Integrating Mindfulness into Psychotherapy for Trauma: A Clinician's Guide to Using Mindfulness Processes to Facilitate Healing and Reduce Suffering

(Paperback)

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A comprehensive, transdiagnostic, and process-based approach to effectively integrate mindfulness into psychotherapy for treating trauma.

As you know, mindfulness is a powerful tool for treating a variety of mental health issues, from anxiety and depression to eating and substance use disorders. However, if you're a clinician treating clients who have suffered from trauma, you are also aware that mindfulness can sometimes cause significant stress or discomfort. So, how can you incorporate mindfulness into your treatment-safely and effectively-for improved outcomes

Integrating Mindfulness into Psychotherapy for Trauma offers a transdiagnostic, process-based approach to treating trauma with mindfulness, with interventions that are practical, simple, and easy to teach-so you can help your clients gain new personal insights and make lasting positive change. You'll learn how to form an individualized mindfulness case conceptualization and treatment plan, and integrate mindfulness into psychotherapy with a focus on four interconnected mindfulness mechanisms:

Attentional focus
Body awareness
Emotion regulation
Changes in perspective on the self

You'll also find a framework for targeting specific trauma symptoms, with an emphasis on when and how to effectively integrate mindfulness into sessions, and a variety of mindfulness practices to help your clients make and sustain treatment gains. Strategies for how to intervene when difficulties such as panic attacks or painful memories arise during a mindfulness practice are also provided, along with discussions of therapist mindfulness and trauma stewardship.

With this flexible, transdiagnostic approach, you'll be well equipped to integrate mindfulness into your practice to help your clients heal and make lasting change.

Reviews

"While mindfulness practices have much to offer in treating trauma, their use requires careful formulation. This detailed and accessible book provides exactly that! In combining theoretical observations with in-session transcripts, clinicians are amply supported in guiding their patients back to trusting their bodies, thoughts, and feelings in a restorative arc of healing from trauma."
--Zindel Segal, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology in mood disorders, and coauthor of Better in Every Sense--Zindel Segal, PhD
"Clinicians using process-based therapies for people with a wide range of clinical presentations will love this book. Grounded in scientific support and useful for clinicians at all levels, this is an anchoring resource and transdiagnostic light that brilliantly illuminates the many different reasons and ways to use mindfulness when treating people with traumatic stress."
--M. Zachary Rosenthal, PhD, associate professor and director of the Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation at Duke University--M. Zachary Rosenthal, PhD
"In Integrating Mindfulness into Psychotherapy for Trauma, Zerubavel and Messman provide clinicians with insightful, nuanced, actionable guidance that will be of great benefit to their clients who are recovering from trauma. By focusing on the why and how of incorporating mindfulness, the authors provide flexible guidance that clinicians can readily adapt to their specific clients. This evidence-based, clinically informed book will be an essential resource for all clinicians."
--Lizabeth Roemer, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and coauthor of Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy--Lizabeth Roemer, PhD
"Messman and Zerubavel have written a wonderful, hands-on guide to the integration of mindfulness and psychotherapy in the treatment of trauma survivors. Mindfulness can be a boon for people affected by adversity, and yet the nature of trauma symptoms can mean that trauma-related material intrudes during mindfulness meditation. This book does an outstanding job of addressing safety issues, and provides a safe and wise approach to mindfulness-based trauma therapy."
--John Briere, PhD, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Southern California; author of numerous books, including Principles of Trauma Therapy and Treating Risky and Compulsive Behavior in Trauma Survivors; and long-time student of Buddhist psychology--John Briere, PhD
"There is much to commend in this book. Zerubavel and Messman provide a highly informative guide for clinicians in the application of mindfulness practice into trauma treatment. Their trauma-informed foundation and attention to safety, individualization, and context--along with a clear articulation of mindfulness steps and procedures--is a gift to clinicians and clients alike. This book makes a distinct and state-of-the-art contribution to the literature on trauma treatment."
--Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, Delaware-licensed psychologist, board certified counseling psychologist, and author of Healing the Incest Wound--Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP
"This brilliant book makes mindfulness shine in therapy, and helps therapists shine when working with trauma. The authors' approach to clients is warm, curious, and nonjudgmental. Their vision is inclusive, flexible, and balanced. Mindfulness-based therapists will learn how to bring compassionate awareness more deeply into their work, and trauma-based therapists will be able to expand their clinical repertoire in safe and effective new ways. Highly recommended for clinicians of all persuasions!"
--Christopher Germer, PhD, Harvard Medical School lecturer, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and coauthor of The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program--Christopher Germer, PhD
"This outstanding work offers clinicians a sophisticated yet accessible framework for integrating mindfulness into trauma treatment. What sets this book apart is its emphasis on process over protocol--teaching therapists not just what to do, but how to thoughtfully select and adapt mindfulness practices for trauma survivors. The authors' careful attention to safety, empowerment, and the therapeutic relationship demonstrates a deep understanding of trauma-sensitive mindfulness. Their focus on the four key mechanisms--attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and changes in perspective--provides a clear road map for clinicians while honoring the complexity of trauma recovery. This is the resource I wish I had when I first brought mindfulness into my trauma work."
--David Treleaven, PhD, author of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness--David Treleaven, PhD

Author Bio

Terri Messman, PhD, is a professor and distinguished scholar at Miami University, formerly the O'Toole Family Endowed Professor from 2013-2018, former director of clinical training, and former interim deputy title IX (sexual assault) coordinator. Her research program focuses on trauma and interpersonal violence, mindfulness and self-compassion, and emotion dysregulation. She is a licensed psychologist and certified kundalini yoga instructor.

Noga Zerubavel, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Arise Psychological Wellness and Consulting and an assistant consulting professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center. She is the former director of the Stress, Trauma, and Recovery Treatment (START) clinic at Duke, where she led a trauma consultation team and supervised psychiatry residents, clinical psychology interns, and fellows in trauma-informed psychotherapy. Zerubavel led mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) groups at Duke from 2014-2020 and supervised psychiatry and psychology learners in providing mindfulness-based CBT.