Mindfulness as a Therapeutic Tool

Mindfulness is not the answer to everything. It is too easy to over-sell the benefits of mindfulness, especially at a time when its use is becoming more popular. I have seen mindfulness bring about major benefits in the lives of some clients – and make no difference at all to others. In many of the cases mentioned above, mindfulness revealed to the client what he or she needed to work on – in doing so, mindfulness practice performed a valuable service but it was not the beginning and end of a solution.

Different people need different kinds of mindfulness. People who live in their heads, endlessly analysing their own thoughts need to be steered towards mindfulness of the external world, of sights, sounds and other people. On the other hand, if you are doing CBT with a client, mindfulness of thoughts or of emotions may be helpful – this is similar to the practice of ‘spotting’ as used by members of Recovery Inc.

Mindfulness is not an anaesthetic. Mindfulness is sometimes promoted as a means of relaxation and stress reduction. But while mindfulness reduces stress, its main value is in revealing what needs to be done and sometimes what needs to be done is painful. For instance, the person who uses mindfulness during panic attacks – an approach I advocate – can expect to feel emotional distress during the attack.

Mindfulness may be unhelpful to some psychiatric patients. When the Buddhist teacher and writer Jack Kornfield worked at a state mental hospital in the US, he tried to teach meditation to some of the patients. “It quickly became obvious that meditation was not what they needed. These people had little ability to bring a balanced attention to their lives, and most of them were already lost in their minds. If any meditation was useful to them, it would have to be one that was earthy and grounded: yoga, gardening, tai chi, active practices that could connect them to their bodies.” (Kornfield, 2002).

Caution clients about the temporary euphoric effect. Sometimes persons beginning to practice mindfulness experience a beautiful sense of calm and clarity. It does no harm but it doesn’t last. If a client reports that he or she is having this experience it is worth telling them gently that the effect will fade and that there is nothing to be gained from trying to get it back.

When introducing mindfulness, get the timing right. As with everything else in counselling, there is little point in introducing mindfulness until the client feels heard and understood. Sometimes it is helpful to introduce mindfulness towards the end of the first session as a technique which might help. At other times it may only become appropriate to introduce mindfulness at a second or subsequent session. And at times it may not be appropriate at all. This is a matter of judgement and of that sense of what it is right to do and when it is right to do it that counsellors gradually develop.

Mindfulness of the body may be too difficult following physical attack or torture. I am indebted to a participant in one of my workshops for the information that persons who have been tortured can find mindfulness of the body or of breathing quite difficult and frightening. In such cases, mindfulness of one’s surroundings, of sounds, of colours and of other aspects of external reaction may be helpful.