Month: August 2017

Reduce Prison Recidivism with Mindfulness

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Reduce Prison Recidivism with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness training helps youth consider more adaptive alternatives. It creates a gap between triggers for offending behavior and their responses. They learn to not immediately act out on impulse, but to pause and consider the consequences of a potential offending and high risk behavior.” – Bethany Casarjian

 

Around 2 ¼ million people are incarcerated in the United States. Even though prisons are euphemistically labelled correctional facilities very little correction actually occurs. This is supported by the rates of recidivism. About three quarters of prisoners who are released commit crimes and are sent back to prison within 5-years. The lack of actual treatment for the prisoners leaves them ill equipped to engage positively in society either inside or outside of prison. Hence, there is a need for effective treatment programs that help the prisoners while in prison and prepares them for life outside the prison.

 

Prison provides a great deal of time for reflection and self-exploration. This provides an opportunity for growth and development. Contemplative practices are well suited to this environment. Meditation teaches skills that may be very important for prisoners. In particular, it puts the practitioner in touch with their own bodies and feelings. It improves present moment awareness and helps to overcome rumination about the past and negative thinking about the future. It’s been shown to be useful in the treatment of the effects of trauma and attention deficit disorder. It also relieves stress and improves overall health and well-being. Finally, meditation has been shown to be effective in treating depression, anxiety, and anger. It has also been shown to help overcome trauma in male prisoners.

 

In today’s Research News article “A Pilot RCT of a Values-Based Mindfulness Group Intervention with Jail Inmates: Evidence for Reduction in Post-Release Risk Behavior.” (See summary below). Malouf and colleagues recruited 40 adult male prisoners who were approaching time for their release. They were randomly assigned to receive either the usual pre-release treatment or a mindfulness-based pre-release program called Re-entry Values and Mindfulness Program (REVAMP). REVAMP utilizes a variety of exercises to reduce experiential avoidance and alleviate psychological suffering including metaphors, distress tolerance skills, and mindfulness meditation practices They were measured before and after treatment, 3 months and 3 years after release for mindfulness, emotion regulation, self-control, impulsivity, shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, personality, and substance abuse. Follow-up measure included criminal records and recidivism.

 

They found that in comparison to the treatment as usual group, the REVAMP group had significantly increases in the mindfulness facets of non-judging, and willingness/acceptance and increases in shame. Importantly, the REVAMP program reduced criminal behavior and re-arrests and recidivism. In particular, 80% of the control group were rearrested by the three-year post-release point, while only 62% of the REVAMP group were rearrested.

 

These are important results produced by a small pilot study. They suggest that mindfulness-based therapy provided pre-release improves the mindfulness and psychological condition of the prisoners and then post-release reduces criminal activity and re-arrests. Hence, mindfulness training may be of significant help to prisoners in reintegrating back into society.

 

So, reduce prison recidivism with mindfulness.

 

“Yoga and meditation are continuously proven among the most effective therapies for those living with complex residual trauma, and prisons are home to what may be the most concentrated population of individuals plagued by trauma. Meditation and yoga can positively impact those who are suffering from complex trauma, as they begin to confront how it is they got where they are.” – Amy Osborne

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Malouf, E.T., Youman, K., Stuewig, J., Witt, E.A., & Tangney, J.P. A Pilot RCT of a Values-Based Mindfulness Group Intervention with Jail Inmates: Evidence for Reduction in Post-Release Risk Behavior. Mindfulness (2017) 8: 603. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0636-3

 

Abstract

This study pilot-tested a values and mindfulness-based intervention (Re-Entry Values and Mindfulness Program: REVAMP) in a sample of male jail inmates. REVAMP aimed to reduce post-release risky behavior by targeting dimensions of mindfulness (e.g., willingness/acceptance) and associated proximal outcomes/ mechanisms of action (emotion regulation, self-control, shame/guilt). Inmates were randomly assigned to REVAMP (n = 21) or treatment as usual (TAU, n = 19). Attendance and feedback supported REVAMP’s feasibility and acceptability. At post-treatment, ANCOVAs showed that the REVAMP group increased more on willingness/acceptance, self-judgment, and shame relative to TAU. Relative increases in willingness/acceptance persisted at 3-month post-release. Criminal activity was assessed by self-report at 3 months post-release and official criminal records at 3 years post-release. At both time points, there was a marginally statistically significant trend of medium effect size for lower criminal recidivism in the REVAMP group compared to TAU. There were no statistically significant differences in self-reported post-release substance misuse. This pilot RCT indicated mindfulness-based interventions may hold promise for reducing inmates’ post-release risky behavior and encourages future research in this area.

