Meditation & Mindfulness

Mindfulness can help clients who are anxious, depressed or traumatized, especially when they can't necessarily change the content of their thoughts but would benefit from changing how they relate to them, e.g. overwhelming racing thoughts due to anxiety or traumatized clients who have a harsh inner critic judging their trauma reactions.

The intent is to help clients notice their thoughts non-judgmentally and compassionately and become less fixated on them. Mindfulness of thoughts and body is encouraged through exercises in session, and clients may also be directed to guided meditation resources where they can practice independently.

Mindfulness may be used more informally in terms of helping clients recognize their body sensations/ thoughts/ feelings in the moment of anxiety/ distress to aid in awareness and acceptance.

Therapy may include mindful breathing, mindful walking, practicing with intense sensations of physical discomfort, viewing thoughts as mental events, and sometimes mindful eating.

Mindfulness-Based Meditation Practice in General

Mindfulness-based meditation practices have been empirically proven to help with various psychological and emotional disturbances, improve stress reduction, and introduce a direct method to help improve the subjective quality of your life. Mindfulness strategies have helped millions of people in their daily lives. They are used to treat depression, trauma, anxiety, pain management, sleep disturbance, fatigue, concentration and memory deficits, and chronic unhappiness. It works by becoming attuned to mind-body awareness, living in the moment, developing different ways of being and knowing, cultivating aesthetic, spiritual, and transcendental sensibilities, and developing a tailored ritual for daily meditation practice.

How Mindfulness Works

Mindfulness-based practice is designed and structured to fit each person's unique life history and current needs. Cultivating mindfulness allows for the integration of mind, body, and emotion by nurturing the healing power of awareness, transforming unhappiness, and reclaiming life. 

Mindfulness allows us to concentrate on the present moment and experience life as it unfolds instead of being absorbed in our past regrets or worrying about our future. Past experiences, false beliefs and prejudices, and cultural or social biases often distort our perceptions of reality. Mindfulness promotes insight, calmness, and the ability to understand oneself and one's emotions. It mobilizes our inner strengths and helps conquer physical and mental problems. Practicing mindfulness means acquiring the so-called "beginner's mind," a fresh and non-judging attitude to life's experiences. In the words of world-famous mindfulness practitioner Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Mindfulness Meditation can give you back a high degree of control in your life, beyond the automatic actions and reactions that so often drive our behaviour. It can free you from being stuck in fear or uncertainty and help you take life on as an adventure in growth, learning, and feeling... Discover what it's like to see the world you have, not the one you think you are missing, and to live the life that is yours to live in its fullness, moment by moment and day by day".