Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka effekten av en Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) intervention på dispositionell idrottsmindfulness, emotionsreglering och prestation (själv- och tränarskattad) över tid. Data samlades in i nämnda variabler före, under och efter interventionen, som innehöll åtta sessioner. Studiens deltagare var akademifotbollsspelare (n = 32 Målder = 17.06. SD = 0.72) från två olika fotbollslag. Envägs beroende ANOVA visade att MAC hade en statistiskt signifikant effekt på emotionsreglering och subskalorna acceptans och uppmärksamhet i dispositionell idrottsmindfulness. MAC hade ingen statistiskt signifikant effekt på prestation (själv- och tränarskattad) eller subskalan medvetenhet i dispositionell idrottsmindfulness. Uppföljande post-hoc test visade att deltagarna förändrats över tid i emotionsreglering och subskalan acceptans. Resultat visar att MAC har en effekt på vissa prestationsrelaterade utfall hos unga fotbollsspelare. / The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of a Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) intervention on sport-specific dispositional mindfulness, emotion regulation, and performance (self- and coach-rated) over time. Data were collected on aforementioned variables before, during, and after the intervention, which consisted of eight sessions. The participants in the study were academy football players (n = 32, Mage 17.06, SD = 0.72) from two different football teams. One-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed that MAC had a statistically significant effect on emotion regulation and the subscales acceptance and attention in sport-specific dispositional mindfulness. MAC did not have a statistically significant effect on performance (self- and coach-rated) or the awareness subscale in sport-specific dispositional mindfulness. Follow-up post-hoc tests indicated that participants changed over time in emotion regulation and the acceptance subscale. The results demonstrate that MAC has an impact on certain performance-related outcomes for young football players.

Dans le cadre d'une thèse de doctorat professionnel en psychologie, une recherche qualitative a été effectuée concernant les effets de la méditation sur les compétences relationnelles d'individus exerçant une profession de relation d'aide tels que perçus par ceux-ci. Des entrevues semi-structurées ont été menées auprès d'individus exerçant une profession de relation d'aide qui ont préalablement participé, durant huit semaines, à un programme de méditation inspiré du mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), le mindfulness ayant comme objectif de devenir pleinement présent à ce qui est. En plus de suggérer que la méditation permettrait le développement des compétences relationnelles dont la congruence, la considération positive inconditionnelle et l'empathie, l'analyse de contenu rend compte d'un élément intermédiaire pouvant expliquer par quel mécanisme la méditation favoriserait le développement de compétences relationnelles, soit l'approfondissement de la relation à soi pour le thérapeute. Étant donné que les compétences relationnelles s'avèrent jouer un rôle important au plan de l'efficacité thérapeutique, les présents résultats fournissent d'autres éléments pouvant justifier l'utilisation de la méditation comme méthode visant le développement des compétences relationnelles dans les professions de relation d'aide.

Ways to reduce the impact of worry in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have received little experimental research attention. Previous research has found that those with GAD are vulnerable to negative emotionality immediately following periods of worry; emotion regulation strategies could be useful to mitigate reactivity following worry. One promising strategy is mindfulness, defined as sustained attention toward the present moment with an attitude of curiosity and acceptance. Experimental research has found that mindfulness reduces negative affect and improves emotion regulation. This strategy is likely more effective than thought suppression, a common strategy used in GAD. This online study recruited 300 individuals with analogue GAD who completed several self-report measures of worry severity, emotion dysregulation, mindfulness, and experiential avoidance and underwent experimental inductions of worry (versus no-worry control) and regulation strategy (mindfulness versus thought suppression versus no-strategy control) before watching a sad film clip and reporting state affect and emotion dysregulation. Contrary to hypotheses, the mindfulness manipulation did not have a buffering effect on the relation between worry and negative affect or emotion dysregulation. The only predicted significant finding indicated that the mindfulness manipulation had a main effect on negative affect, with visual trends indicating that this effect was driven by those who did not worry. An exploratory analysis indicated that a mindfulness manipulation increased positive affect following worry, however. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

An impressive body of research indicates expressive writing (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986) produces physiological and psychological benefits. One study found that expressive writing decreases depressive symptoms among formerly depressed college students (Gortner, Rude, & Pennebaker, 2006). Gortner et al. (2006) argue that expressive writing may produce changes by reducing negative evaluations of emotional experiences and self-judgment, often associated with depression, through instructions encouraging participants to delve into their “deepest thoughts and feelings.” In other words, the standard writing instructions appear to send an implicit message that individuals be accepting and non-judgmental towards emotions and cognitions. The mindfulness literature suggests that making this message explicit may improve the preventative power of expressive writing in depression-vulnerable populations (Baer, 2003; Kingston, Dooley, Bates, Lawlor, & Malone, 2007; Teasdale et al., 2000; Toneatto & Nguyen, 2007). Therefore, the specific goal of the present study was to examine the effects of a mindfulness-enhanced expressive writing intervention among depression-prone individuals. Depression-vulnerable participants (e.g., dysphoric or formerly depressed) were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Although writing instructions varied for each group, all participants wrote for 20 minutes across a three-day period. The mindfulness condition received writing instructions that encouraged participants to be non-judgmental, accepting, and self-compassionate as they wrote about distressing events. Participants in the traditional writing condition received standard writing instructions, which consisted of writing about their deepest thoughts and feelings related to an emotional incident. Finally, students in the control condition were instructed to write about what they did the previous day. Results showed marginally significant decreases in depressive symptoms among participants in the mindfulness group compared to the control condition. In addition, results indicated that low suppressive depression-vulnerable individuals in the mindfulness condition marginally improved their cognitive processing biases compared to their counterparts in the traditional and control groups. Results failed to support hypotheses that predicted improvements on self-compassion, rumination, and mindfulness skills. Further, self-compassion was not found to mediate the effects of treatment on depressive symptoms and rumination. Obviously more research needs to be conducted, however preliminary results suggest that brief mindfulness interventions may be beneficial for a depression-vulnerable population. / text

