Mindfulness Therapy
What is Mindfulness Therapy?
As a practice, mindfulness is more than 3000 years old, with roots in eastern philosophy.
Used in clinical practice today, mindfulness-based therapies focus on:
learning to centre your attention in the present
letting go of resistance and the struggle against distress
taking a non-judgemental attitude
developing a calm, non-reactive mindset.
Various forward-thinking clinicians have adapted traditional Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to include mindfulness. Examples include Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and many more.
These have been called the “third wave” of the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tradition.
What conditions can be treated with Mindfulness Therapy?
Mindfulness Therapy can:
reduce rumination (frequent unhelpful pondering or musing about something)
promote acceptance of difficulty (such as emotional distress or physical pain)
reduce reactivity, resistance and avoidance
allow you to better appreciate positive, joyful experiences.
Mindfulness-based approaches can also help to change your relationship to distress or pain. Often, our strong resistance or intolerance to emotional and physical pain can actually worsen and prolong it.
Mindfulness approaches help you learn to sit more comfortably and become more able to tolerate unwanted feelings. This can allow you to move through difficult periods more effectively and also help you make more helpful and less reactive decisions.
Why do we practice Mindfulness Therapy at Peter Walker & Associates?
Our experienced clinical psychologists use mindfulness-based therapies to help you manage emotional challenges and live your life as fully as possible.
The therapeutic techniques we use are backed by evidence-based research which aligns with our approach to practice and we have seen many cases where they have worked for our clients.
How our clinicians use Mindfulness Therapy for treatment
Mindfulness Therapy treatment will look a bit different for every person because it is tailored to your specific concerns.
All mindfulness therapies take an experiential approach, which means you learn and grow through practice of the techniques.
Most often, this involves learning through various meditation practices. This can help you gain greater control of your attention, along with the ability to separate yourself from self-defeating or anxiety-promoting thought processes.
When we teach mindfulness, we usually start with the meditation techniques you may have tried in a local yoga or meditation class. You’ll be encouraged to bring awareness to your breath. When your focus drifts (as everyone’s does), you’re encouraged to notice where you’ve drifted to. Then, you’re gently prompted to bring your awareness back, again and again.
Next, we move on to include other exercises, such as the “body scan” or mindfulness of thought.
The ultimate goal is to equip you to develop a mindful mental state – and get into the habit of doing this regularly.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is an evidence-based psychological therapy. It aims to help you “get out of your mind and into your life”, as the approach’s originator Stephen Hayes stated. This approach can be adapted to assist with most forms of human distress. It can therefore be used to treat a wide range of mental and physical conditions.
ACT can be divided into six main parts, which you and your psychologist adapt to your specific problem. The approach focuses on:
- developing mindfulness practices
- learning strategies to disengage from unhelpful thinking styles (cognitive defusion)
- identifying your personal values and committing to actions that are consistent with them
- developing acceptance techniques to counteract excessive avoidance of unwanted experiences.