Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

I really enjoyed the readings this week and found myself agreeing with a lot of the points made within the articles. I agree that mindfulness-based interventions can be very beneficial and be a useful prevention tool. I view mindfulness as a way of interacting and appreciating the world and experiences around us. Therefore, if I notice changes in the external world or changes in my interaction (internal component) with the world, I can take action before things develop. I have found mindfulness to be extremely helpful in my own life in calming my everyday worries and maintaining a positive outlook on life as I appreciate everything around me. That being said, I do think there is a time and place for mindfulness, especially MBCT. 

Though my client experience is slim, I have found difficulties in "selling" mindfulness to clients. Even within my readings, I find myself questioning how I would implement these techniques. One challenge with "selling" mindfulness is that clients may see it as weak or unhelpful. Some clients have expressed that taking a mindfulness approach feels unhelpful because they are looking for tangible results. In addition, some have reported (mostly men) that it feels weak to simply accept what is going on around them instead of bringing about change. I think a client's hesitation or resistance to mindfulness can provide useful information, but, regardless, the clients did not want to participate. I also think a mindfulness approach requires a certain type of client. Clients have to have some cognitive flexibility and the ability to engage in perspective-taking. In some cases, I would imagine that getting a client to a baseline where they can engage in mindfulness would take months of therapy. Mindfulness takes practice and sometimes clinicians do not have the time to take this road. I also think that mindfulness requires a safe environment. If the goal is to be fully present and aware of all the senses around me, what happens with the environment is dangerous? If I am a depressed teenager, hiding in the closet as my parents scream and hit each other- should I focus on being present and taking in the sights, sounds, and body sensations without judgment? That is my biggest issue with mindfulness- it has a time and place. 

I appreciated the table provided in one of the articles that compared CBT with MBCT. This table helped me further support my idea that there is a time and place for a mindfulness-based approach. In general, I agreed more with a content focus for thoughts (CBT), a new way of being with painful affect and challenging circumstances (MBCT), testing and challenging dysfunctional beliefs (CBT), and found myself in the middle with the role of the therapist, goals of behavioral interventions, and distinguishing thoughts. I can see how both CBT and MBCT are useful and times when one approach may be more useful than the other. 

I also really enjoyed the paper discussing treatment for Asian- Americans. I liked that the authors included examples and were detailed in their explanations- it was a good read. I found myself frequently questioning how to implement a more Eastern approach with Western clients in a way that doesn't become "people pleasing." Then I started to question why I considered being a people pleaser as bad! Western society has deemed considering other's needs at the expense of your own as wrong and something we should work on. We have pushed individualism so far that making sacrifices is somewhat pathologized. I think there is a balance between collectivism and individualism and I enjoyed reading about the influence those aspects of culture have in the therapy room. I think it furuther supports the discussion from last week about if you can seperate politics and therapy. Policitics (or influencial power) is embedded in every aspect of what we do and cannot be seperated from our work. 

25/25