Journal Club Week 1: Effects of mindfulness on psychological health

Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: A review of empirical studies.

Article Can Be Found: Here

One common definition of mindfulness:

The awareness that arises through “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4)

Primary, essential elements of mindfulness in clinical psychology:

Awareness of one's moment-to-moment experience nonjudgmentally and with acceptance

(Acceptance concept in mindfulness: the ability to experience events fully, without resorting to either extreme of excessive preoccupation with, or suppression of, the experience).

Clinical intervention programs:

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1982)

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999)

Questionnaires assessing mindfulness:

            Trait-like tendency to be mindful in daily life:

Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (Buchheld, Grossman, & Walach, 2001)

Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer et al., 2004)

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003)

Five- Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006)

Cognitive Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007)

Toronto Mindfulness Scale-Trait Version (Davis, Lau, & Cairns, 2009)

Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (Cardaciotto et al., 2008)

Southampton Mindfulness Questionnaire (Chadwick et al., 2008)

            State measures of mindfulness measuring momentary mindful states:

Toronto Mindfulness Scale- State Version (Lau et al., 2006)

MAAS- State Version (Brown and Ryan, 2003).

Correlational data:

Support positive relationship between trait mindfulness & mindfulness meditation and psychological health.

Clinical intervention data:

Published, peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs), provide evidence for positive treatment outcomes of MBSR, MBCT,  DBT, and ACT.

Controlled laboratory data:

Brief mindfulness training in two key elements of mindfulness practice (focused awareness and acceptance) may reduce emotional reactivity to negative stimuli and increase willingness to remain in contact with them.

Mechanisms:

Mindfulness training works through 1) increasing trait mindfulness; 2) increasing metacognitive awareness (which is the ability to reperceive or decenter from one's thoughts and emotions, and view them as passing mental events rather than to identify with them or believe thoughts to be accurate representations of reality. Hayes et al., 1999; Segal et al., 2002; Shapiro, Carlson, Astin, & Freedman, 2006); 3) increasing exposure (desensitization); 4) improving the ability to control attention; 5) changing memory function; 6) increasing values clarification and improving behavioral self-regulation.

Discussion questions:

If you have experiences with mindfulness intervention, what do you think about it? Have you found it a useful tool in clinical work?

There are many components involve in “mindfulness” concept, in your opinion, what components are more effective in clinical work?

Some psychologists in China just told me today that mindfulness training for parents and children are very popular in China now, here is one useful website: http://mindfulnessinschools.org/. Do you know any good mindfulness related resources that may be helpful to our clinical work? Feel free to share them here.