INTROCEPTION. NTENTION Archives

April 9, 2020 By Admin

Mindfulness Skills and Psychotherapy Outcomes

There are at least ten good reasons why mindfulness training and regular practice may improve psychotherapy outcomes. These reasons assume the training is presented by a well-trained clinician-mindfulness practitioner. Of course improved outcomes also depend upon the client’s motivation and energy to actually practice mindfulness skills on a regular basis. One way to ensure this is to integrate such practices into every therapy session. Here is the list.

Intention: Mutual intention to learn and practice mindfulness skills is required. Intention may also carry over to the client’s desire to make changes for the better. For both parties regular practice opens doorways to improved emotion regulation and awareness as well as possible spiritual development.
Attention: Attention is required for regular mindfulness practice. Such attentional improvements may help clients notice more clearly unhelpful patterns in cognition, emotion, behavior, and sensation. This also applies to therapists, who may find these skills improve their acuity in noticing small but important problems and changes in client behaviors.
Awareness: Intention and attention tend to improve one’s level of awareness – for both positive and negative experiences. Awareness skills may be open or focused. Improved awareness of unhelpful experiences may challenge clients, but it will also help both parties to see more clearly what is important and what changes are needed. When awareness is matched with behavioral task analysis, it allow clear measurement of progress.
Emotion Regulation: Improvement in emotion regulation is, perhaps, the single most beneficial change for both clients and therapists. Integrating various approaches from mindfulness-based therapies will ensure ample opportunity to practice emotion regulation, which is the single most problematic issue in most common problem areas (anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, chronic pain).
Mindfulness-Based Skills: Mindfulness-based therapies (MBSR, MBCT, ACT, etc.) offer a wide array of skill practices for both clients and therapist. Therefore, it is possible to match client needs with appropriate skill practices in sessions and at home. Also the “self” of both parties is more strongly present in such practices. Who is this observer experiencing these conditions and situations of life.
Subject-Object Observation: In the many problems people experience it is possible to match client needs with a specific set of mindfulness skills. The ongoing practice of subject-object observation (often without evaluation) allows various transformational experiences for clients. One that is most common is that thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sensation are internal and external experiences that the “I” is having. However, such experience is NOT-ME, they are simply current experiences in life. They are impermanent. The same is true for therapists. Also therapist may be able to use this formal process to investigate the quality of the therapeutic relationship and its core alliance. Transference and countertransference responses are Important!
Interoception: Along with emotion regulation interoception skill, or the ability to recognize internal body sensations arising and the emotions that follow, is highly valuable in therapy. This allows both clients and therapists to recognize precursors to problematic thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sensations. It enables a short window of time to act to prevent or mitigate negative experiences. It also brings in awareness of somatosensory experiences. Our sensory experiences are what we “are” in life. Awareness os the “me.”
There is ample, high quality research supporting the use of mindfulness skills in improving both depression and anxiety. Google it.
There is high quality research supporting the use of mindfulness skills in improving chronic pain. Google it.
There is good evidence supporting the use of mindfulness skills in improving both trauma symptoms and challenges, as well as improving addictive behaviors. These improvements come mainly from improved awareness, emotional self-regulation, and interoceptive practices.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Amitabha Buddha – Pure Land Meditation The following meditation had been modified by me to make it a more specific self-healing meditation and to better fit the time we now live in. Sit quietly and complete 3-4 deep, calming breaths. Pay attention to the quality and density of the light you see outside of your […]

“i Rest” Yoga Nidra Practice (Richard Miller, Ph.D.) All regular meditation and yoga practices are capable of bringing us closer to our true self and our relationships in the world. A by-product is deep relaxation and equanimity. Richard Miller, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist, yogic scholar, spiritual teacher), has created a yoga nidra practice that promises to […]

Expanded Lectio Divina for Self-Development In this post I will provide an expanded version of this process by combining information from Origen, the Carthusian Monk Guigo II, and Augustine of Hippo. The presented process of 12 steps may be used to enhance internalization of sacred writing and/or to support internal healing of the participants. […]

More Characteristics of Happiness – Happiness #4 Here I will continue my posts about the common characteristics of happiness. Here is the list. Keep an Open Mind – Maintaining an open mind opens up doorways to interesting things in the world, some of which may help you to become happier. Also, open-mindedness reduces inner tension […]

