Have you ever wondered what mindfulness-based therapy is? This term refers to a group of therapies that all use mindfulness as a key intervention and tool for growth and healing. These include approaches such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
In order to understand where mindfulness-based therapy comes from, it’s helpful to know that the basic concepts of mindfulness come from Buddhist psychology. While you in no way have to be Buddhist to use and benefit from mindfulness, I do think it helps to understand that this is where much of our modern understanding of mindfulness comes from. These are old ideas that have stood the test of time. Here are some of the key teachings of mindfulness:
- Pain and suffering are an inescapable part of life.
- We sometimes increase our own pain and suffering by resisting the fact that life involves pain and suffering.
- Everything, both good and bad, is impermanent and ever-changing.
- Freedom from suffering is found by developing the ability to be in the present moment.
You can see why these ideas lend themselves to being applied to therapy as people often come to therapy because they are suffering, in pain, or their lives are changing. Mindfulness practice offers a lot of tools for addressing these issues and the therapies I listed above contain many of those tools. So when you see a therapist trained in a mindfulness-based approach, you can expect that the underlying philosophy they are working from is based on these key teachings from mindfulness.
People often wonder if practicing mindfulness means you have to meditate. For most of my clients, the word meditation brings up more anxiety than the word mindfulness. This is one reason why some mindfulness-based therapies de-emphasize formal meditation practice in favor of shorter, more accessible practices (such as the three minute breathing space from MBCT). You don’t have to formally meditate to benefit from mindfulness as there are many ways to practice it. Most mindfulness-based therapists understand this well and won’t expect you to meditate for 45 minutes a day! You can still learn and gain benefits from mindfulness without meditation.
If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness-based therapy in Des Moines, feel free to reach out and I’ll point you in the right direction!
