This thesis explores the transformation of the Buddhist technique of mindfulness as it is applied in psychotherapy. It is based on primarily on the experience of a Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course as taught in Montreal in 2015, as well as some prior experiences of mindfulness meditation at the Palyul Center and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Ottawa. Written as an auto-ethnography, the thesis provides an intimate first hand immersion experience into mindfulness meditation through a phenomenological approach in anthropology. The sociopolitical aspects of MBSR are also discussed through a related Deleuzo-Guattarian framework. The central argument of the thesis is that while effective in the management of stress MBSR fails to address deeper and more severe forms of suffering, stressing the management of emotions rather than their exploration. This fact coupled with the omission of the Buddhist concept of no-independent self and training in mindfulness results in MBSR being a territorializing force of self-surveillance and a social pacifier .The question emerging from this exploration brings us to revisit the role of ethics in the application mindfulness in therapy.

The effect on two sessions of mindfulness training on attentional efficiency was examined. 150 novice meditators were randomly assigned to mindfulness training, relaxation training, or a neutral task and were tested before and after participation. They were evaluated with performance measures of attentional efficiency and short-term memory as well as self-report measures of mindfulness and affect. Results indicated that mindfulness training was not related to better performance on any attention measure or a verbal memory measure as compared to relaxation and control groups. Possible reasons for the failure to find attentional benefits are explored and directions for future research are discussed.

Fokuset i denne kvalitative forskningsstudien er å utforske hvordan det oppleves for rådgivningsstudenter å praktisere qigong, en selvhjelpsmetode innenfor tradisjonell kinesisk medisin, for videre å kunne se om qigong kan være et alternativ i praktisering av ”mindfulness”, eller oppmerksomhetstrening som det kalles på norsk. Forskningsspørsmålet er: ””Mindfulness” for rådgivningsstudenter…Hvordan oppleves qigong som selvutviklingsog selvhjelpsmetode blant rådgivningsstudenter og kan qigong være et alternativ i praktisering av ”mindfulness”?” Det ble tatt utgangspunkt i litteratur og tidligere forskning som omhandler bl.a. relasjoner og utfordringer i rådgivning, ”mindfulness” som hjelp og verktøy i rådgivning og qigong som en ”mindfulness” metode. Forskningsdeltakerne deltok på et 13 uker langt kurs i qigong og leverte inn tre refleksjonslogger som utgjør datamaterialet i forskningsstudien; én etter første kursgjennomgang, én etter kursslutt og én halvannen måned etter kursslutt. Temaene fysiske og følelsesmessige reaksjoner og mentale prosesser var til stede i både første og andre refleksjonslogg, mens temaene i tredje logg var fysiske, følelsesmessige og mentale endringer som f.eks. økt bevissthet rundt forholdet mellom hode og kropp, økt energi og overskudd, avspenthet, harmoni og balanse, glede, indre to, økt selvaksept og aksept for andre. Samtlige forskningsdeltakere meddelte at de hadde intensjon om å fortsette å praktisere en eller flere av formene for qigong som var blitt undervist i kurset. Resultatene av denne undersøkelsen viser at qigong kan være en selvutviklings- og selvhjelpsmetode for rådgivningsstudenter som oppleves positivt, gir raske resultater på flere plan og kan være hensiktsmessig både personlig og profesjonelt. Qigong ser derfor ut til å være en metode som det kan være verdt å vurdere som et alternativ i praktisering av ”mindfulness”. / The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the effects of qigong on counseling students, and the possibility to use qigong as a form of teaching mindfulness. Qigong is an ancient Chinese mindfulness practice involving both movement and meditation. The students participated in a 13-week mindfulness-based course in qigong, and responded in writing after an initial experience of qigong, after 13 weeks and then again after 19 weeks. Three general themes emerged in the initial experience of qigong: physical reactions, emotional reactions and awareness of mental processes. These themes were also present after 13 weeks at the end of the course. 6 weeks later in the last set of responses the students focused on physical, emotional and mental changes. The students expressed different preferences for and experiences with the different qigong practices they had been introduced to. The accessible nature of qigong also seemed of importance to the students. All students reported intentions of integrating qigong practices into their future lives. The results of this study indicate that teaching the practice of qigong may have positive implications for counseling students. Practicing qigong seems to have the ability to produce immediate physical, emotional and mental reactions, and over time changes like increase in energy level, relaxation, harmony, happiness, calmness, increased awareness as well as selfacceptance and acceptance of others. Qigong therefore seems to be an alternative practice to consider of teaching mindfulness.

The purpose of this study was to explore individuals’ experience with persistence in maintaining a regular practice of formal mindfulness. Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the main findings derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews with five mindfulness practitioners. Other sources included the pre-interview questionnaire, which asked for experience with mindfulness, field notes, a reflective journal, and feedback from the participants (member-check). Twenty-two codes were identified through the process of thematic data analysis. After grouping them based on relevance, seven themes emerged: (a) Creating appropriate conditions to practice, (b) flexibility in practice, (c) reaching out, (d) developing and maintaining habits, (e) living the teachings of mindfulness, (f) motivated to experience benefits, and (g) learning from lived experience. All codes and themes were related to both sources of motivation and actions taken by participants associated with persistence in maintaining a regular practice of formal mindfulness. The findings of this study have implications for psychotherapists and counsellors who want to incorporate mindfulness into their therapy practice. They contribute ideas for drawing on mindfulness as a self-care practice, and also for enhancing the therapeutic relationship with clients. The study also contributes useful ideas for mindfulness instructors in supporting their trainees in maintaining a continuous and regular practice following a mindfulness program.

