SOCW 6060 Discussion 2: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions

SOCW 6060 Discussion 2: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions

SOCW 6060 Discussion 2: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions

According to Garland (2013), there is skepticism about mindfulness as an effective intervention. Often, because of its philosophical roots in Buddhism, practitioners and scholars equate mindfulness with “New Age” beliefs. As a result, some may wonder how effective mindfulness interventions are. Recall from Week 1 that it is important to answer the question about the effectiveness of interventions by using empirical evidence rather than experiences or intuition. SOCW 6060 Discussion 2: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions

You may not have experienced or practiced mindfulness. After you listen to the recordings found on the website listed in the Learning Resources, reflect on some of the following questions: (1) What did you notice? (2) What were you thinking while you were listening? (3) What were you feeling while you were listening? (4) How was your body reacting while listening? (5) How did you feel after you practiced mindfulness? SOCW 6060 Discussion 2: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Mindfulness Interventions

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In this Discussion, you will experience an example of mindfulness and also determine whether mindfulness has scientific support.

To prepare:

• Listen to a recording from those found at this website listed in the Learning Resources: UCLA Health. (n.d.). Free guided meditations. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from http://marc.ucla.edu/mindful-meditations
• Read this article listed in the Learning Resources: Garland, E. L. (2013). Mindfulness research in social work: Conceptual and methodological recommendations. Social Work Research, 37(4), 439–448. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/svt038
• Conduct a library search in the Walden Library for one research study about the effectiveness of mindfulness as an intervention for the client in the case study you have been using. Remember when looking for studies to take into account your client’s age, developmental stage, and presenting problem.

Post:

• In 1 to 2 sentences, respond to one of the four following questions in terms of what you noticed during the mindfulness exercise you completed:
  • What were you thinking while you were listening?
  • What were you feeling while you were listening?
  • How was your body reacting while listening?
  • How did you feel after you practiced mindfulness?
• In 2 to 3 sentences, describe your experience practicing this technique and how this experience influences your choice on whether to use it with a client during practice.
  • Provide the reference for the study you found, and be sure to use citations in the body of your post using APA guidelines.
• In 1 to 2 sentences, briefly summarize the methodological context (i.e., research method, how data was collected, and the instruments used) of the studies and the findings.
• Evaluate the findings in terms of their validity and applicability for the client

• Video-JOHNSOMMERS.docx
• Mindset-ContentServer.pdf

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Hi. I’m John Sommers-Flanagan.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: And I’m Rita Sommers-Flanagan. And we’re really excited to welcome you to this DVD.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: The DVD has clips from 11 different theory-based counseling sessions. On the one end, we begin with psychoanalytic theory, and on the other end, we finish with family systems approaches. And you know, Rita, one of the things I like the best about the DVD is that we feature real people with real problems.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Mm-hmm. In fact, we involved six different professionals– of course two of those are us. But four colleagues joined us, and like you said, it’s real people with real problems. It’s not scripted.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: And not being scripted means that mistakes were made and that no one on the DVD is perfect.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Right. And of course, we can’t show you a whole theory in action. In fact, if you just dropped into a session somewhere in the United States at any time in any moment, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell what theory was involved in that session. In fact, I really like, John, how you’ve explained that to some of the students.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Right. I think one thing that helps is to notice that each theoretical perspective has a different listening focus.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Mm-hmm.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: For example, if I’m doing the psychoanalytic work, I’m going to focus on different things while I’m listening than if I’m doing CBT or reality therapy. In addition, each theoretical model has different strategies and techniques that are linked to the model. And so in the DVD, we try to feature the listening focus as well as the strategies and techniques that go with each theoretical perspective.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Right. The theoretical perspectives themselves have very basic beliefs that are different from each other, and, of course, result with different techniques and different strategies. But at the core, there are beliefs about the ways people change and the very essence of the meaning of life that drive the theories. And so sometimes you might see something going on that looks the same, but it’s actually coming from a very different place.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Right. It’s very complicated as you apply this to real situations. And we’re both counselors, and we’re dedicated to helping other counselors and psychotherapists become more effective in their work. And yet, I have to say, even in the process of doing this DVD, I felt humbled numerous times. And I felt that I continually learned.

I learned from watching you do your sessions and from watching the other counselors and psychotherapists. I even learned from watching myself, which, as you know if you have done some video recording of yourself doing counseling or psychotherapy, it can be excruciatingly painful. But it’s a great way to learn and develop your counselling and psychotherapy skills.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: And we realize that this might be very bad news for some of you who are still in graduate school, working on gaining your basic skills. And you have that fantasy that you will graduate, you’ll get your license, and you’ll be the perfect counselor.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: It’s really a lifelong journey, and we hope that this DVD helps you become a more effective counselor a or psychotherapist.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: This session is an example of psychoanalytic or psychodynamic therapy.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: If i were to say one thing about the psychoanalytic perspective, it would be repetition– repetition of patterns. Whether you’re operating from the old fashioned Freudian perspective or the more modern attachment theory perspective, both of those perspectives emphasize that individuals develop an internal working model based on early childhood interactions. And that that model dictates, to some extent, that repeating pattern of the way people have relationships as well as certain kinds of conflicts or intrapsychic problems that are manifest over and over.

RITA SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: Mm-hmm. And psychoanalytic is a very long therapy process usually, so of course it’s difficult to squeeze any of those concepts into a 20-minute session. John’s listening with Sarah for repeated themes, including the things she brings in, which is concern about blushing.

JOHN SOMMERS-FLANAGAN: And what you’ll probably notice is that the listening that I do is fairly unstructured. It’s involving free association, or saying whatever comes to mind, which is one of the techniques that psychoanalytically-oriented therapists use. In addition, I will occasionally prompt her to explore the past to see if we can make some connections with how these particular problems, the blushing, first arose.