MINDFULNESS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Sheridan Adams, M.F.T.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness has recently become a common word in many circles, particularly in the field of psychology. What exactly is mindfulness and how can it be useful in the psychotherapy office? Essentially mindfulness is awareness of the present moment. For example, you might be aware of the smell of a peach, the sensation of warmth on your back as you’re taking a shower, the shape of the moon on a particular night, or a feeling of heaviness in your chest as you’re watching a sad movie. To take the time to register and stay with these experiences, without judging them as good or bad, is mindfulness. To actually experience your experience in the present moment is mindfulness. You sense the feeling of your lips touching. It’s not complicated. It’s quite simple.
What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness?
One benefit of mindfulness is that it can increase your appreciation for
the pleasures that life offers. Imagine the contrast between spending an
afternoon at the ocean totally distracted by worries about your job and one
during which you are mindful and present. Being mindful, you may notice
the many colors and shades in a single ocean wave or the symphony of sounds
as sea gulls fly above the undulating water. You can allow the ocean environment
to penetrate you. You can be amazed. If you are distracted and lost in
your thoughts, you are likely to miss these pleasures.
In addition, the act of bringing your attention to what is happening in the
present often has the benefit of calming your mind. This act can interrupt
your thoughts, even your habitual negative thoughts. Try moving your arm
and hand back and forth in front of you, while closing your eyes and focusing
only on the sensations of your arm and hand moving. Where were your concerns
about the past and the future? Such focused attention often provides a break
from the constant chatter of discursive thinking.
Mindfulness also helps us know ourselves more accurately and intimately.
Attending to our thoughts, feelings and body sensations in a mindful way
leads us to be aware of what is happening beneath the surface, as you will
see in some of the examples below.
How Might Mindfulness be used in Psychotherapy?
Much of the help we receive from being in therapy comes from learning to be aware of ourselves at a deeper level. As I mentioned above, being mindful of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations can help take us to that deeper level. For example, Janet often overreacts when a certain co-worker, Ilene, gives her a suggestion. This disturbs much of her day. Like many of us, whenever Janet has a strong emotional reaction her tendency is to construct story about the particular event or person - which she then repeats over and over in her mind. “Ilene is a control-freak. She has to micro-manage everything. I can’t stand her. I wish she’d get fired, etc.” This keeps Janet at the surface level of reactive thinking and away from a felt-sense of what’s really being touched deep inside.
A therapist using mindfulness to enhance Janet’s awareness might ask her what she notices in her body as she talks during the session about her co-worker. In effect, the therapist is asking her to focus on what is happening at this very moment. The therapist might also ask, “And as you are aware of those body sensations, do any feelings or thoughts or images arise?” It is likely that this mindful awareness will bring about new information.
By focusing on the feelings and thoughts arising from the body sensations, Janet might realize, for example, that she has serious doubts about her own competency and that she is assuming the reason her co-worker is making suggestions to her is that the co-worker doesn’t trust her abilities. Being aware of what’s happening on a deeper level will help Janet and her therapist identify the areas to focus on that will most likely bring about the desired change.
How Do I Practice Mindfulness on My Own?
One way to practice mindfulness is to periodically set aside a certain time to be mindful. A person could decide she will focus her attention on the movement of her belly or her chest as she breathes in and out for 15 minutes. She sits in a comfortable position in a place where she won’t be disturbed and begins to watch her breath. What happens, of course, is that she starts thinking - thinking, for example, about how she needs to finish the presentation she’s going to make at work tomorrow, about how she felt after her last presentation, and so on. After a couple of minutes, she realizes she’s completely forgotten about paying attention to her breath. She remembers her intention and gently, without self-judgment, guides her awareness back to the movements of her belly as she breathes. She may go through this sequence (getting lost in thought and then coming back to the breath) countless time before the 15 minutes is up. In this way she is cultivating the practice of mindfulness.
A very different example of practicing mindfulness would be the following: You have just ended a telephone conversation with a friend. During the conversation you expressed some anger about his, yet again, canceling a time when the two of you were going to get together. He responded by saying that you were being much too rigid. As you put the phone down you can feel your heart beating in your chest and you notice that your thoughts are racing. You are not only reviewing all the times that he stood you up, but are also remembering several instances when other people let you down. Instead of trying to go about your day or complaining to your partner about this friend, you decide to sit down and pay attention to what is going on in your body – a tightness in your shoulders, a deep knot like sensation in the midst of your chest, a pinching of your forehead.
You notice your thoughts. You acknowledge them in the same way that you notice and acknowledge your feelings. In addition, you keep coming back to the sensations in your body. You ask yourself, “What am I sensing right now?” When we’re upset our sensations are usually uncomfortable, so often we try to avoid them. Practicing mindfulness means staying with whatever is occurring is - in a compassionate and non-judgmental way. When we truly acknowledge and stay with our experience, this often gives us a better sense of what is really bothering us. And knowing what is really bothering us helps us to better deal with the situation.
A therapist grounded in mindfulness practice can guide clients to develop this tool for themselves - as a means of self understanding, as a way to manage stress and, even better, to increase their happiness and appreciation of everyday life.
(Sheridan Adams, M.F.T., practices in Berkeley, CA)
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