<p>Mindfulness har i ett flertal studier observerats vara sammankopplat</p><p>med olika aspekter av hälsa: biologiska, psykologiska såväl som sociala aspekter. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att 1) belysa hur hälsa kan främjas genom mindfulnessmetoder och 2) genom den biopsykosociala modellen belysa komplexiteten i hälsa som begrepp och därigenom uppmana sjukvården att mer aktivt använda sig av multidimensionella modeller. Urvalet bestod av psykologistudenter (n=125) och arbetssökande (n=30). Genom Pearson korrelationskoefficient erhölls resultat som visar att det finns ett starkt samband mellan mindfulness och olika hälsoaspekter och även ett starkt samband hälsoaspekterna sinsemellan. Resultaten i föreliggande studie är i enlighet med rådande teorier som säger att mindfulness påverkar hälsa positivt genom bättre verklighetsanpassning och att hälsa är en komplex företeelse med flera interagerande komponenter.</p>

<p>Tidigare forskning har visat att mindfulness kan höja livskvaliteten inom en rad områden som till exempel välbefinnande, inre motivation och prestation. Dock saknas studier om dess inverkan på arbetslivet. Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att undersöka vilken roll mindfulness eventuellt kan spela för människan i arbetslivet, särskilt för arbetstillfredsställelse och arbetsmotivation.  Respondenter var 103 yrkesverksamma individer i olika åldrar och från olika yrkesgrupper, varav 78 kvinnor. En kvantitativ enkätstudie gjordes där respondenterna självskattade 81 påståenden bestående av de tre etablerade mätinstrumenten Five Facet Mindfulness Questionairre (FFMQ), Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) och An Index of Job Satisfaction. Resultatet visade att mindfulness hade en liten betydelse för arbetsstillfredställelse och inre arbetsmotivation. Därav slutsatsen att mindfulness inverkan på arbetslivet förmodligen inte är lika stor som förväntat, men det bör göras fler studier av olika karaktär innan mindfulness kan borträknas som ett verktyg för arbetslivet, förslagsvis longitudinella experimentstudier innehållande mindfulnessträning.</p>

Bland högstadiebarn i Sverige upplever en stor andel stress och rapporterar symtom på psykisk ohälsa. Det finns därför anledning att prova olika interventioner i skolmiljö. I studien har en kurs i medveten närvaro genomförts i en niondeklass. Studien visar på en signifikant ökad grad av medveten närvaro mätt i Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), för elever som initialt hade låga värden i MAAS. Även en signifikant minskning i oro för barn med initialt medelhöga till höga värden i PSWQ-C noterades efter kursen. Det indikerar att medveten närvaro skulle kunna vara värdefullt att lära ut till högstadiebarn. Ytterligare studier behövs för att belägga dessa preliminära resultat. Det återstår ytterligare arbete med att anpassa kursen till högstadiebarn i syfte att göra kursinnehållet lättare att tillgodogöra sig.

Undersökningar visar att barn i grundskolan mår allt sämre. Många svenska skolbarn lider av oro, ångest och nedstämdhet. Denna studies syfte var att undersöka om gruppbehandling i skolmiljön kan ge resultat i form av minskad förekomst av oro, ångest och nedstämdhet hos barn. För behandlingen valdes Tillämpad Avslappning och Medveten Närvaro som båda har använts i gruppbehandling för olika svårigheter. Manualer för barnbehandling skapades för de båda metoderna. Behandlingen omfattade 12 sessioner à 30 minuter under 6 veckor. Undersökningsdeltagare var 39 barn i åk 3 i en Stockholmsskola. Barnen randomiserades till behandling med Tillämpad Avslappning (N = 10), behandling med Medveten Närvaro (N = 9) och väntelista (N = 20). Mätningar med PSWQ-C, MASC och CDI-S visade att barnen i behandlingsgrupperna hade minskat signifikant på samtliga skalor vid eftermätning. En utvärdering visade att barnen var nöjda med träningen. Sammantaget stöder undersökningen förebyggande behandlingsarbete i grundskolan.