Reduce Self-Injury with Mindfulness

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Reduce Self-Injury with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“In order to end self-harm, one needs to change one’s whole relationship with oneself, and how one sees oneself. A good starting point is with one’s thoughts. Mindfulness keeps one fully grounded in the present … in the presence of the action of the present moment. Mindfulness helps one to observe and note thoughts, positive or negative, without feeling the need to act upon them.” –  Ian Ellis-Jones

 

Self-injury is “direct and deliberate destruction of one’s own body tissue in the absence of suicidal intent.” The most common self-injury methods are cutting, scratching, hitting a part of the body against a hard surface, and punching, hitting or slapping one’s self. It is a disturbing phenomenon occurring worldwide, especially in developed countries. Approximately two million cases are reported annually in the U.S. Each year, 1 in 5 females and 1 in 7 males engage in self-injury usually starting in the teen years. Frequently, untreated depression and other mental health challenges create an environment of despair that leads people to cope with these challenges in unhealthy ways.

 

Non-suicidal self-injury appears to be an individual’s attempt to cope with overwhelming negative emotions. Mindfulness has been shown to produce better regulation of emotions, where the mindful individual is fully aware of and feels the emotions, but can respond to them rationally and adaptively. Thus, mindfulness may be an antidote for self-injurious behavior. Indeed, one of the characterizing symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is self-injurious behaviors and a mindfulness based technique, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the only therapy that has been shown to be effective in reducing the symptoms of BPD. So, it would be reasonable to investigate further the relationship between mindfulness, self-injurious behavior.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindless Suffering: the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.” (See summary below). Caltabiano & Martin recruited undergraduate students and had them complete measures of mindfulness, including five subscales, observe, describe, act with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting, and self-injurious behavior, and severity of self-injury. Surprisingly, over half of the participants indicated that they had engaged in self-injury sometime in their lives. To further investigate this phenomenon, the researchers separated and compared those participants who reported self-injurious behaviors to those who did not.

 

Participants who self-injured reported that they did so for a variety of reasons including emotion regulation, self-punishment, to mark distress, preventing dissociation, toughness, self-care, preventing suicide, boundaries between themselves and others, conformity, revenge, autonomy, sensation seeking, and peer bonding. Those participants who did not self-injure, compared to those who did, were significantly higher in overall mindfulness, and the mindfulness facets of acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting. In addition, the self-injurers that evidenced less severe self-injury had higher mindfulness scores than those who had severe self-injuries. They also found that the higher the levels of mindfulness the lower the levels of using self-injurious behaviors to regulate emotions.

 

These are interesting results. But, it must be taken into consideration that the study was correlational and thus causation cannot be determined. But, the results clearly indicate that there is a strong significant relationship between mindfulness less self-injury. This suggest that a randomized controlled clinical trial should be performed to investigate the effect of mindfulness training on self-injurious behaviors to established whether mindfulness produces less self-injury and whether mindfulness training would be a useful therapeutic technique to treat people who self-injure.

 

It is interesting that the mindfulness facets of acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting were the most strongly associated with low self-injury. This suggests that the reason that mindfulness may be effective is because it lowers the individual’s tendency to judge and react to their feelings.

 

So, reduce self-injury with mindfulness.

 

“mindfulness may be a beneficial element of prevention efforts for suicide, especially among those who have self-injured in the past.” – Alia Warner

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Caltabiano, G. & Martin, G. Mindless Suffering: the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. Mindfulness (2017) 8: 788. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0657-y

 

Abstract

Non-suicidal self-injury is a complex behaviour, disturbingly prevalent, difficult to treat and with possible adverse outcomes in the long term. Previous research has shown individuals most commonly self-injure to cope with overwhelming negative emotions. Mindfulness has been shown to be associated with emotion regulation, and mindfulness-based interventions have shown effectiveness in a wide range of psychological disorders. This research explored whether lack of mindfulness or problems in mindfulness are involved in self-injury. A non-clinical sample of 263 participants (17–65 years) completed an online survey measuring self-injurious behaviours and mindfulness. Differences in levels of mindfulness between individuals with and without a history of self-injury were investigated. Analysis of variance indicated mindfulness (overall and in terms of specific facets “act with awareness”, “non-judge” and “non-react”) was significantly lower in individuals with a history of self-injury compared to those without. Pairwise comparisons revealed current self-injurers reported significantly lower mindfulness than past self-injurers and non-self-injurers, with medium effect sizes of d = 0.51 and d = 0.77, respectively. In logistic regression, low mindfulness significantly predicted self-injury (B = 0.04, p < .001). These findings have clinical implications, suggesting that mindfulness-based interventions may assist individuals to give up self-injurious behaviours and may be an important part of prevention strategies.

