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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 09 Oct 2011
Time: 12:02:14 -0500
Remote Name: 76.199.174.140
[[Dr. Silverman, Thanks for an informative paper on a topic I've had only cursory exposure to. I am curious about how you have introduced mindfulness and integrated it into therapy. Are there people you would more strongly recommend mindfulness to than others? Do you have any tips or tricks? And what would you recommend to someone who is just beginning to practice mindfulness? Thank you!]] >>> Peggy, first of all thank-you for speaking up. Your questions are basic. >>> I think you will find your practice of mindfulness will infuse your clinical service with greater empathy and understanding of yourself and your clients, giving you, among other things, greater insight into which clients might most benefit from and be responsive to the requirements of the practice. By the way, more and more, just like you, clinicians are are taking up mindfulness practice to work more mindfully. Last year, Dr. Dan Siegel, who has been helping clinicians integrate mindfulness into their work, published the book, "The Mindful Therapist. A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration." You may want to use it as a resource. His approach to mindfulness derives from the teachings of Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and author of the monumental book published in 2005, "Coming to Our Senses. Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness." Dr. Siegel takes the position, as do many, including myself, that who we are as people seems to be more important than what we do as clinicians. (I've written about this at quite some length in the book I publshied in 2009, "Mind Matters. Setting the Stage for Satisfying Clinical Service. A Personal Essay.") >>> By taking up mindfulness practice, you will know first hand what can be required and what can be an outcome of the practice. That's a great start for integrating mindfulness into treatment and, perhaps, the only thing necessary for most clients --- to have a mindful therapist! I hope what I've written is helpful. Best wishes, Ellen-Marie Silverman