11/18/2016. Mindfulness and its Role in Health and Stress Reduction. What is Mindfulness? What is Mindfulness?

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1 Mindfulness and its Role in Health and Stress Reduction PRESENTED BY: COLLEEN CAMENISCH, MBA What is Mindfulness? What are some of the ideas you have about what mindfulness is? What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness helps one to stop and notice how things are in an objective way. Rather than getting caught up in thought or problem solving mode, one is noticing where the mind is going and is being fully aware of the present moment as it is happening. Mindfulness allows us to have awareness about our thoughts and habitual patterns. Seeing things without filters, lenses or judgments. Having the ability to step back and see things clearly as they are. Finding a way to re-center ourselves and move out of the chronic stress cycle. Helps one to stay in the present moment rather than getting caught up in thoughts of the past or future. 1

2 Benefits of Mindfulness It helps us to come out of chronic stress by stopping, non-doing, and being fully present with how things are from moment to moment. Mindfulness increases: One s ability to deal with stress leading to an increase in Stress Hardiness One s ability to develop a way to observe difficult thoughts and emotions rather than getting caught up in them Sense of acceptance of one s emotions Feelings of being connected Awareness of patterns of behavior Mindfulness decreases: The chances of relapse associated with addiction and co-occurring disorders Anxiety Chronic Pain Depression and recurrent depression A number of other physical and psychological symptoms Effective in treating those with trauma in a modified format Many VA s have programs specifically designed for veterans Research on mindfulness Exponential increase over 35 years In 2013 more Ph.D. dissertations used mindfulness than any other index keyword Currently there are multiple streams: Mindfulness and wellness the primary driver Defining research what is mindfulness? Mindfulness practices how do we get it? The neurological substrate of mindfulness Mindfulness in the workplace and education History of Mindfulness Kabat-Zinn U. Mass. Medical School Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) clinic (1979) Secularized eastern meditation practices - Kabat-Zinn was (and is) an MIT trained molecular biologist and long time meditator who worked at U. Mass Medical School Started a clinic where U. Mass doctors sent their patients who were in chronic pain when all traditional treatments proved ineffective! Created the intervention called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program This intervention has been one of the most widely studied programs in secular based meditation practice. It is highly evidence based. It is an eight-week course where participants meet 2.5 hours 1 time per week and are encouraged to meditate at home daily. There is also a full day silent retreat as a component of the course. In order to facilitate this course, one needs to have completed the requirements through the University of Massachusetts Medical School and must have their own meditation practice. * Thanks to Bill Kuechler, Ph.D. professor of Information Technology at the University of Nevada, Reno for a portion of this slide. 2

3 Clinical Applications: There are many therapeutic interventions based in mindfulness Acceptance Commitment Therapy Dialectical Behavior Therapy Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Adaptation of MBSR Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention Adaptation of MBSR Mindfulness and Social Workers Evidences based research shows mindfulness skills training as an effective method to foster clinician attention, affect regulation, attunement and empathy. Clinical Social Work Journal June 2009, Volume 37, Issue 2, pp Mindfulness Finding Specific to Recovery Mindfulness Meditation allows one to cultivate the practice of being with and observing unpleasant emotions or thoughts rather than avoiding them. Meditation can change how one relates to dysfunctional thoughts and negative affect rather that changing the states themselves. (Breslin et al. 2002) Repeated experience of observing rather than reacting to one s urges or emotional responses to eliciting stimuli may engender a greater sense of control over the actual decision to use. (Breslin et al. 2002) Mindfulness Findings Specific to Depression For patients with 3 or more previous episodes of depression (77% of the sample), MBCT significantly reduced risk of relapse/recurrence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 68(4), Aug 2000, MBCT was more effective than Anti-Depressant Medication in reducing residual depressive symptoms and psychiatric comorbidity and in improving quality of life in the physical and psychological domains. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 76(6), Dec 2008, For depressed patients achieving stable or unstable clinical remission, MBCT offers protection against relapse/recurrence on a par with that of maintenance antidepressant pharmacotherapy Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(12): doi: /archgenpsychiatry

4 Impact for Health Care Professionals Published research in JAMA demonstrated that courses in mindful practice result in lower burnout, and greater well-being, empathy and patient-centered orientation to clinical care. In addition mindful practice may result in fewer errors, a greater sense of presence, the ability to see a situation from multiple perspectives before reacting, and greater satisfaction from work. Epstein, R. M. (1999). Mindful practice. Jama, 282(9), Physicians and other health professionals who have undergone training in mindful practice experience significant improvements in measures of personal well-being, resilience, and the quality of interpersonal care they provide to patients and their families. Neuroplasticity An article published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 2010, showed: A controlled pre and post study using MR images of 16 participants who attended the UMASS MBSR program showed that, MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration, in brain regions involved in learning and memory process, emotional regulation, self-referential processing and perspective taking. (Britta K. Hölzel et al. 2010) The practice of mindfulness helps develop such qualities as nonjudging and non-attachment, while at the same time increasing one s ability to let be and develop acceptance. It can help us not get stuck in old ways of seeing ourselves Sensory Information Changes how we see the world *Special thanks to Dr. Judson Brewer at The UMASS Center for Mindfulness for allowing use of this slide. 4

5 Sensory Information Changes how we see the world *Special thanks to Dr. Judson Brewer at The UMASS Center for Mindfulness for allowing use of this slide. Sensory Information *Special thanks to Dr. Judson Brewer at The UMASS Center for Mindfulness for allowing use of this slide. Sensory Information *Special thanks to Dr. Judson Brewer at The UMASS Center for Mindfulness for allowing use of this slide. 5

6 Stress Reactivity Mind-less-ness Stimulus Reaction Mindlessness knee-jerk, unexamined responses Stress Reactivity Mindfulness Stimulus Response Mindfulness in the increased space between stimulus and response lies freedom, creativity, humanity What we know about stress When does stress happen? > 6

7 Optimal Level of Stress Eustress and Stress Standards of practice: It is critical for a mindfulness teacher to have a deep practice of their own There are times when mindfulness isn t right for participants or isn t right right now Wording and phrasing are very important to support the process Meditation is a highly experiential process Mindfulness has many subtleties which grow with practice Mindfulness Practice Let s do a practice together! 7

8 How was the practice for you? How can you integrate mindfulness into your daily life? By developing a daily practice, guided CD s and a meditation course can help facilitate this. Just taking a few moments, maybe five to ten minutes, to just stop and notice your breath. You can do this at a doctor s office, at work, or at home, it is really assessable. You could use sound the same way, just having an awareness of the sounds that surround you. Daily activities like washing dishes, walking, driving etc. When you are talking with others, by listening and really hearing. Mindfully eating. Mindfulness can be translated into all of our daily lives if we can be awake each moment. 8