Mindfulness har i ett flertal studier observerats vara sammankopplat med olika aspekter av hälsa: biologiska, psykologiska såväl som sociala aspekter. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att 1) belysa hur hälsa kan främjas genom mindfulnessmetoder och 2) genom den biopsykosociala modellen belysa komplexiteten i hälsa som begrepp och därigenom uppmana sjukvården att mer aktivt använda sig av multidimensionella modeller. Urvalet bestod av psykologistudenter (n=125) och arbetssökande (n=30). Genom Pearson korrelationskoefficient erhölls resultat som visar att det finns ett starkt samband mellan mindfulness och olika hälsoaspekter och även ett starkt samband hälsoaspekterna sinsemellan. Resultaten i föreliggande studie är i enlighet med rådande teorier som säger att mindfulness påverkar hälsa positivt genom bättre verklighetsanpassning och att hälsa är en komplex företeelse med flera interagerande komponenter.

Mindfulness has been defined in cognitive-behavioural terms in the mental health literature despite its broader application by many practitioners. Mindfulness is a complex and often ambiguous concept that has historically been understood and applied in myriad ways depending on the context; thus its application to psychotherapy outside the cognitive-behavioural tradition is not necessarily straightforward, and has not been addressed. This study addressed this gap in the literature through interviews with 9 experienced psychotherapists who integrate mindfulness with non-cognitive-behavioural psychotherapeutic modalities or eclectic psychotherapy. Interviews addressed how participants a) define mindfulness, b) apply it to psychotherapy, and c) the aims of that integration. Data were analyzed via the grounded theory approach. The results depicted mindfulness and its potential applications as broader than its presentation in the mental health literature, and emphasized the role of contexts in shaping conceptualization and application. A broad, context-based model of mindfulness/psychotherapy integration is proposed.

Mindfulness has been defined in cognitive-behavioural terms in the mental health literature despite its broader application by many practitioners. Mindfulness is a complex and often ambiguous concept that has historically been understood and applied in myriad ways depending on the context; thus its application to psychotherapy outside the cognitive-behavioural tradition is not necessarily straightforward, and has not been addressed. This study addressed this gap in the literature through interviews with 9 experienced psychotherapists who integrate mindfulness with non-cognitive-behavioural psychotherapeutic modalities or eclectic psychotherapy. Interviews addressed how participants a) define mindfulness, b) apply it to psychotherapy, and c) the aims of that integration. Data were analyzed via the grounded theory approach. The results depicted mindfulness and its potential applications as broader than its presentation in the mental health literature, and emphasized the role of contexts in shaping conceptualization and application. A broad, context-based model of mindfulness/psychotherapy integration is proposed.

Attention is an acknowledged component of the therapeutic relationship that is the heart of clinical work and the base of competence. The centrality of the therapeutic relationship itself has been recognized throughout the history of clinical work. The clinician’s work is based, in part, in attending to the client by actively and openly listening to the client with attention and engagement. However, attention has been lacking within mental health disciplines to what occurs within the process of clinical attention. As a result, little knowledge exists about the structure of clinical attention itself. This dissertation studied the structure of clinical attention to understand what occurs when clinicians attend to their clients in sessions. The thesis focused on the internal processes occurring within the clinician, not on actions or interventions taken in sessions. The literature review grounded the study theoretically in mind science and contemplative science, the study of reality grounded in both objective and subjective experience. The literature review also conceptualized attention in its sub processes of mindfulness, meditation, reflective practice and affect regulation, examining literature relevant to those constructs as well as to the history, philosophy and psychology of attention. The literature revealed a lack of knowledge of the structure and process of clinical attention. Using the extant literature, a new theoretical framework of attention was constructed. Attention was conceptualized as composed of levels of pre-reflective and reflective attention as related to the attention sub processes. A phenomenological methodology was used to study the structure of clinical attention in relation to holistic competence. Fourteen clinicians, all of whom met the criteria for attaining expertise in the use of attention in their clinical work, participated in an explicitation interview. Data analysis followed a modified phenomenological methodology in a series of steps as the data were grouped in invariant constituents, reduced to emergent themes and analyzed for a textural structural description from which a structural description was constructed. From the structural description was distilled the essence of clinical attention. Clinical attention was seen to consist of a dynamic and iterative process of intention and intuition. Intention and intuition were seen to be based in different attentional levels, both of which were recursively and iteratively related to attention’s construction as a process grounded in inner awareness providing the potential abilities to reflect on experience and regulate affective experience. The study concluded with a discussion of the relationship of the skill of clinical attention to a holistic competence based in levels of procedural capability focused on concrete behavioural action and meta competence focused on clinical judgment, self-awareness and self-reflection on the actions taken. The implications of the study’s findings for training clinicians in attention were discussed.

