Mindfulness for Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Staying Present: Incorporating Mindfulness into Therapy for Dissociation

“…There is also some empirical support for interventions that incorporate mindfulness into treatment for trauma and PTSD (Follette, Palm, and Pearson 2006;Follette and Vijay 2009;Lee, Zaharlick, and Akers 2009;Walser and Westrup 2007). When specifically targeting dissociation, trauma experts reported using mindfulness as a top complement to their firstline interventions; top first-line interventions for dissociation were education about trauma and emotion regulation interventions (Cloitre et al 2011).…”

“…When research is not yet available, clinicians treating complex trauma-related problems (e.g., dissociation) can utilize theory to guide treatment development (Wagner, Rizvi, and Harned 2007). Experts in mindfulness and traumarelated disorders have recommended incorporating mindfulness into specialized pathology-focused or trauma-focused approaches (Cloitre et al 2011;Follette and Vijay 2009). We will highlight how to practice these techniques, maintain awareness of the developing mindful metacognitions, and emphasize the cultivation of emergent processes in the context of working with severely dissociative clients.…”

Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity and Marijuana Use Coping Motives: A Test of the Mediating Role of Non-Judgmental Acceptance within a Trauma-Exposed Community Sample

“…Non-judgmental acceptance, often conceptualized as a component of mindfulness (Baer et al 2004;Bishop et al 2004), is one construct that has both theoretical and early empirical promise in terms of better understanding the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms (Follette and Vijay 2009;Vujanovic et al 2009;Walser and Westrup 2007) and marijuana use motivation (e.g., Alterman et al 2004;Bien 2009;Hsu et al 2008;Twohig et al 2007).…”

“…The relevant literature suggests that mindfulness-based processes may serve at least two clinically meaningful functions in alleviating PTSD and substance use disorders. First, regular mindfulness practice might enhance or create a greater present-centered awareness and non-judgmental acceptance of potentially distressing cognitive and emotional states related to either trauma or substance use (Follette and Vijay 2009;Walser and Hayes 2006). In turn, this may facilitate approach-oriented coping with trauma-or substance-related internal or external cues and decrease experiential avoidance (i.e., unhealthy avoidance of these internal experiences).…”

“…In regard to posttraumatic stress, few studies have attempted to evaluate its association with mindfulnessbased processes, although the potential clinical implications of this association have been discussed in the theoretical literature (Follette and Vijay 2009;Orsillo and Batten 2005;Walser and Hayes 2006;Walser and Westrup 2007). In the only relevant published empirical study to date, Vujanovic et al (2009) determined that acting with awareness and non-judgmental acceptance, as indexed with the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer et al 2004), were inversely associated with levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms among a sample of traumaexposed individuals evaluated at a single time-point (Vujanovic et al 2009).…”