Mindfulness and the therapeutic encounter

Mindfulness may be one way in which common factors could be enhanced in trainee therapists. Previous research has found some support for mindfulness increasing empathy, compassion and emotion regulation, but research is affected by a lack of active control groups and interventions with multiple components. An experimental design was used with a brief (15 min) mindfulness practice compared to a brief (15 min) ‘mind-wandering’ control group, in order to overcome some of these confounds. Participants were 48 trainee therapists who were randomly assigned to two groups of equal sizes. Measures were taken at baseline and post-induction. The predicted findings for empathy and compassion for others were not found. The mindfulness group did show lower negative affect at post-test than the control group, but only in participants who were high in negative affect at baseline, a result which should be viewed tentatively due to the small number of participants in each subgroup of the analysis. Issues limiting confidence in the results are discussed, particularly that the two groups did not report different levels of state mindfulness after the brief exercises. Implications for future research, particularly in considering appropriate active controls for mindfulness, are discussed.