Mindfulness is increasingly recognized as an important phenomenon both clinically and empirically, with mindfulness-based interventions demonstrated to be efficacious across a wide variety of patient populations and disorders (i.e., Baer, 2003). Though debate regarding the exact definition of mindfulness continues, generally accepted definitions involve the common elements of intentionally directing attention toward the present moment and adopting an accepting, nonjudgmental, and/or nonreactive orientation, intent, or attitude (i.e., Baer et al., 2006; Bishop et al., 2004). Several testable predictions in the cognitive and emotional domains were derived from the operational definition of mindfulness provided by Bishop et al. (2004). Recent empirical work (i.e., Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008; Valentine & Sweet, 1999) has supported Bishop et al.’s predictions, providing initial validation of their operationalization of mindfulness. However, most work on the effects of meditation practice and the mindfulness construct has relied on self-report methodology. The current work transcended past research by using behavioral methods to investigate the effects of meditation practice, correlates of trait mindfulness, and validity of current conceptualizations of mindfulness. Additionally, the current work investigated relationships between meditation, mindfulness, and self-regulation using behavioral methods. This investigation was warranted as recent theoretical work suggested that increased self-control abilities may be the primary mechanism by which mindfulness-based interventions work and that higher levels of trait mindfulness may appear to be related to enhanced well-being due to the unmeasured third variable of enhanced self-regulatory abilities (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2007). Ninety-eight individuals (33 meditators, 33 age-matched nonmeditating controls, and 32 students) completed self-report and behavioral measures of attention, learning, memory, cognitive and emotional biases, and self-regulation in individual sessions. Results demonstrated that meditation practice related to few of the measured constructs, with significant group differences detected between the meditators and nonmeditators in short-term memory, long-term memory, and self-regulation only. Self-reported trait mindfulness in the nonmeditators related only to self-reported psychological well-being. These results stand in stark contrast to most of the current literature on meditation and mindfulness. The research raises more questions about the effects of meditation practice and conceptualization of mindfulness than it answers, though multiple interpretations of the data are possible.

This report involves a proposed study that intends to examine the effects of mindfulness training for graduate students in the helping profession. The study aims to examine a possible complement to psychology graduate education that may enhance well-being and prevent deleterious consequences of stress, as well as provide students with knowledge and skills to better prepare them for their future roles as practitioners. The study will empirically investigate the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention to enhance well-being, benefit the therapist-client relationship through the cultivation of empathy, and promote clinical training progress via enhancing skills rated by clinical supervisors. Additional goals include examination of whether mindfulness training increases mindfulness levels and clarification of the relationship between amount of mindfulness practice and mental health outcomes. This report provides an integrated analysis of relevant current literature related to these research goals, including an overview of mindfulness, outlining its origins and defining the construct. After providing this basis for understanding, this report describes mindfulness practice, with particular focus given to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is the intervention to be utilized in the proposed study. Following a brief review of empirical findings that summarize the effects of MBSR found in the literature, mental health providers are discussed as a particularly at-risk population for experiencing stress and its deleterious effects on personal and professional life. The relationship, overlap, and similarities between mindfulness and psychotherapy that have been suggested in the literature are then described, with consideration given to the particular elements they share. Literature which describes a gap in psychology graduate school curricula that neglects self care and clinical skills training, and research that indicates that beginning helping professionals may particularly benefit from self care training is discussed. This report then suggests that mindfulness training may uniquely and efficaciously complement psychology graduate school training, with respect to the enhancement of well-being of therapists in training, their ability to cope with graduate school, and their development of clinical skills. The proposed study is then presented, describing methods and expected results, finishing with a brief discussion. / text

<p> </p><p>Nedsatt psykologiskt välbefinnande är en stor anledning till att Sveriges yrkesarbetande mår dåligt. Var femte kvinna och var tionde man mår psykiskt dåligt. Studien syfte var att undersöka sambanden mellan konstrukten självkänsla, mindfulness och depression samt att undersöka huruvida självkänsla har några medierande effekter mellan de bägge andra konstrukten. Studiens datainsamling utfördes med hjälp av en enkät. För de bägge oberoende variablerna erhölls signifikanta negativa korrelationer med depression; Självkänslan  r_s=-0,733, p=0,01 och Mindfulness r_s=-0,303, p=0,01. Dessutom erhölls en fullständigt medierande effekt för självkänslan mellan mindfulness och depression. Det betyder att mindfulness behöver verka genom självkänslan för att kunna påverka depression. Dessa resultat innebär att det med relativt enkla medel skulle gå att förebygga arbetstagarnas psykiska ohälsa.</p><p> </p>

