Skip to content

Mindfulness training and problem formulation.

John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal, James Williams

Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2003 DOI: 10.1093/clipsy.bpg017 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Topics Meditation
Keywords Training meteorology Psychotherapist Artificial intelligence
Citations 215
Key points Argues that mindfulness training should not be applied generically but must be tailored to a disorder-specific formulation to be effective.

Abstract

Evidence suggests mindfulness-based clinical interven-tions are effective. Accepting this, we caution against as-suming that mindfulness can be applied as a generic tech-nique across a range of disorders without formulating how the approach addresses the factors maintaining the disorder in question. Six specific issues are raised: mind-fulness has been found to be unhelpful in some contexts; where mindfulness has been found to be effective, in-structors have derived and shared with clients a clear problem formulation; there may be many dimensions of effectiveness underlying the apparent simplicity of mind-fulness; mindfulness was developed within a particular “view ” of emotional suffering that implies wider changes that go beyond meditation practice alone; professionals need to match the different components of mindfulness with the psychopathology being targeted; nonetheless, mindfulness may affect processes common to different pathologies. Key words: mindfulness, meditation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness training, problem for-mulation. [Clin Psychol Sci Prac 10: 157–160, 2003] Baer (2003; this issue) provides a very helpful and thoughtful overview of the current status of mindfulness training as a clinical intervention. The literature Baer re-views suggests that the apparently simple procedure of teaching people to pay attention “in a particular way ” has benefits across a wide range of disorders. Further, it seems that, in some situations, these benefits can be obtained when patients are seen in large groups, with mixed diag-noses, and in situations in which it may appear that the training is not tailored to specific formulations of partic-ular conditions but, rather, is offered in much the same

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. 2004 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Mechanisms of mindfulness 2005 Theoretical or philosophical paper
How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective 2011 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression 2006 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness 2012 Theoretical or philosophical paper

Citations in the library

Cited by 49

and 44 more in the library

Cites 4

Related reading

Explore topics

Meditation