Mindfulness-based Therapy

I find mindfulness practices to be very helpful to managing distress and building insight. In a session, I will often ask a client to practice being mindful of their experience; to be aware of their thoughts, emotions, and sensations without judgement.

Mindfulness involves moment-by-moment awareness of what a person is experiencing, such as paying close attention to breathing, noises, sensations in the body, inner feelings and thoughts, and our reactions to specific situations. Increasing mindfulness skills allow you to feel more in control of your emotions and more present with whatever or whoever you are engaging with.

Mindfulness has become a commonly used term that in some ways has become watered-down due to overly broad use. From my point of view, Mindfulness is our effort to turn our attention & awareness to the present moment in an intentional way. This includes mindfulness of what our thoughts & mind are doing, but we can go further & use mindfulness to work with body, breath, movement & posture. Combining mindfulness of body & mind can create what we call an "embodied" way of being.

In addition to CBT I use mindfulness techniques to treat depression, anxiety, emotional regulation and stress management.

I work with clients who have used various forms of dissociation to control their overwhelming experience. When the body has been a source of pain – physical and/or emotional – we retreat into one escape and another. Mindfulness is a set of tools for reconnecting with our present experience and gaining vital information about what it is to be alive and uniquely ourselves. And as we learn to tune in to our beingness in all its messiness, we begin to get in touch with joy and meaning and purpose.

In our fast-paced, modern world, many of us race throughout our days scarcely aware of the weather, much less the nuances of our internal terrain. As a regular meditation practitioner and having been trained in mindfulness-based interventions, I support my clients to reacquaint themselves with the “here and now” and the wisdom that lies in that experience.

Mindfulness-based therapy can be a highly effective form of treatment to increase your overall awareness of both the cognitive and physiological components of your body. Through various breathing and distressing exercises, the goal is to mitigate your overall anxiety and stress while increasing your overall awareness of your emotions and senses.

Mindfulness is woven into all of the work that I do with clients because it helps them to manage distressing symptoms and reconnect with themselves in a way that is beneficial and non-judgmental.

I love incorporating mindfulness into my work with folks with help people learn to claim a sense of calm and clarity into their life. There's no right or wrong as to what mindfulness can look like. Sometimes it's looking at what's going on in our bodies, and other times it's noticing how it feels to have our feet on the ground. There a type of mindfulness for everyone and I'd love to help you find what works for you.

Often when we come from unsupportive, abusive, neglectful, or oppressive environments we learn to be unkind to ourselves. Often we are not even aware of extent of our own internalized oppression. Much of my practice surrounds use of Mindfulness. In order to to be kind to yourself you first have to be able to see the suffering for what it is. I will help you create a compassionate voice for yourself.

Mindfulness-based therapies are effective in helping people manage a variety of mental health conditions. For mindfulness-based therapy to be effective, it is important that the therapist can tailor the therapy to the needs of the individual patient. Mindfulness-based therapy can help gay men to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. By learning to be mindful of their thoughts and feelings, gay men can find peace and acceptance within themselves.

To be mindful is different from being mind-filled! Usually we feel our mind is full to the brim and it makes us feel tense, wired, anxious, and then exhausted. When we practice mindfulness, we are choosing to notice what we are feeling, thinking, experiencing and pausing to just notice-not react! So many times we have tried to fly under the radar and go undetected to survive. To live our life, we now learn to practice noticing ourselves, what we feel, and think. Responding over reacting.

Mindfulness is especially well suited for harnessing run-away fight-flight-freeze reaction at the core of anxiety and stress. "Sounds great, but I tried meditating and it doesn't work!" you're thinking. Mindfulness is not just meditation, but about equipping and empowering yourself to not only manage life's challenges, but also discover a life based on personal values, peace, and joy!

Mindfulness-based therapy is an approach that uses both cognitive behavioral therapy methods & mindfulness meditative practices to help increase moment-by-moment awareness of what you’re experiencing, such as paying closer attention to your breathing, sensations in your body, inner-feelings & thoughts, and your reactions to specific situations. This helps you stay more grounded to make thoughtful behavioral choices versus reactive choices that may not align with the person you want to be.

Mindfulness-based approaches to therapy lead with mindfulness, promoting the practice as an important part of good mental health. Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment, which can be developed through the practice of meditation and other training. Simply put, mindfulness encourages and teaches us to fully live in the present moment with with our thoughts, emotions, relationships, and problems.

Mindfulness-based exercises and tools help us to return to our bodies and to the present. When we feel anxious, overwhelmed, scared, flooded, triggered, or panicked, we lose track of both. Learning how to bring our awareness back to the here and now, and into our physical bodies can help us feel more grounded and secure.

Mindfulness doesn't mean sitting in silence or chanting on a cushion. It's about being fully present in each moment, feeling the movement and experiences along the way. We become more aware of our behaviors and can make choices that benefit us, rather than reacting impulsively out of emotion. Mindfulness can help us foster a deeper connection with our emotions and behaviors. It helps us sit with our feelings rather than trying to "fix" them. This nonjudgmental presence is key to understanding.

I incorporate mindfulness practices in my clinical work with clients which helps increase self-awareness. Clients have found mindfulness principles by engaging in non-judgmental reflection helped reduce stress, depression, conflict and anxiety.

What we pay attention to shapes our experience. By working with my clients to notice their minds, their attention, they work with attention and mindfulness to show improvements in mental health and wellness outcomes, feel more equipped to manage stressful or anxiety-provoking events, and are able to more adaptively manage unwanted sensations between session.