Become more present & open with mindfulness-based therapy

Mindfulness-based therapy is an approach that utilizes practices and principles from mindfulness training and mindfulness meditation. The term mindfulness means paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment. In mindfulness-based therapy, I’ll guide you to become more aware of your present moment experience. As you grow this ability to be present, we’ll work towards facing difficult emotions, detaching from unhelpful thoughts, and choosing values-based actions that matter to you.

No, you don’t need any meditation experience to do mindfulness-based therapy. I will guide you in any mindfulness-based practices we may try. Some of these practices may be guided meditations, while others are simply exercises designed to help you build greater awareness and self-compassion.

Mindfulness helps you detach from unhelpful anxiety cycles and loops. With anxiety, your mind can fixate on potential negative events that may happen. Mindfulness teaches you to slow down and recognize these patterns, allowing you to refrain from feeding into them. This slowed-down process also helps you respond to stress differently, as you become more skilled at recognizing what’s in your control and what’s not.

Mindfulness-based therapy can be helpful for both depression and mood swings. Mindfulness-based therapy guides you to be present and notice what you are feeling. Awareness of feelings can guide you to face negative beliefs about yourself and the world, allowing you to recognize the impact of these thoughts on your well-being. Mindfulness can guide you to treat your struggles with more compassion and help you reconnect with what matters to you.

Mindfulness helps with mood swings by allowing you to slow down and become more aware of your shifting emotional state. This allows you to respond in ways that are kind and supportive of yourself.

Typically, we’ll start our session with a brief check-in about how your week was and whether you tried out anything we discussed from the previous session. We’ll then work together to identify a main focus for the session. This might be based on something that came up during your week that you want to explore, or we may decide to work on a wider goal that you came to therapy to address.

I’ll guide you to describe the challenge or goal you want to work on. I may pause at times and have you notice what’s happening in your mind, body, and emotions. This is meant to help you recognize ways in which you may be trying to manage or avoid your experience, and guide you to start to build more willingness to face your experience with care and compassion.

Mindfulness-based therapy is different than meditation classes. In mindfulness-based therapy, we’ll blend mindfulness techniques with talking through your challenges and exploring your emotions. I may at times teach you a guided exercise or meditation, but the majority of our time, we’ll be exploring how you feel through a mindfulness lens.

This happens at times and is a normal part of the process. Mindfulness is designed to help you become more willing to face your present state, and if you’re in the habit of avoiding how you feel, being present can feel anxious at first.

Mindfulness is designed to help you gradually build the willingness to face anxiety and other uncomfortable inner experiences. Over time, you realize that you have the capacity to feel anxiety, which can allow anxiety to feel less impactful to you as you spend less energy trying avoid and control it.

If you have a history of trauma, some guided exercises may be overwhelming at first. If you become overwhelmed by eyes-closed exercises and meditations, we can start with exercises that involve your eyes open, so you can feel safe and present enough to try out the techniques.

Often with trauma, I start with exercises aimed at helping you feel grounded in the present moment - such as exercises where you focus on what you see, hear, and can touch. We’ll gradually add in a more internal focus to help you begin to build awareness of what it’s like to notice your body sensations, emotions, and thoughts. You’re in the driver’s seat of this process and are welcome to stop the exercise at any time to ensure we are moving at a pace that works for you.

Typically, I recommend some mindfulness between sessions. We’ll collaborate to find exercises that work best for you. Some people are interested in meditation, and I will guide you towards meditations well-suited for what you want to work on. Others prefer activities like writing, in which case I’ll share some guided writing exercises to help you build emotional awareness and self-compassion.

If you’re someone who has trouble sitting still, I might recommend a mindful nature walk or mindful household chores to help you stay moving and connect with the present moment.

The length of mindfulness-based therapy differs based on the challenges you are dealing with and your goals for therapy. Mindfulness-based therapy can show results fairly soon as you start to make shifts in how you relate to your struggles. However, deeper issues take time to respond to mindfulness-based therapy, and so we may want to dedicate a longer-term process to healing your struggles through this type of therapy.

To get the most out of mindfulness-based therapy, I recommend that we meet weekly at first, for at least 6-8 weeks, and in some cases, a little longer. For some issues, we may be able to reach your therapy goals within 1-3 months. For longer-standing challenges, I may recommend longer-term therapy to allow us to more deeply shift patterns. I’ll give you a more tailored recommendation after we meet and I am able to learn more about your specific needs.