Improve Self-Compassion with Loving Kindness Meditation

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Improve Self-Compassion with Loving Kindness Meditation

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“practicing 7 weeks of loving-kindness meditation increased love, joy, contentment, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, amusement, and awe. These positive emotions then produced increases in a wide range of personal resources (e.g., increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, decreased illness symptoms), which, in turn, predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms.” – Emma Seppala

 

Meditation training has been shown to improve health and well-being. It has also been found to be effective for a large array of medical and psychiatric conditions, either stand-alone or in combination with more traditional therapies. As a result, meditation training has been called the third wave of therapies. One problem with understanding meditation effects is that there are, a wide variety of meditation techniques and it is not known which work best for improving different conditions. One understudied meditation technique is Loving Kindness Meditation. It is designed to develop kindness and compassion to oneself and others. The individual systematically pictures different individuals from self, to close friends, to enemies and wishes them happiness, well-being, safety, peace, and ease of well-being.

 

Although Loving Kindness Meditation has been practiced for centuries, it has received very little scientific research attention. In today’s Research News article “Does Loving-Kindness Meditation Reduce Anxiety? Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.” (See summary below). Weibel and colleagues recruited college students and randomly assigned them to a wait-list control condition or to practice Loving Kindness Meditation at 4 weekly, 90 minute sessions and were encouraged to practice at home. They were measured before and after the 4-week training period and 8 weeks later for anxiety, compassionate love, and self-compassion.

 

They found that following treatment, in comparison to the wait-list control participants, the Loving Kindness Meditation participants demonstrated significant increases in compassionate love, and self-compassion, including the self-kindness and common humanity subscales. At the 8-week follow-up, only the self-kindness subscale remained significant. Hence, the practice of Loving Kindness Meditation was found to enhance compassion and kindness toward the self.

 

These are disappointing results. Loving Kindness Meditation is a practice of directing compassion and kindness toward the self and others. So, these results only show that practicing compassion and kindness produces compassion and kindness. The failure to show any effects on anxiety suggest that Loving Kindness Meditation may not have effects beyond what it is designed to target.

 

There are a number of studies that show significant effects for Loving Kindness Meditation on a wide variety of physical and psychological issues. So, it would appear likely that the lack of effectiveness seen in the current study was due to the particular characteristics of this study. Perhaps, the brief, 4-week, duration of the practice was insufficient. Perhaps, other psychological characteristics than anxiety needed to be measured. Perhaps college students are not an appropriate group for Loving Kindness Meditation. Perhaps, placebo effects accounted for the differences in compassion and kindness. Regardless, it is clear that the current study does not demonstrate significant effects of Loving Kindness Meditation beyond what it practices; compassion and kindness toward the self.

 

“More than just a feel-good practice, compassion meditation leads to improved mood, more altruistic behavior, less anger, reduced stress and decreased maladaptive mind wandering, according to recent research.” – Stacey Colino

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Weibel, D.T., McClintock, A.S. & Anderson, T. Does Loving-Kindness Meditation Reduce Anxiety? Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial. Mindfulness (2017) 8: 565. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0630-9

 

Abstract

Although loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has shown some promise as a psychological intervention, little is known about the effectiveness of LKM for reducing one of the most prevalent mental health problems: anxiety. To build knowledge in this area, we conducted a randomized controlled trial, assigning non-clinical undergraduates to either a four-session, group-based LKM intervention (n = 38) or a waitlist control (n = 33). Self-reported anxiety, compassionate love, and self-compassion were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 8-week follow-up. Relative to control participants, participants in the LKM intervention reported higher compassionate love and self-compassion at posttreatment and higher self-kindness (a component of self-compassion) at follow-up. Anxiety ratings did not significantly differ between conditions at posttreatment or follow-up. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Teacher Training Improves the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training

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Teacher Training Improves the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Ultimately, it is the depth of your own personal commitment to learning, growing and healing – as well as a dedication to the well-being of others – that will contribute most to your integrity and effectiveness as a teacher.” ~Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical Center

 

“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally. It’s about knowing what is on your mind.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn). It has been shown to be highly related to the health and well-being of the individual. Mindfulness training has also been found to be effective for a large array of medical and psychiatric conditions, either stand-alone or in combination with more traditional therapies. As a result, mindfulness training has been called the third wave of therapies. In fact, though, little is known about the components that maximize the effectiveness of mindfulness training.

