Unlimiting the Mind

Andrew Olendzki's book, Unlimiting Mind (2010) is the first text we will read in this year's study group in mindfulness and psychotherapy.  Olendzki is one of the foremost American teachers of Vipassana, a Buddhist school which emphasizes mindfulness.  His writing is wonderfully clear and he makes some of the ancient Buddhist texts and ideas very accessible.

For the next meeting of the study group (October 8), I'm recommending that we focus on the sections that are most directly related to Buddhist psychology and the underpinnings of mindfulness: section 4, "The Practice;" section 5, "Understanding the Teachings;" and section 8, "The Emergence of Mindfulness".

Olendzki has chosen a great title for this work, because it addresses the central question of Buddhists and psychologists alike.  How do we get free of the limitations which stand between us and a fulfilling, worthwhile life?  Olendzki turns to ancient Buddhist sources (the scriptures recorded in the Pali language about 300 years after Buddha's death) for his answer, and so gives us a window into the wisdom and traditions that have preserved mindfulness to this day.  He writes insightfully about the conditioning which leads all of us to go through our lives on automatic pilot, concerned primarily with how to accumulate the things we like and get rid of the things we dislike.  We are hardly aware of the psychological processes that restrict our happiness, and Olendzi's great contribution is to make those mental functions accessible to our western consciousness.

One very interesting approach to Unlimiting Mind is to read it while reflecting on our modern applications of mindfulness.  It is especially illuminating to consider the connection between values and mindfulness in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) while reading Olendzki's account of "Changing your mind" in section 4.  Also, in section 5, Olendzki discusses one of my favorite concepts from Buddhist psychology: Papanca.  Referring to our tendency to "mentally proliferate" on our experience, and to become absorbed in our reactions to the point of being completely out of touch with our basic experience, papanca is the Buddhist forerunner of ACT's core concept of cognitive fusion.

I'm hoping that reading Unlimiting Mind will develop a familiarity with Buddhist psychology that will help us see the roots of the ACT processes that were rediscovered though Relational Frame Theory.   I'm looking forward to a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion on October 8th.

Minding Our Mindfulness

Next Friday (November 20) the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Study Group will be reflecting on the issue of the therapist's mindfulness. I thought I'd like to suggest that, between now and then, we might experiment with deliberately finding our mindfulness before we begin some of this week's therapy sessions. 

Here's a guide for a brief, pre-session mindfulness exercise for therapists.  In composing it, I've tried to touch on all of the elements of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy "hexaflex" model.  I've also remembered Shauna Shapiro's suggestion that we think of mindfulness as a matter of intention, attention, and attitude.

• Find the intention to take a few mindful breaths, and do it.
• Am I willing to be open to any experience being offered right now? (Actually check in with yourself:  What is your level of willingness?  Can you rate it from 0-10?)
  
• Why do I want to be mindful right now?
  
• What can I be aware of right now: in my body, in my thoughts and feelings, in my sense of pleasure or discomfort, in my experience of being in this room?  Am I completely open to having this experience?  If not completely, do I want to open up more, be more accepting?  Why? 
• What am I aware of about the person I'm meeting?  Am I open to "not knowing" much more than I actually know right now?  Am I willing to let go of what I already know in order to be open to whatever I am about to experience?
  
• What are my thoughts, judgments, and feelings about this person?  Am I aware of them as experiences I am having, rather than facts about this person?  Am I able to be fully accepting of all these aspects of my experience?
• What are my intentions in this particular meeting?

It might also be useful to get in touch with any overarching intentions you have, and articulate them briefly.  I sometimes find it grounding to remember the very traditional Buddhist dedication: "May all beings be happy, joyous, and live in safety."  Your own values or faith tradition might suggest a similar intention.

I'm looking forward to our discussion of our experiences on Friday!

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Mindfulness and Experiential Avoidance

Image via CrunchBaseIn general, we might say that mindfulness is a process of "turning toward rather than away."  In our last study group, our mindfulness experience demonstrated how complex that process actually is.  Sustaining mindfulness over a period of time inevitably involves "decisions" (on a fully conscious or a less-than-conscious basis) about how attention is allocated.  It was obvious to us that those decisions were sometimes made for what we might call "defensive" reasons.  Or, to put it less pejoratively, affect regulation needs contributed to our decisions about how to guide our attention.  Sometimes, this is clearly in the service of sustaining mindfulness (if we get too caught up in an emotion, we will probably lose our mindfulness). At the other end of the spectrum, some experiences are avoided because they are felt to be dangerous and destabilizing to the psyche, and this "turning away" can have very negative consequences. Within the mindfulness-based psychotherapies, Experiential Avoidance (EA) is often discussed as an element of psychopathology that can be mitigated with mindfulness practice.

To guide our discussion on this topic (November 21st), I'm posting two papers for you to download and study.  Chawla (2007) is a review of the research on experiential avoidance.  The other paper is a compendium of measures used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy research, and it begins with a section about the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire that will be relevant to our discussion.

I think it will be interesting to use this research to illuminate our in-the-moment mindfulness experiences.  Enjoy your reading!

Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Study Groups

Image via Wikipedia In September, we will be starting a new year of our study group in mindfulness and psychotherapy.  Last year, we had a very stimulating series of discussions, and I'm looking to more of the same this year. Since several more therapists have expressed interest in joining a study group, I'm thinking of offering two different sections to accommodate people's interests.

Knowledge and Skills in Mindfulness Based Therapies.  This section will focus on readings and case discussion in ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and other MBTs (Mindfulness Based Therapies).  We will emphasize therapeutic principles, learning specific interventions, clinical conceptualization, and discussion of ongoing therapy cases.  This section might be most useful to  therapists who have already established a personal mindfulness practice.  Many of last year's participants may well be most interested in this section.

Mindfulness Practice and Psychotherapy.  This section will address the same issues as the one above, but with a greater emphasis on fundamental principles of mindfulness, and more direct support in developing your mindfulness as a therapist.  This might be the best choice for therapists who want to establish their personal mindfulness practice.

Both groups will meet at my downtown office once a month, on Friday mornings, 10:00-11:30am, beginning in September (probably the 19th or 26th - there is some flexibility about the details).  Tuition is $35 per meeting, and all members are asked to be financially responsible for any missed meetings.  I expect that, soon after starting, we'll close the enrollment, so that we can have a stable membership and the richest possible dialog. 

Please contact me by email or phone (312-263-8034) if you are interested in either group, and we can talk more about the best course to take.  Thanks for your interest!