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Chapter 14.1 - Mindfulness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2022

By
Paramabandhu Groves
Edited by
Christopher C. H. Cook  and
Andrew Powell
Christopher C. H. Cook
Affiliation:
Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University
Andrew Powell
Affiliation:
Formerly Warneford Hospital and University of Oxford
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Summary

Mindfulness as a therapeutic modality has its principal roots in Buddhism. First introduced by Jon Kabat-Zinn as a treatment for stress and chronic pain, mindfulness-based approaches have since been trialled in a wide range of mental health disorders. Mindfulness may help patients both by teaching them to bring greater awareness to aspects of their experience that they may have avoided, and by helping them to learn to find ways of being with difficult experience that can mitigate suffering. Reviews of studies suggest that mindfulness is most effective in depression and anxiety. As well as helping patients, mindfulness has been recommended to help health professionals to avoid burnout and promote well-being and empathy. Whether therapeutic mindfulness is religious, secular or spiritual has been debated. This ambiguity may allow patients to contextualise mindfulness practices according to their own worldviews.

Keywords

adverse effectsBuddhismdepressionhealth professionalsMBCTMBSRmindfulness
Type
Chapter
Information
Spirituality and Psychiatry , pp. 252 - 261
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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