Tension is in the air! As per the latest WHO report, over 301 million people were reported to suffer from anxiety disorder in 2019, which included 58 million children and adolescents. It is evident that the increasing strenuous lifestyle is affecting everyone, irrespective of their age and living conditions.
The global mental health deterioration has sparked the debate and advocacy for non-invasive counseling methods. As the conversation for therapy starts, it also demolishes the archaic stigma surrounding mental health.
However, many people are unaware of innovative counseling techniques used by professionals to relieve mental ailments, including mindfulness counseling. Therefore, this comprehensive guide is going to explore some mindfulness counseling techniques that you need to know about.
What is Mindfulness-Based Therapy?
Mindfulness-based therapy tries to redirect the patient’s attention away from the continuous exhaustion and onto the patient’s purpose in the present moment. In order to embrace the illness and its accompanying symptoms and, ultimately, bring calm to these thoughts, mindfulness provides a non-judgmental environment.
The development of mindfulness counseling allows for the recognition of harmful ideas held against oneself and the condition, as well as the cultivation of more adaptive, positive, and accepting schemes.
Varied Mindfulness Therapy Practices
Mindfulness-based approaches are becoming increasingly popular in the Western world for treating the symptoms of many common mental health and/or emotional issues. Mindfulness practices have their origins in ancient Buddhist traditions like Vipassana and Zen meditation.
Currently, there are four accepted therapeutic methods that use mindfulness practices:
1. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, was among the first to try to incorporate Buddhist mindfulness ideas into his scientific and medical work in the 1970s.
2. Marsha Linehan established DBT in the 1970s, influenced by Western and Eastern spiritual traditions.
3. Steven Hayes, Kelly Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl invented ACT in the late 1980s. It includes Eastern principles.
4. Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale developed MBCT in the early twenty-first century, building on Kabat-Zinn’s work.
Though all of these approaches use mindfulness practices, they differ slightly. MBSR and MBCT actively teach mindfulness meditation, while MBCT also incorporates cognitive behavioral therapy approaches into treatment.
DBT and ACT do not teach mindfulness meditation but rather use other mindfulness techniques to increase awareness and concentrate attention.
Furthermore, MBSR and MBCT focus on the process of building mindfulness as well as any related ideas, whereas DBT and ACT focus on the cognitions experienced when in a state of mindfulness.
Different Types of Mindfulness Counseling Techniques Used By Practitioners
Mindfulness-based counseling involves meditation, relaxation, and mindfulness exercises to help people focus on the present moment, with the goal of eventually experiencing day-to-day circumstances and pressures in a non-judgmental and non-reactionary way.
This strategy is an effective antidote to anxiety, which has a ruminative focus on past and future anxieties. Mindfulness emphasizes acceptance over avoiding, dismissing, or suppressing undesirable internal experiences.
There are certain techniques used by counselors during counseling sessions that promote mindfulness:
- Body scanning and walking are some alternatives to more typical types of meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh adds that the purpose of walking meditation is to become the “happiest person in the world.”
- Guided imagery is also a common method of mindfulness. Some people refer to this as creative visualization or visualization. Regardless, the method is recalling the words one hears using imagery.
- Breathing methods are an excellent approach to regain control when you are nervous or agitated. For example, the practitioner may ask you to practice belly breathing. Put one hand on your tummy, the other on your chest. Inhale, filling your abdomen with air and thrusting your hand out.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) supports individuals in recognizing and modifying detrimental thought patterns. It entails working with a skilled therapist to learn DBT techniques. Practitioners may also work in groups, giving them the opportunity to practice newly gained abilities.
- Distress tolerance helps patients accept their feelings as they are in the present. Avoiding emotions is unnecessary, even if one cannot instantly change. As a result, non-judgmental acceptance becomes necessary. Acceptance does not imply approval of whatever is happening. It just means that we accept it for what it is in the present.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy also includes mindfulness. This evidence-based approach emphasizes being open to what troubles us and actively deciding on a path of action. Mindfulness activities assist clients by serving as a bridge between acceptance and commitment.
Benefits of Mindfulness Counseling Techniques
Due to the emotionally charged and fundamentally interpersonal nature of the therapeutic relationship, a therapist’s trait presence developed through mindfulness and meditation may support the development and maintenance of clinically useful affective qualities.
These qualities include empathy and compassion, clinically necessary cognitive skills like attention and non-judgmental behavior, an effective therapeutic process, and therapeutically healing relationships with clients.
Research-Based Findings of Mindfulness Counseling Techniques
After conducting a thorough analysis of common therapeutic factors, Lambert and Barley came to the conclusion that the therapist-client relationship explains 30% of the variation in therapeutic outcome, with technique accounting for 15%, extra-therapeutic factors accounting for 40%, and the expectancy effect accounting for 15%.
Moreover, the cornerstone of attempts to assist others is a therapeutic alliance marked by warmth, congruence, and empathy. Enhancing one’s capacity to relate to clients and customizing that relationship for each client may be the most effective way to enhance psychotherapy.
Similarly, a meta-analysis of research by Martin revealed a consistent relationship between therapeutic outcomes and the therapeutic partnership.
Conclusion
Mindfulness counseling techniques are empirically-backed methods that foster acceptance of a patient’s current state of mind. This counseling method, combined with a non-judgemental environment, can relieve the patient from a continuous exhaustive psyche.
These techniques include distress tolerance, advanced breathing techniques, and creative visualization that arms the patient with confidence and skills to combat their issues.