The fields of medicine and health care continue to demonstrate the benefits of mindfulness-based practice for stress reduction and well-being. Research is also beginning to reveal the professional benefits of mindfulness training with human service professionals, as well as the impact with children and youth, and more broadly within the field of education and human development. This qualitative action research study uses a grounded theory approach to elucidate the added value of the Mindfulness-Based Wellness Education (MBWE) program within three main areas of teacher education: dispositional development, content knowledge, and instructional repertoire. Two years being engaged in the iterative process of teaching, interviewing teacher candidates, and program development brought forth five main themes: (1) Personal and Professional Identity, Reflective Practitioner, (3) Constructivist Learning & Holistic Vision of Teaching, (4) Social and Emotional Competence on Practicum, and (5) Engagement in Teacher Education. Additional findings outline key curricular and pedagogical components of the MBWE program that facilitate teacher candidate learning. Finally, a holistic model of pedagogical well-being presents an avenue for understanding the integration of mindful wellness into teacher education, and the K-12 classroom.

Attention is an acknowledged component of the therapeutic relationship that is the heart of clinical work and the base of competence. The centrality of the therapeutic relationship itself has been recognized throughout the history of clinical work. The clinician’s work is based, in part, in attending to the client by actively and openly listening to the client with attention and engagement. However, attention has been lacking within mental health disciplines to what occurs within the process of clinical attention. As a result, little knowledge exists about the structure of clinical attention itself. This dissertation studied the structure of clinical attention to understand what occurs when clinicians attend to their clients in sessions. The thesis focused on the internal processes occurring within the clinician, not on actions or interventions taken in sessions. The literature review grounded the study theoretically in mind science and contemplative science, the study of reality grounded in both objective and subjective experience. The literature review also conceptualized attention in its sub processes of mindfulness, meditation, reflective practice and affect regulation, examining literature relevant to those constructs as well as to the history, philosophy and psychology of attention. The literature revealed a lack of knowledge of the structure and process of clinical attention. Using the extant literature, a new theoretical framework of attention was constructed. Attention was conceptualized as composed of levels of pre-reflective and reflective attention as related to the attention sub processes. A phenomenological methodology was used to study the structure of clinical attention in relation to holistic competence. Fourteen clinicians, all of whom met the criteria for attaining expertise in the use of attention in their clinical work, participated in an explicitation interview. Data analysis followed a modified phenomenological methodology in a series of steps as the data were grouped in invariant constituents, reduced to emergent themes and analyzed for a textural structural description from which a structural description was constructed. From the structural description was distilled the essence of clinical attention. Clinical attention was seen to consist of a dynamic and iterative process of intention and intuition. Intention and intuition were seen to be based in different attentional levels, both of which were recursively and iteratively related to attention’s construction as a process grounded in inner awareness providing the potential abilities to reflect on experience and regulate affective experience. The study concluded with a discussion of the relationship of the skill of clinical attention to a holistic competence based in levels of procedural capability focused on concrete behavioural action and meta competence focused on clinical judgment, self-awareness and self-reflection on the actions taken. The implications of the study’s findings for training clinicians in attention were discussed.