Monitor on Psychology - July/August 2012

Table 1
Examples of mindfulness-based interventions for clients
Benefits
Practical mindfulness-based interventions to use with clients
Emotion regulation

“Can you stay with what is happening right now? ... Can you breathe with what is happening right now?” 1

“What can you tell me about your experience right now? Notice any changes in your feeling, however subtle.” 2

Decreased reactivity and increased response flexibility Interpersonal benefits Intrapersonal benefits

Slowly scan your entire body starting at your toes. Notice any sensations in your body without trying to change them. 3

For couples: Face each other, look into each other’s eyes and notice what reactions, feelings and thoughts arise. 5

Therapist and client can practice mindfulness meditation together during the therapy session. 6

Can you allow and accept this feeling and stay in touch with it without reacting to it? If not, what is happening in your experience that’s reacting to this feeling? 4

For couples: Face each other, look into each other’s eyes, and practice sending loving-kindness to one another. 5

Informal daily practice can include: walking and eating meditations, such as mentally saying “lifting ... stepping forward ... heel touching ... toe touching ... lifting ...” when walking. 7

Footnotes: 1 (Morgan, 2005, p. 135). 2 (Morgan, 2005, p. 138). 3 (Body Scan, Kabat-Zinn, 1990). 4 (Adapted from Didonna, 2009b).

5 (MBRE, Carson et al., 2006). 6 (Lysack, 2005). 7 (Germer, 2005, p. 14).

pathways that were created by prior learning and enables present-moment input to be integrated in a new way (Siegel, 2007a). Meditation also activates the brain region associated with more adaptive responses to stressful or negative situations (Cahn & Polich, 2006; Davidson et al., 2003). Activation of this region corresponds with faster recovery to baseline after being negatively provoked (Davidson, 2000; Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000).

Relationship satisfaction. Several studies find that a person’s ability to be mindful can help predict relationship satisfaction — the ability to respond well to relationship stress and the skill in communicating one’s emotions to a partner. Empirical evidence suggests that mindfulness protects against the emotionally stressful effects of relationship conflict (Barnes et al., 2007), is positively associated with the ability to express oneself in various social situations (Dekeyser el al., 2008) and predicts relationship satisfaction (Barnes et al., 2007; Wachs & Cordova, 2007).

Other benefits. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance self-insight, morality, intuition and fear modulation, all functions associated with the brain’s middle prefrontal lobe area. Evidence

JULY/AUGUST 2012 • MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY

also suggests that mindfulness meditation has numerous health benefits, including increased immune functioning (Davidson et al., 2003; see Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004 for a review of physical health benefits), improvement to well-being (Carmody & Baer, 2008) and reduction in psychological distress (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Ostafin et al., 2006). In addition, mindfulness meditation practice appears to increase information processing speed (Moore & Malinowski, 2009), as well as decrease task effort and having thoughts that are unrelated to the task at hand (Lutz et al., 2009).

The effects of meditation on therapists
and therapist trainees

While many studies have been conducted on the benefits of applying mindfulness approaches to psychotherapy clients (for reviews, see Didonna, 2009 and Baer, 2006), research on the effects of mindfulness on psychotherapists is just beginning to emerge. Specifically, research has identified these benefits for psychotherapists who practice mindfulness meditation: