Contemporary Mindfulness and Transreligious Learning Paths of Mental Health Professionals

Ville Husgafvel; Terhi Utriainen

doi:10.3390/rel14060807

Contemporary Mindfulness and Transreligious Learning Paths of Mental Health Professionals

Ville Husgafvel, Terhi Utriainen

Religions June 19, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/rel14060807 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Population	Formally educated and licensed psychologists and psychotherapists in Finland who integrate mindfulness practices into their professional work
Topics	Meditation
Citations	10
Key findings	Argues that the professional skill of using mindfulness in secular health care and education can result from "transreligious" learning trajectories, in which psychologists and psychotherapists supplement science-based academic education with learning in Buddhist communities and training with Buddhist teachers. Contends that this role of Buddhist environments reveals a blind spot in current understandings of adult and professional learning, which insufficiently recognize religious traditions as possible complementary sources of professional knowledge and skills.

Abstract

In this article, we apply and assess the concept of transreligiosity in the study of formally educated and licensed psychologists and psychotherapists in Finland who integrate mindfulness practices in their professional toolkit. Our analytical focus complements the discussion on the use of religious and spiritual traditions as therapeutic resources by turning scholarly attention from individual coping tools to the professional skills of therapeutic work and from complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices to mainstream health care and education. In the field of mindfulness research, we add to the cumulative body of ethnographic approaches by analyzing the mindfulness-related individual learning paths of mental health professionals through qualitative interview data. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the professional skills of using mindfulness practices in secular health care and education can result from transreligious learning trajectories, in which psychologists and psychotherapists supplement science-based academic education with learning in Buddhist communities and training with Buddhist teachers. This role of Buddhist environments and resources points to a blind spot in the current understanding of adult and professional learning, in which the value and position of religious traditions as possible complementary sources of professional knowledge and skills are not sufficiently recognized.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study	Year	Design	Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan...	2017	Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system	2004	Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety	2006	Exploratory mixed methods study	n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context	2001	Qualitative study	n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators	2013	Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

Citations in the library

Cited by 1

Buddhism and Western Psychology The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 2026

Cites 10

and 5 more in the library