Mindfulness-Based Therapies (MBT) are a current technology within the cognitive behavioural tradition, which can be grouped according to whether mindfulness is a major or a minor component. A mindful approach to psychological difficulties attempts to change the relationship with unwanted inner experience. The model suggests this may help reduce affective symptomatology. There has been a considerable growth of interest in these therapies with an accompanying increase in the evidence base. A number of reviews have been conducted however they have not comprehensively appraised these therapies. The primary aim of my study was to contribute to ongoing research determining the effectiveness of MBT for the treatment of affective symptomatology. Depending on these results, a secondary aim of the study was to make recommendations for the use of MBT in clinical practice. Methods I conducted a meta-analysis which looked separately at therapies considered to have mindfulness as a major component; therapies considered to have mindfulness as a minor component; and a comparison of these two groups. Of the 598 unique citations identified in the literature, 113 were assessed for eligibility and 40 included in the pool of studies for the meta-analysis. Results For the major component therapies, there was a significant mean reduction score in depressive symptomatology as measured by the BDI of 8.73 points (k = 11; 95% CI = 6.61, 10.86). Evidence of effectiveness was also found for the minor component therapies (k = 8) in reducing anxiety symptomatology with a significant standardised mean difference of 1.24 (95% CI = 0.81, 2.10). Discussion I found evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies in reducing levels of depression or anxiety mainly in patients diagnosed with depressive or anxiety disorders. The robustness of these findings is discussed alongside the implications for research and practice within the context of the current literature.

Psicólogo / Estamos siendo testigos de una irrupción masiva de las prácticas meditativas orientales en la teoría y en la práctica de la psicología, de la psicoterapia y, en general, de la ciencia occidental. La meditación se ocupa como enseñanza en aliviar el sufrimiento inherente a la condición humana. En este contexto, la práctica de mindfulness, ha reportado grandes beneficios en distintos padecimientos psíquicos y físicos. Así, cobra relevancia el indagar en el impacto de la práctica de mindfulness para el desarrollo de habilidades de los psicoterapeutas que trabajan con ese dolor. La presente es una investigación empírica de carácter cualitativo basada en la teoría fundamentada; a partir de las entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas a un grupo de terapeutas jóvenes, antes y después de un entrenamiento en mindfulness con una duración de diez sesiones. Se concluyó que la práctica de mindfulness incide primariamente en el desarrollo de habilidades psicoterapéuticas específicas a nivel cognitivo, afectivo e interaccional, y en un segundo nivel, aporta a la generación de habilidades psicoterapéuticas inespecíficas en tres ámbitos fundamentales: la inclusión del cuerpo en psicoterapia, la importancia del autocuidado y la persona del terapeuta, y en una dimensión más global denominada proceso terapéutico

Dans le courant des alternatives thérapeutiques et de l'approche corps/esprit, la méditation comme objet de recherche dans le champ des prises en charge thérapeutique et de la psychologie de la santé fait état d'un grand nombre de recherches aux États-Unis depuis les vingts dernières années, Un développement embryonnaire voit le jour dans les pays francophone. S'inscrivant dans cette optique, l'objectif de cette thèse est dans un premier temps de montrer l'intérêt de ce concept en psychothérapie en le clarifiant dans ces trois approches principales (concentration, pleine conscience, méditation en mouvement), de focaliser sur la méditation de pleine conscience en l'articulant au sein de la troisième vague des TTC et de l'éclairer sous l'angle neurologique et physiologique. Dans un second temps, nous développerons de façon pratique l'approche MBSR issue des travaux de J Kabat Zinn (1990) et de ses successeurs en la testant sur la gestion du stress, de l'anxiété, de la qualité de vie, du coping et de la dépression sur une population d'étudiant et de diabétique de type 1. A cela s'ajoutera des études de cas. Enfin, nous amènerons la discussion sur l'efficacité de la pratique MBSR au regard des recherches neurologiques dans un souci futures dans l'intégration en psychothérapie / AIn the feld of the alternative therapy and of the mind body approche, meditation as a new object of research in this aera show a lot of improvment in the last twenty years, with a new development in Europe. The objective of this thesis is to show the great interest of this concept inpsychotherapy with a clarification in its three main areas (concentration, mindfulness, and movement meditation), with a focus on mindfulness meditation linked to the behavioural and cognitive therapies, and with an neurological and physiological highlights. Additionnaly to that, we will develop on a pratical way, the MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction) approach linked to the work of J Kabat Zinn (1990) with experimental assessment on stress, anxiety, quality of life, coping and depression on two populations (student and diabetic type 1), and case studies. At the end, we will focus the discussion ont the effectiveness of MBSR linked to neurological researches and integration with psuchotherpies