How Do You Incorporate Mindfulness Techniques Into Your Sessions?
In the quest to enhance therapeutic outcomes, we've gathered insights from six therapy professionals on the integration of mindfulness in their practice. From incorporating mindfulness through breathing to employing guided meditation for awareness, these experts, including Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists and a CEO, share their strategies and the specific benefits they bring to their sessions.
- Incorporate Mindfulness Through Breathing
- Link Body Sensations to Mindfulness
- Teach Mind-Body Awareness
- Practice Guided Breathing and Imagery
- Use Mindfulness for Emotional Regulation
- Employ Guided Meditation for Awareness
Incorporate Mindfulness Through Breathing
In therapy sessions at JK Counseling, mindfulness techniques are woven into sessions through practices like mindful breathing, body scans, and awareness exercises. These techniques aid in cultivating present-moment awareness and reducing stress. Research consistently shows that mindfulness-based interventions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.
Benefits include improved emotional regulation, heightened self-awareness, and enhanced overall psychological well-being. By incorporating mindfulness, clients develop skills to manage difficult emotions and thoughts, fostering resilience and empowering them to navigate life's challenges more effectively.
Link Body Sensations to Mindfulness
I frequently ask clients where they feel their thoughts and feelings in their body. What sensations are they experiencing? I want to know if the feeling is hot or cold, tingling or heavy, stagnant or radiant. Pairing our thoughts and feelings to body sensations is one form of mindfulness. By tuning into the sensations, we slow down and really observe the thought or feeling for what it is: something separate from us, causing an effect in our bodies. Then, if we can get curious about the sensation, our minds shift to the right brain and start making connections and insights about the origins of these thoughts and feelings in an experiential way. As a result, we get to experience a change rather than just think or talk about change.
Teach Mind-Body Awareness
Helping patients recognize the mind-body connection can be transformative. Many in our culture struggle with the day-to-day stressors of modern life, holding considerable tension and suffering from seemingly unrelated, often chronic symptoms, which severely disrupt their quality of life. I enjoy asking a simple question: “How do you know you’re anxious, depressed, or angry?” Some find an answer hard to come by at first. Patients often say something to the effect of, “I’ve never thought about that before.”
Teaching an individual to recognize bodily sensations as particular thoughts, emotions, or memories are expressed allows the patient to gain greater awareness, and thus, an increased sense of agency over their mind and body. By simply instructing one to notice what is happening within them in real time, we begin the process of living more mindfully. Only then can the real healing begin, through education on interventions and skills, including spotlighting, loving-kindness, and various breathing techniques.
Practice Guided Breathing and Imagery
In my experience, one of the main ways I incorporate mindfulness techniques in my sessions is to practice deep-breathing exercises with my clients. The benefit of doing this is so the client can practice the techniques with guidance before attempting to do it on their own. Some of my clients have reported that certain deep-breathing exercises are “weird” or “confusing,” so to eliminate this from happening with future clients, I tend to practice it with them before assigning it as an independent task.
Another way I incorporate mindfulness techniques in my sessions is through guided imagery. The benefit of using this technique is to model for the client how to de-escalate themselves. By using guided imagery, you’re typically asking a client to use their imagination to stimulate all five senses, which creates a safe space to focus on their present feelings. Once they get enough practice with this in session, they will eventually be able to use this tool to de-escalate themselves outside of the therapy room.
Use Mindfulness for Emotional Regulation
Many people entering therapy often react to their emotions in ways that are ultimately unhelpful. For example, they may cope with stress by overeating, snapping at their partner, or staying up late to scroll. While these strategies may feel good briefly, they often leave them feeling more empty, drained, and anxious. Mindfulness helps clients interrupt these unhelpful reactions by building awareness.
When a client notices their sadness, for instance, they are empowered to journal instead of eat. Or if a person pauses to notice their irritation, they may communicate directly rather than snapping. The mindfulness techniques I use help clients regulate their nervous system. Rather than getting stuck in fight-flight-freeze, mindfulness techniques allow a person to enter their 'rest and digest' state.
When a person learns to breathe deeply, for instance, they can trigger the relaxation response physically. I also help clients assess their breathing – and learn to truly breathe deeply if needed. If a person says deep breathing 'doesn't work,' this is a clue they may be breathing into their chest (rather than their solar plexus area). Here, they truly do get stuck in fight-flight; therefore, learning to go deeper is essential.
Other mindfulness techniques I commonly use include asking clients to count how many objects of a certain color they see in the room. These techniques allow them a moment to take a break from intense thoughts or feelings by focusing on their environment. Typically, a client isn't able to keep ruminating when practicing such mindfulness techniques. This break helps give them relief and clarity often.
Finally, incorporating these techniques into couples' work is fundamental. John Gottman reveals that healthy, happy couples share seven qualities. This includes the ability to stay physiologically calm during conflict. However, many couples coming to therapy say their fights go from zero to 100. To interrupt this escalation, each partner learns to notice their urge to react unhelpfully, such as being defensive, and pause.
Here, they may choose to take a breath rather than saying the automatic hurtful thing. With mindfulness practice, couples learn to be more effective and stay physically calm. These changes greatly alter the couple's entire dynamic and cycle.
Employ Guided Meditation for Awareness
Incorporating mindfulness techniques into therapy sessions has proven to be highly effective for my clients. One technique I often use is guided mindfulness meditation, which helps clients become more aware of their thoughts and emotions without judgment. For instance, I had a client struggling with anxiety who learned to use mindfulness to observe her anxious thoughts without reacting to them, leading to a significant reduction in her anxiety levels. Another technique is mindful breathing exercises, which can quickly calm the nervous system and improve focus. Clients frequently report that these practices help them feel more grounded and present, enhancing their overall emotional regulation and resilience.
