Mindfulness Therapy or Mindfulness Meditation
Meditation is like a bowl of fruit. So many types. So many functions. As with hypnotherapy, clients present me with countless expectations and preconceptions about meditation every day. Usually they assume it's meant to involve somehow blanking out the mind (got a gun, anyone?), sitting in a perpetual state of relaxation or having no negative thoughts and just ever present concentrated attention.
Whilst some meditation methods do in fact stress concentration or relaxation, mindfulness meditation does not.
The aims of mindfulness are to retrain the mind in critical skills of stability, non-reactivity, flexibility and self-awareness. Sure, with mindfulness meditation, relaxation and concentration may ensure. However that's almost irrelevant. Another paradox inherent is that by letting go of control, many people report experiencing more control. It's a bit like trying to sleep. The less you try, the more you let go, and fall. We cannot force the mind into a state. Mindfulness therapy simply means incorporating the various mindfulness meditation practices within counselling or psychotherapy for the benefit of our patients or clients, however we choose to refer to them.
Mindfulness really means awareness.
We're all aware, but we mean awareness in a particular way. A way in which we are willing to stay with the present moment of reality for prolonged periods of time without trying to change the present. Sound New Age? Hardly. It's over 2500 years established and counting, and I'm referring to experiences like panic and anxiety which we normally will do almost anything to avoid. Yet, avoidance is like throwing gasoline on the fire. Mindfulness is like putting snow on a hot stove. Avoidance involves adding fear and aggression.
Mindfulness includes compassion and wisdom, not self-deception. And the effects differ remarkably.
Freud stressed that anxiety was an experience to be trusted. With other symptoms such as depression, eating disorders and the like, it's not uncommon to derive secondary pleasure from the symptoms even though they're unpleasant and even though we might purport to want to change. But anxiety is different. Anxiety arises from the unconscious, where our usual defensive structures no longer hold down the repression barrier. Psychotherapy and mindfulness therapy can thus help enormously to evolve self understanding and progress on so many levels. It takes courage and honesty. But, suffering is not wanting things to be as they are. Mindfulness Therapy is about training the mind to accept reality, not to be a doormat.
As A Psychotherapist in Melbourne Adam Szmerling is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Master Practitioner of NLP, Ericksonian Hypnotherapist Location - Melbourne, Australia
Helping people deal with a variety of symptoms. His counsellor service Melbourne / Brighton offers Articles on Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Mindfulness Therapy, and offers Online Skype counselling. http://baysidepsychotherapy.com.au/
