Mindfulness for Therapists

Mindfulness for Therapists: Practice for the Heart encourages therapists to embrace mindfulness practice to create presence and depth in their work with clients. Mindfulness helps therapists cultivate compassion, relieve stress, and weather the often emotionally difficult work of providing therapy. In addition, the therapist's own meditation practice is a necessary foundation for teaching mindfulness to clients. Through a variety of exercises and stories from his own clinical experience, McCollum helps therapists understand the usefulness of mindfulness, and develop their own practice.

Eric E. McCollum, PhD, is Professor and Program Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Master's Program at Virginia Tech, where he teaches mindfulness meditation to all students in the Marriage and Family Therapy training program. He has practiced psychotherapy for nearly 40 years and has practiced meditation in the Buddhist vipassana tradition for more than 30 years.

Preface 1.The challenge of presence in a multi-tasking world 2.What is mindfulness? 3. What do we know about mindfulness: The research record 4. How does mindfulness benefit therapists? 5. Cultivating mindfulness 6. The complexities of compassion 7. Things get in the way: Obstacles to being present 8. Practicing to be present 9. A final thought