Mindfulness for Therapists

Mindfulness for Therapists presents an innovative eight-week mindfulness protocol designed to aid therapists—which may be worked through alone or in small groups

• Presents the first complete mindfulness program designed to improve the personal and professional well-being and effectiveness of therapists themselves
• Features an 8-week introduction to mindfulness in the form of exercises designed to help therapists develop their own meditation practice and apply it to their lives
• Integrates key research that includes the Five Facets of Mindfulness, the Three-Person-Perspectives approach, and the neurobiological foundations of mindfulness training
• Supported by online meditations and exercises for therapists

Acknowledgments vii

1 Welcome 1

2 Mindfulness 9

3 Bringing Mindfulness Into Your Life 35

3.1 Week 1: Introduction to Mindfulness 35

3.2 Week 2: The Five Elements of Mindfulness 44

3.3 Week 3: Integrating Mindfulness into Everyday Life 51

3.4 Week 4: Mindfulness as a Way of Life 61

3.5 Week 5: Mindfulness as a Home Base for Therapists 69

3.6 Week 6: Mindfulness of the Body 79

3.7 Week 7: Integrating Mindfulness into Therapeutic Practice 92

3.8 Week 8: Review and Next Steps 98

3.9 Your Oasis 103

4 Extending Your Practice 109

4.1 Going Deeper 109

4.2 Exercises in Everyday Personal and Professional Lives 119

4.3 Mindfulness Exercises for the Helping Role 128

4.4 Mindful Moments With Your Clients 140

5 Short Manual for Running a Group Based on the Presented Material 145

6 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 171

Further Reading 178

About the Companion Website 181

Index 183

Gerhard Zarbock is a clinical psychologist, certified CBT-, Schema- and DBT-therapist, a supervisor and trainer for CBT and schema therapy, and training director of a government approved CBT training institution (IVAH) in Hamburg, Germany.

Siobhan Lynch is a psychologist based at the University of Southampton. She is a specialist in mindfulness in Higher Education with a focus on Technology Enhanced Learning. She developed a mindfulness training programme for university students (Mindfulness-Based Coping with University Life) during her PhD and delivers mindfulness training to the public. www.mindful-kiwi.com

Axel Ammann is a clinical psychologist and certified cognitive behavioural therapist. He works for IVAH in Hamburg, Germany and also has a private practice, focusing on mindfulness-based psychotherapy.

Silka Ringer is a clinical psychologist and a certified CBT-therapist for individual and group therapy with yoga-based mindfulness experience. She runs a psychotherapy practice near Leipzig, Germany.

The benefits of mindfulness training for the treatment of patients are well-established; however recent empirical research has now confirmed similar positive outcomes of mindfulness training for therapists themselves. Mindfulness for Therapists: Understanding Mindfulness for Professional Effectiveness and Personal Well-Being presents the first program to bridge the gap between mindfulness as a therapeutic tool utilized by therapists and its use as a supportive tool for therapists. Revealing how mindfulness can help practitioners both personally and professionally, the authors present an innovative eight-week mindfulness protocol which may be worked through in private or small groups.

Fully documented and supported by online learning materials, the book begins by clearly setting out the reasons why mindfulness training has so much potential as a supportive practice for therapists. Specific practical guidance is then presented, including ways to greet a patient mindfully, mindful self-soothing, and mindfulness exercises for the end of the working day. Key contributions include explorations of the five facets of mindfulness, the neurobiological foundations of mindfulness, the use of the “Three Perspectives”, and advice for integrating schema modes with mindfulness work. Innovative and thought-provoking, Mindfulness for Therapists offers invaluable guidance for the personal and professional well-being and effectiveness of therapists and professionals everywhere.

“Mindfulness in therapy is often understood as teaching patients to be more mindful in order to better cope with disorders. While this is reasonable in the context of healthcare, it does not consider the role that mindfulness can play for therapists themselves. On the one hand, teaching mindfulness to patients should be based in a therapist’s own mindfulness experience, while on the other a growing number of studies show that therapists can benefit personally and professionally from mindfulness classes. This book is very helpful for developing mindfulness as a therapist’s ‘home base’.”—Prof. Dr. Thomas Heidenreich, Hochschule Esslingen

“This is the first book supporting therapists in their personal mindfulness practice. It introduces weekly exercises in a systematic, detailed and well-structured way, with recordings to support the novice. Drawing on experience, the authors describe exactly what everybody can experience when starting to practice mindfulness, and they take the reader by the hand so he or she really feels accompanied.”—Eckhard Roediger (MD), Director of the Frankfurt Schema Therapy Institute, President of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST)