Being mindful can help people feel calmer and more fully alive. Mindfulness and Mental Health examines other effects it can also have and presents a significant new model of how mindful awareness may influence different forms of mental suffering.
The book assesses current understandings of what mindfulness is, what it leads to, and how and when it can help. It looks at the roots and significance of mindfulness in Buddhist psychology and at the strengths and limitations of recent scientific investigations. A survey of relationships between mindfulness practice and established forms of psychotherapy introduces evaluations of recent clinical work where mindfulness has been used with a wide range of psychological disorders. As well as considering current 'mindfulness-based' therapies, future directions for the development of new techniques, their selection, how they are used and implications for professional training are discussed. Finally, mindfulness' future contribution to positive mental health is examined with reference to vulnerability to illness, adaptation and the flourishing of hidden capabilities.
As a cogent summary of the field that addresses many key questions, Mindfulness and Mental Health is likely to help therapists from all professional backgrounds in getting to grips with developments that are becoming too significant to ignore.
Mace, Preface. Introduction. Understanding Mindfulness I: Origins. Understanding Mindfulness II: Science. Mindful Therapy. Mindfulness and Mental Disorder. Harnessing Mindfulness. Mental Health and Mindfulness. References.
Biography
Chris Mace is Consultant Psychotherapist to Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust and honorary Senior Lecturer in Psychotherapy at the University of Warwick. He is currently chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Psychotherapy Faculty. His previous publications include the Routledge handbooks: The Art and Science of Assessment in Psychotherapy; Heart and Soul: the therapeutic face of philosophy; and Evidence in the Psychological Therapies.
"This excellent and much-needed book does a great job for both clinicians and researchers in a rapidly expanding field. Drawing on scholarship that is wonderfully deep and broad, it will be a source book for many for some years to come." - Mark Williams, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Wellcome Principal Research Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
"A careful and comprehensive examination of the full range of issues involved in integrating mindfulness into mental health practice, this belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in bringing this ancient wisdom into the modern world." - Steven C. Hayes, Foundation Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, USA
"Mindfulness and Mental Health is an important source book for anyone wishing to develop and understand this approach to mental health issues." - Dr. Christina Surawy, Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, July 2008, Vol. 8, No. 3
"There will be many benefits for students, teachers, supervisors, and practitioners alike from this book. It conceptualizes one of the more difficult concetps to teach and to practice-that is, how to more therapeutically pay attention. It is also helpful in bringing therapeutic concepts from the past, such as the concepts of Freudian neurological memory processes, into the present."
-PsycCritiques, March 11, 2009, Vol. 54, Release 10, Article 5