 

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a classic mindfulness training that combines meditation, yoga, and body scan meditation practices. In most cases MBSR is conducted by a certified trained therapist. But, recently, it has been shown to be effective when presented on-line without the presence of an instructor. When MBSR is taught live by a certified instructor is costly and many clients can’t afford it. In addition, the participants must be available to attend multiple sessions at particular scheduled times that may or may not be compatible with their busy schedules or at locations that may not be convenient. But many believe that that the interpersonal interactions, compassion, understanding, and modelling provided by a teacher is crucial for MBSR effectiveness. So, it is unclear whether the presence of an instructor produces benefits that balance or exceed the added costs.

 

In today’s Research News article “Impact of Mindfulness-Based Teacher Training on MBSR Participant Well-Being Outcomes and Course Satisfaction.” (See summary below). Ruijgrok-Lupton and colleagues examined whether the amount of training that MBSR instructors have received is associated with improved outcomes. They recruited Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) certified instructors who varied in the amount of training either Basic Teacher Training (Level 1), Advanced Teacher Training (Level 2) or Advanced Teacher Training with Continuing Professional Development (Level 3). They then recruited participants who were attending one of the instructors’ 8-week MBSR classes. They measured the participants before and after the class for mindfulness, self-compassion, well-being, perceived stress, and teacher satisfaction including impact on daily life and teacher support.

 

There were too few teachers in the Level 1 group (n=2), so comparisons were restricted to the Level 2 and Level 3 groups. They found that overall the participants in the MBSR classes not surprisingly showed significant gains in mindfulness and reductions in perceived stress. Importantly, they also found that the participants in the MBSR classes taught by Level 3 teachers had significantly greater gains in well-being and significantly greater reductions in perceived stress than those taught by Level 2 teachers. In addition, the participants in the MBSR classes taught by Level 3 teachers indicated significantly greater satisfaction with their teachers than those taught by Level 2 teachers.

 

The findings suggest that MBSR teachers with advanced teacher training plus continuing professional development produce better results than teachers with advanced teacher training only. The lack of a sufficient number of teachers with only basic teacher training was disappointing since this greatly restricted the range of teacher training levels. But, the fact that only adding continuing professional development to advanced teacher training had significant effects is striking. After all, both groups are highly professionally trained. These results, then, clearly suggest that the greater the training, even of highly trained teachers, of the MBSR teachers the greater their effectiveness. Future research should include more basic level instructors and an on-line comparison condition.

 

But, it’s clear that teacher training improves the effectiveness of mindfulness training.

 

“The teaching of mindfulness is never a matter of merely teaching or operationalizing techniques. Mindfulness is a way of being in a wiser relationship to one’s experience, not one particular mental state to be pursued and attained. Thus, the non-instrumental dimensionality of the work and of the practice of mindfulness is the foundation of effective practice and teaching.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Ruijgrok-Lupton, P.E., Crane, R.S. & Dorjee, D. Impact of Mindfulness-Based Teacher Training on MBSR Participant Well-Being Outcomes and Course Satisfaction. Mindfulness (2017). doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0750-x

 

Abstract

Growing interest in mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) has resulted in increased demand for MBP teachers, raising questions around safeguarding teaching standards. Training literature emphasises the need for appropriate training and meditation experience, yet studies into impact of such variables on participant outcomes are scarce, requiring further investigation. This feasibility pilot study hypothesised that participant outcomes would relate to teachers’ mindfulness-based teacher training levels and mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Teachers (n = 9) with different MBP training levels delivering mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses to the general public were recruited together with their course participants (n = 31). A teacher survey collected data on their mindfulness-based teacher training, other professional training and relevant experience. Longitudinal evaluations using online questionnaires measured participant mindfulness and well-being before and after MBSR and participant course satisfaction. Course attendees’ gains after the MBSR courses were correlated with teacher training and experience. Gains in well-being and reductions in perceived stress were significantly larger for the participant cohort taught by teachers who had completed an additional year of mindfulness-based teacher training and assessment. No correlation was found between course participants’ outcomes and their teacher’s mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Our results support the hypothesis that higher mindfulness-based teacher training levels are possibly linked to more positive participant outcomes, with implications for training in MBPs. These initial findings highlight the need for further research on mindfulness-based teacher training and course participant outcomes with larger participant samples.