Expanded Information about Your Compassion Practices and Benefits Compassion Practice Tips and Exercises The Buddha noted that one should not dwell on the past, become too attached to future outcomes, but instead concentrate our mind only on the present moment of our experiences. The Dalai Lama noted that compassion is a necessary condition for inner […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way Meditations: A way of Being and Knowing Although Gurdjieff developed a whole way of being and knowing, including attentional practices, dance/body movements, group processes, and meditations here I will focus only on some of the suggested meditations. In particular, I include the meditations noted by his primary student (J. DeSalzmann, 2011). […]

Setting Emotional Boundaries from Work to Life Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Sometimes setting emotional boundaries from the psychotherapy room to your life outside of work can be a difficult thing to do. Shifting from “experience near empathy” (Kohut), “unconditional positive regard” (Rogers), “hovering attention” (Freud), “the holding environment” in “intersubjective space” (Winnicott), and compassionate […]

Concentration, Contentment, and Loving Kindness I have written various entries on concentration meditations in prior posts. Yes, concentration meditation is beyond pure mindfulness meditation. Here I will present briefly two other forms of meditation that are quite intentional and also beyond mindfulness: contentment and loving kindness meditations. Let’s begin with intentional meditation of contentment. Contentment […]

Preverbal Trauma – Therapy Problems A. R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Preverbal trauma (hereafter PVT) is one of the most pervasively troubling human conditions. PVT occurs when a preverbal child is exposed to parental, caretaker, or other forms of abuse. This abuse may be sexual, physical, or emotional. This form of abuse is so destructive because […]

Review: Deepak Chopra’s Idea’s on ” The Future of God” Part 2 of 3 In part 2 of this 3-part series, I will discuss the role played by consciousness in various levels of spirituality. In the beginning, there was the word. The word is sometimes associated with pure consciousness, since without consciousness there cannot be […]

Calming Your Self-Critical Self with Mindfulness A core problem for many people is their incessant self (or other) criticism. This is a major part of our psychological mind suffering today. In the past life for most people was more difficult, so human basic needs were the energized priorities; today so many of us have been […]

Advanced Meditation Practices on Perception As the Sutra story goes, the Buddha instructed Ananda to visit the ailing venerable Girimananda, who was very, very ill. In an effort to help the ailing man, the Buddha told Ananda to guide him in the Ten Meditation on Perceptions (on sensory input and the objects of mind). According […]

Improving Client/Patient Collaboration in Treatment To improve collaboration between you and your clients/patients, simply practice the following behaviors as your norms. See the list below, and practice, practice, practice. Present with an attitude of helpfulness and authentic caring. Empathy and authentic concern are required. Recognize the reality that clients/patients are at different levels of readiness […]

The Meaning of the Present Moment in Mindfulness & Meditation Many mindfulness and meditation experts have commented on the meaning of the present moment. Below I have noted some of the ideas presented by Eckhart Tolle. In some cases I have added my own interpretations. What is the Present Moment? What is the experience about? […]

Interoception and Your Inner Self-Helper Interoception (sometimes called neuroception) is a sensory experience, in which you feel sensations in your body (viscera, heart, throat, etc.) that may be warning signs of limbic surveillance or inner continuity of your inner self-helper – that part of you and your brain that hopes to help you in whatever […]

Insights – Vipassana Mediation There will be future, more advanced vipassana meditations posted on the site. For now, however, we will end this series with a final post about the insights often experienced via vipassana meditation. We learn via experience about impermanence, suffering and its causes, no-self, emptiness and many other things – or, perhaps, […]

Stress in America – On the Rise – The American Psychological Association recently completed its national survey on stress in America. Stress in America for adults is on the rise! I will review below a selection of reported percentages from the 2015 survey (published in 2016). 1) Younger people are more stressed; Xers and Millennials […]

Inner Workings of Self-Medication Process To continue our discussion about the self-medication process we will first turn to the human brain. The human brain is the most complex system known to science. Here, my comments will be basic. Self-medication often has roots in the quality of our earliest childhood experiences (attachment and object relations with […]

Happiness Characteristics – Post #2 Below I will note a few key characteristics of experiences and attitudes associated with happiness. Do your best to experience some of these each day – as much as is possible. Here is the first list. Being Fully Alive to Experiences – Do your best to be fully involved in […]

Mindfulness-Based Emotion Regulation The following emotional regulation practices (also called emotional balance skills) have been supported by over 2500 years of mindfulness training and current psychological research on human emotions. These practices/skills are to be practiced before they are needed, and directly applied when they are needed. Here is the list. 1) Practice noticing and […]