premedical and medical students who participated in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction training. It found
that the mindfulness group had significantly higher self-reported empathy than a control group (Shapiro, Schwartz, &
Bonner, 1998). In 2006, a qualitative study of therapists who
were experienced meditators found that they believed that
mindfulness meditation helped develop empathy toward clients
(Aiken, 2006). Along similar lines, Wang (2007) found that
therapists who were experienced mindfulness meditators scored
higher on measures of self-reported empathy than therapists
who did not meditate.
Compassion. Mindfulness-based stress reduction training
has also been found to enhance self-compassion among health-care professionals (Shapiro, Astin, Bishop, & Cordova, 2005)
and therapist trainees (Shapiro, Brown, & Biegel, 2007). In
2009, Kingsbury investigated the role of self-compassion in
relation to mindfulness. Two components of mindfulness —
nonjudging and nonreacting — were strongly correlated with
self-compassion, as were two dimensions of empathy — taking
on others’ perspectives (i.e., perspective taking) and reacting to
others’ affective experiences with discomfort. Self-compassion
fully mediated the relationship between perspective taking and
mindfulness.
Counseling skills. Empirical literature demonstrates
that including mindfulness interventions in psychotherapy
training may help therapists develop skills that make them
more effective. In a four-year qualitative study, for example,
counseling students who took a 15-week course that included
mindfulness meditation reported that mindfulness practice
enabled them to be more attentive to the therapy process, more
comfortable with silence, and more attuned with themselves
and clients (Newsome, Christopher, Dahlen, & Christopher,
2006; Schure, Christopher, & Christopher, 2008). Counselors
in training who have participated in similar mindfulness-based interventions have reported significant increases in self-awareness, insights about their professional identity (Birnbaum,
2008) and overall wellness (Rybak & Russell-Chapin, 1998).
Decreased stress and anxiety. Research found that premedical
and medical students reported less anxiety and depressive
symptoms after participating in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction training compared with a waiting list
control group (Shapiro et al., 1998). The control group evidenced
similar gains after exposure to mindfulness-based stress
reduction training. Similarly, following such training, therapist
trainees have reported decreased stress, rumination and negative
affect (Shapiro et al., 2007). In addition, when compared with a
control group, mindfulness-based stress reduction training has
been shown to decrease total mood disturbance, including stress,
anxiety and fatigue in medical students (Rosenzweig, Reibel,
Greeson, Brainard, & Hojat, 2003).
Better quality of life. Using qualitative and quantitative
measures, nursing students reported better quality of life and
a significant decrease in negative psychological symptoms
68
following exposure to mindfulness-based stress reduction
training (Bruce, Young, Turner, Vander Wal, & Linden,
2002). Evidence from a study of counselor trainees exposed
to interpersonal mindfulness training suggests that such
interventions can foster emotional intelligence and social
connectedness, and reduce stress and anxiety (Cohen &
Miller, 2009).
Similarly, in a study of Chinese college students, those
students who were randomly assigned to participate in a
mindfulness meditation intervention had lower depression
and anxiety, as well as less fatigue, anger and stress-related
cortisol compared to a control group (Tang et al., 2007).
These same students had greater attention, self-regulation and
immunoreactivity. Another study assessed changes in symptoms
of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among
New Orleans mental health workers following an eight-week
meditation intervention that began 10 weeks after Hurricane
Katrina. Although changes in depression symptoms were not
found, PTSD and anxiety symptoms significantly decreased
after the intervention (Waelde et al., 2008). The findings suggest
that meditation may serve a buffering role for mental health
workers in the wake of a disaster.
Other benefits for therapists. To date, only one study
has investigated the relationship between mindfulness and
counseling self-efficacy. Greason and Cashwell (2009) found
that counseling self-efficacy was significantly predicted by self-reported mindfulness among masters-level interns and doctoral
counseling students. In that study, attention mediated the
relationship between mindfulness and self-efficacy, suggesting
that mindfulness may contribute to the development of
beneficial attentional processes that aid psychotherapists in
training (Greason & Cashwell, 2009). Other potential benefits of
mindfulness include increased patience, intentionality, gratitude
and body awareness (Rothaupt & Morgan, 2007).
Outcomes of clients whose therapists meditate
While research points to the conclusion that mindfulness
meditation offers numerous benefits to therapists and trainees,
do these benefits translate to psychotherapy treatment
outcomes?
So far, only one study suggests it does. In a study conducted
in Germany, randomly assigned counselor trainees who
practiced Zen meditation for nine weeks reported higher self-awareness compared with nonmeditating counselor trainees
(Grepmair et al., 2007). But more important, after nine weeks of
treatment, clients of trainees who meditated displayed greater
reductions in overall symptoms, faster rates of change, scored
higher on measures of well-being and perceived their treatment
to be more effective than clients of nonmeditating trainees.
However, the results of three other studies were not as
encouraging. Stanley et al. (2006) studied the relationship between
trait mindfulness among 23 doctoral-level clinical psychology
trainees in relation to treatment outcomes of 144 adult clients at
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