Promoting mindfulness in psychotherapists in training influences the treatment results of their patients: a randomized, double-blind, controlled study.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics January 1, 2007 Ludwig Grepmair, Ferdinand Mitterlehner, Thomas Loew et al.
Psychotherapists in training who practiced Zen meditation had patients who reported better therapy outcomes than therapists who did not meditate. Over a 9-week treatment period, 124 inpatients were treated by 18 therapists randomly assigned to either a meditation or no-meditation group. Patients of meditating therapists showed significantly greater improvements on measures of clarification and problem-solving perspectives, overall therapeutic change, and symptom reduction across multiple scales including anxiety, hostility, and paranoid thinking. The findings suggest that training therapists in mindfulness may enhance the effectiveness of psychotherapy.