only to patriarchs, such as Eihei Dogen, the 13th century founder of my lineage. The most seminal teacher in my life would've laughed, once, if you innocently called him "Zen master"; he didn't even accept the honorific "sensei" {teacher), even though he'd been practicing almost as long as I'd been alive. The sine qua non of Zen is zazen; Zen meditation. Zen is the most meditation-intensive of all of the schools of Buddhism. Odd that someone doing a presentation on Zen wouldn't mention it. If I have a broken leg, please take me to the ER; not the zendo! Mental illness is an illness, which can be just as debilitating and deadly as physiological illnesses, and should be regarded with the same sense of urgency. While I have found my Zen practice to be enormously helpful, it is at best an adjunct; not a substitute for adequate mental health treatment, and is not for everyone. Without proper tutelage, some people with some psychiatric disorders have actually found it harmful.
I briefly corresponded with Ricard Rose of Pyramid Zen and one of my friends went to many of his talks. But I disagreed at the time with a zen "master" promoting zen so I stopped the correspondence. I still have some stuff he sent me.
When it's said that we can't control our thoughts which types of thoughts are these? There are thoughts we can control. If I want to consciously think of eating a certain food I can do that. If I want to think or imagine myself being in a certain place I can do that.
The human mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master; no enemy on Earth can wound you like your own undisciplined mind. Humans have approximately 6,000 thoughts per day, and many people exert little to no control over them. Most of these thoughts are simply rote reactions to stimuli based upon a mixture of prior experience, preferences, prejudices, and what Thich Nhat Hanh calls "habit energy"; arising with little or no more consideration than those of Pavlov's dog. This is not necessarily a bad thing; imagine the line at Starbuck's if everyone took the time to minutely examine every item on the menu, and did a careful comparative analysis of each and every offering, option, and combination. However, many thoughts are at best unhelpful; some irrelevant, some mistaken, and some are downright harmful. With consistent practice, we can train our minds to more judiciously choose which thoughts to attend to, and which to ignore. Robbed of the energy of our belief and attention, with consistent practice much of the discordant nonsense in our heads gradually dissipates. While zazen may be essentially goalless in nature, what might be considered as a salubrious side effect of consistent practice is that much of the frivolous and extraneous in our mind seems to fade away as it becomes less compelling, and the flood of thought subsides. As the torrent of thought seems to slow, space opens up between stimulus and response, giving us a precious moment to choose between our usual knee-jerk reaction and a more considered, nuanced, and hopefully skillful response. Everyone understands the need for physical training of the body, but few consider the need to train the mind as well.
