A Study of Student Counselors' Experiences With Meditation

Abstract

The positive effects of meditation have been shown to be helpful to a variety of client populations and counselors in practice. Researchers analyzed the journals of 60 counselor education students who volunteered to learn Jyoti meditation (JM) over a 6-week period. Analysis revealed 5 major themes: (a) the scheduling of time for meditation, (b) issues with concentrating, (c) environment for meditation, (d) effects on wellness, and (e) adherence to daily practice. These themes suggest avenues for how counselor educators and supervisors can help student counselors integrate JM as a self-care strategy.

Physical and Psychological Health Predict Adherence to an Online Mindfulness Program for College Students

“…Gutierrez et al () in their qualitative investigation of meditation practice noted that students who found difficulty or were stressed by the challenge of concentration in meditation were less likely to continue practicing. They also noted that time and environment played significant roles in new meditators' experience with the practice.…”

The Effect of the Spiritual Counseling Course Within Turkey’s Counseling Training Program

“…Researchers have begun to accumulate examples of how spirituality may be integrated into counseling training (Bowser et al, 2020;Blalock & Holden, 2018;Briggs & Rayle, 2005;Curtis & Glass, 2002;Hage, 2006;Ingersoll, 1997;Meyer, 2012;Murray et al, 2020;Pate & Hall, 2005). These integration studies have used a variety of methods, such as lectures, class discussions, spiritual autobiographies, role-playing, journal writing, class presentations, spiritual journeys, prayer circles, teaching forgiveness and meditation techniques, panel presentations/guest lecturers, dramas, spiritual readings, and spiritual interviews with pastoral counselors (Bowser et al, 2020;Buser et al, 2013;Curtis & Glass, 2002;Gutierrez et al, 2019;Ingersoll, 1997;Meyer, 2012;Pate & Hall, 2005;Stewart-Sicking et al, 2017;Willow et al, 2009). Meyer (2012), for example, defined drama therapy as an engaging classroom exercise for educators to investigate religion or spirituality.…”

Counselor Education and Supervision: 2019 Annual Review

“…Research addressing issues of self‐care and burnout included qualitative work examining self‐care policies and practices in clinical counseling programs (Vally, 2019) as well as effectiveness of a meditative intervention such as Jyoti to assist in supporting student self‐care during training (Gutierrez et al, 2019). Other empirical work focuses on frontline supervisors in child welfare agencies and how their experiencing of stress affects perceived health (Griffiths et al, 2019) and the correlation between burnout, mentoring, and turnover among junior faculty in the United States (Woo et al, 2019), with results indicating that burnout predicted turnover intention and thus the profession needs a better understanding of environmental risk and protective factors to prevent burnout.…”