Mindfulness is now the fastest-developing area in mental health. Many therapists have come to regard cultivating moment-to-moment awareness as a curative mechanism that transcends diagnosis, addresses underlying causes of suffering, and serves as an active ingredient in most effective psychotherapies. The clinical value of mindfulness interventions has been demonstrated for many psychological difficulties, including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, substance abuse, insomnia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. And it doesn’t matter which therapeutic approach we take, be it psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, or any other. Mindfulness practices can be tailored to fit the particular needs of our patients. Though historically mindfulness practices have been presented as one-size-fits-all remedies, as the field matures we’re beginning to understand how these practices affect different individuals with different problems, how to modify them in different clinical situations, and how to work with the inevitable obstacles that arise. Mindfulness can also enhance emotional well-being of clinicians, helping us develop beneficial therapeutic qualities such as acceptance, attention, compassion, equanimity, and presence that enrich and enliven our work and help us avoid burnout. Once we have developed these qualities in ourselves, we can safely and thoughtfully introduce our patients to practices that lead to a wide variety of clinical benefits. Here are a few ways that mindfulness can benefit a therapy situation, drawn from our new book, Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy.

Feedback is useful in helping adapt or modify the practices for your patients. For example, when they say, “This isn’t working—I can’t get my thoughts to stop,” you’ll want to educate them that mindfulness isn’t about stopping thoughts, but coming into a kinder and more accepting relationship with them. If, however, someone reports, “This was really creepy. I had this image of my father standing over bed when I was a little girl,” you may want to modify the practice or set it aside for the time being and try a different approach. Especially for those who have a history of trauma, we suggest starting with a meditation like the one above that focuses on sound and being present, rather than following the breath, which can be a trigger for trauma survivors. Our goal in introducing mindfulness practices to patients is not to turn them all into dedicated meditation practitioners, but to help them find balance, kindness, and fulfillment in their lives. When research shows that even a taste of mindfulness can help, we owe it to our patients (and ourselves) to learn the practices and pass them on. A practice for therapists