Mindful presence. A thematic analysis of the effects of mindfulness practice on therapeutic presence
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Sigmund Freud spoke of therapeutic presence as emerging from an impartial, nonjudgemental, \nevenly applied attention. Carl Rogers referred to therapeutic presence as \nthe essential underlying process in the therapeutic relationship. It has been shown that \ntherapeutic presence is a crosscutting concern in the therapeutic relationship \nregardless of modality. The quality of presence of the therapist has been found to have \na positive influence on therapeutic outcomes. Emerging research in neurobiology \nsuggests that mindfulness practice can have a positive impact on attentional abilities, \nworking memory, present-centred focus and increased affect tolerance. The aim of \nthis study is to enrich the existing research on therapeutic presence, to provide an \ninvestigation into the nature of absence in the therapeutic relationship and finally to \nsupport the hypothesis that mindfulness practice may be linked to increased \ntherapeutic presence and therefore have a positive effect on therapeutic outcomes. A \nthematic analysis was applied to five semi-structured interviews. The findings were \ndiscussed under the following themes: Inhabiting the Present, Absence and \nIntegration. This study found consensus among the interviewees that therapeutic \npresence was a core component to their work with clients and began with their own \nlevel of personal integration. The exploration of absence brought a deeper \nunderstanding to how mindfulness practice can bring more self-acceptance and less \nself-judgement to the therapist. Finally, the research strongly suggests that the \nintegration of mindfulness practice may bring secondary benefits to the therapist such \nas increased attentional ability, an increase in perceived self-care & vitality and a \ndecreased risk of burnout. This study found strong justification for further research on \n5 \nthe effects of mindfulness practice on the quality of therapeutic presence, especially in \nthe case of longitudinal studies. Author keywords: Mindfulness, therapeutic presence
Source: eSource (Dublin Business School)
Author: Niall Milton
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2505584531