One person who noticed early on was Marsha Linehan, a psychologist at the University of Washington who was trying to treat deeply troubled patients with histories of suicidal behavior. “Trying to treat these patients with some change-based behavior therapy just made them worse, not better,” Dr. Linehan said in an interview. “With the really hard stuff, you need something else, something that allows people to tolerate these very strong emotions.”
In the 1990s, Dr. Linehan published a series of studies finding that a therapy that incorporated Zen Buddhist mindfulness, “radical acceptance,” practiced by therapist and patient significantly cut the risk of hospitalization and suicide attempts in the high-risk patients. (source)
Some of the interesting work being done in the therapeutic use of meditation is being done at Toronto's CAMH hospital, BTW.
Of course meditation works to relieve various mental and physical ills! That's been known for thousands of years. What's funny to me is the impression that these psychologists have such a limited understanding of how this works. For instance, they are having a hard time figuring out what conditions contra-indicate this kind of treatment.
I can answer part of that. Never try to teach meditation to someone with a Dissociative Disorder. That is, someone who withdraws from reality into some kind of alternative. Meditation will just exacerbate their problems!
-t
4 comments:
I recently had a consultation at the erstwhile Clarke Institute of CAMH and surprisingly had to fill out a complete "intake" form. I was interested to note that "Religion" was one of the fields marked mandatory. If I'm ever admitted as an inpatient, touch wood, I'm sure I'll be in good hands with the Rector of St Matthias, Bellwoods!
Yes, I'm sure Jeff would take good care of you!
The intake form at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital (in New Jersey), where I did my first CPE unit, asked "Religion" as well as the more useful, "Do you pray." Alas, many of the nurses doing intake would skip this part of the form, while the section on the patient's sexual history would be filled out in depth. I always thought that was an interesting indicator of how some people are more uncomfortable talking about spiritual matters than virtually anything else.
-t
One hears horror stories of hospitals offering Communion in two flavours: Roman Catholic and "Protestant."
People who use the discipline of Christian meditation as expounded by John Main and now Laurence Freeman have known for some time that it has a beneficial effect on recovering addicts and alcoholics. There are actually treatment centres in Ireland that use it in this way, and there is to be a conference on the subject in London (England) next year.
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