Behavior analysts have high burnout rates and lack of job stratification (Plantiveau et al, 2018). Work related stress can cause increase of burnout in individuals in the healthcare profession (Hert, 2020). In this present study, individuals working in autism intervention (i.e., BCBAs and RBTs) who have reported burnout completed a training using the Mindfulness Action Plan (MAP) by Moran and Ming (2020). MAP is a tool to assist with decreasing burnout and increasing mindfulness. The tools used in MAP are also widely used in Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) to overcome and use a coping strategies for burnout. Four participants working in the field of behavior analysis for more than a year completed MAP training and self-report measures (e.g., Maslach Burnout Inventory). The results indicated that using MAP with behavioral practitioners does decrease levels of burnout and increase levels of mindfulness.

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Mindfulness and cognitive control are overlapping constructs. Mindfulness involves maintaining awareness of the current experience by sustaining attention to relevant information and disengaging from irrelevant information. Cognitive control refers to the set of processes involved in selecting and monitoring information relevant to our goals, while ignoring or inhibiting information irrelevant to these goals. This dissertation contains three studies that examine the convergence between mindfulness and cognitive control. The first study examined the relationship between self-reported mindfulness and behavioural correlates of cognitive control using the Digit Stroop task within two experimental contexts: when task difficulty was not manipulated (non-titrated) and when task difficulty was increased (titrated). The results demonstrate that self-reported mindfulness predicted behavioural performance, but only when cognitive control processes were sufficiently challenged by increasing task difficulty. The second study examined the precise neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between mindfulness and cognitive control using electroencephalography (EEG) to identify changes to event-related potentials (ERPs) during the non-titrated Digit Stroop task after two weeks of daily training. By introducing a novel active control training condition (guided visual imagery meditation) that contrasted passive attention regulation with the focused attention regulation in mindfulness, the results isolated electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control that were uniquely tied to mindfulness training, including increased efficiency in conflict detection, delayed attentional capture by incongruent stimuli, faster conscious evaluation of all stimuli, and delayed automatic detection of all errors. The third study replicated and extended these findings by examining changes to ERPs when the cognitive control system was challenged using the titrated Digit Stroop task. Compared to the active control group, the mindfulness group showed enhanced sensory processing, resistance to stimulus-driven attentional capture and faster conscious evaluation of all stimuli after training. Taken together, this dissertation establishes an empirical relationship between behavioural and electrophysiological correlates of mindfulness and cognitive control. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Mindfulness is a way of paying attention, on purpose, in the present-moment and nonjudgmentally. By focusing attention on present goals and redirecting attention from distractions, mindfulness enhances moment-to-moment awareness of fluctuations in cognitive demands. As a result, meditators can develop greater control over a set of cognitive processes that promote useful behavioural responses. This deliberate practice overlaps with a construct known as “cognitive control”—a set of cognitive processes that facilitate information processing and behaviour to vary adaptively from moment to moment depending on current goals. This dissertation examines the relationship between mindfulness and cognitive control using electroencephalography (EEG) to record ongoing brain activity during two variations of a cognitive control task designed to manipulate difficulty. The results show that self-reported mindfulness predicts cognitive control performance when task difficulty is increased and that two weeks of daily mindfulness training leads to changes in neural activity underlying this cognitive control performance.

Individuals vary in the level of their mental presence during interactions; some individuals are mentally present with others, while others are mired in their thoughts and emotions. Scholarly work on this area is limited, and we know very little about why some individuals display mental presence better than others. In this dissertation, I explore the concept through a series of three essays. In the first essay, I define relational mindfulness as the ability to be mentally present with others. Further, I propose that relational mindfulness has three essential features: others' focus, thought-switching, and emotional acceptance. I operationalize the scale to measure relational mindfulness and investigate its nomological network by correlating it with different constructs. Data from four different samples provide support for the three-factor structure of relational mindfulness and provide support for the relationship of relational mindfulness with related constructs. In the second essay, I explore the relevance of relational mindfulness for front-line employees by investigating the two pathways through which relational mindfulness can reduce fatigue of front-line employees. In the first pathway, I posited that relational mindfulness would decrease the intensity of surface acting of employees when their customers mistreat them, and thus reduce fatigue of employees. In the second pathway, I posited that relational mindfulness would increase the frequency of positive interactions between employees and customers, and thereby decrease fatigue experienced by employees. I tested the model by conducting two different studies. Overall, the results provided support for the posited hypotheses. In the third essay, I tested whether relational mindfulness can be enhanced through a mindfulness meditation by conducting a quasi-experimental study. Two groups; experimental and comparison groups participated in the pre-test, post-test surveys, and weekly surveys during the experiment. The results suggested that participants in both groups increased their relational mindfulness over time and there was no evidence that individuals in the mindfulness group differed from the comparison group.

Psicóloga / Esta memoria posee un enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo no experimental, transversal y correlacional. Primero se realizó la traducción al español y adaptación transcultural de la EAC. Luego se realizó una aplicación piloto de los instrumentos para finalmente realizar una aplicación experimental a 268 estudiantes universitarios