Mindfulness in psychotherapy: The experience of psychotherapists who incorporate mindfulness into their practice.

Abstract

Mindfulness is most commonly defined as the ability to bring one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, with complete acceptance and without judgment. The diverse benefits of mindfulness as a therapeutic tool have been widely explored. Nevertheless, when mindfulness is incorporated into psychotherapy it may influence the relationship between the therapist and the patient in diverse manners. This influence appears in the literature as relational mindfulness pertaining to mindfulness practiced in relationship to other people. The present article attempts to delineate the diverse influences of relational mindfulness within the psychotherapeutic setting through Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with eight psychotherapists recruited from an institution for the teaching of mindfulness for psychotherapists. Analysis revealed influences on the therapist's worldview, on technique, on the presence of the therapist and, on the therapeutic alliance. These aspects are discussed from a psychoanalytic and a cognitive-behavioral framework. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).