Mindfulness-based intervention in an individual clinical setting: What difference mindfulness makes behind closed doors

Abstract

In my teens, when I began my study of Buddhist and Western clinical psychology, few resources were available. Most published materials were general and theoretical, such as Erich Fromm's Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis (Fromm, Suzuki, & DeMartino, 1960), or Hubert Benoit's (1955) The Supreme Doctrine. There was no practical literature, and like many others, I was left to explore the territory without a map. When a group of like-minded individuals formed a study group in the early 1980s, the idea of the integration of psychotherapy with meditation remained mildly disreputable. Meditation was associated with New Age self-help and exotic spirituality, and we lingered quietly at the margins of the mainstream. © 2009 Springer-Verlag New York.