Concurrent Session 5 – Yoga in the Public School Setting: Rationale and Research

Children and adolescents are faced with substantial stresses and life challenges that contribute to an increasing burden of mental and physical health conditions and problem behaviors. The existing school curriculum is lacking in instruction that would provide skills of self-regulation, stress management, and emotion regulation. Yoga is a contemplative mind/body practice that combines meditation, mind/body …

Concurrent Session 5 – Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement Targets Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Opioid Misuse and Chronic Pain

Prescription opioid misuse among persons with chronic pain is an emerging public health threat of epidemic proportions. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, a multimodal intervention designed to simultaneously target mechanisms underpinning chronic pain and opioid misuse. In this study, a sample of 115 chronic pain patients who were taking long-term …

Concurrent Session 5 – Promoting Mindful Practice for Health Care Professionals: Quality of Care, Quality of Caring and Resilience

Physicians are trained with the explicit mandate of addressing suffering with compassion, yet mainstream medical training and the medical literature are largely silent about how to accomplish this. Through contemplative practice, written and oral narratives, deep listening, appreciative inquiry, and dialogue, our mindful practice programs were designed to enhance clinicians’ self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-regulation during …

Concurrent Session 5 – Increasing Emotional and Cognitive Regulation Among Highly Vulnerable Youth: Advancing the Science of Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness training for youth is growing tremendously across the nation; however, few studies rigorously assess its effects. Studies that employ mindfulness training have shown promise in increasing emotional and cognitive regulation among youth, including those who are highly vulnerable. Rigorous controlled trials are vital for increasing our understanding of the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for …

Concurrent Session 3 – Does Mindfulness Meditation Employ Distinct Brain Mechanisms From Placebo-Related Analgesia?

Growing evidence reveals that mindfulness meditation significantly reduces pain responses in experimental and clinical settings. Recent neurobiological findings confirm that the cognitive state of mindfulness significantly modifies sensory, cognitive, and affective dimensions of nociceptive processing. However, there are likely nonspecific effects associated with mindfulness meditation-related pain relief that are also consistent with placebo-related responses. For …

Concurrent Session 3 – Clinical Applications of Meditation for War-Related Mental Health Consequences and Co-Occurring Conditions

The prevalence of post-deployment mental health conditions is high. Deployment to a war zone is associated with a threefold increase in new-onset posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often co-occurring with depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, sleep disturbance, and chronic pain and resulting in high long-term personal and societal costs. High prevalence, combined with the complex chronic …

Concurrent Session 3 – Karma-Yoga at Work: A Mindful Alternative to Modern Management

Common experience tells us that our working lives produce mental states thatare far from mindful. Researchers and theorists have long criticized dominantmanagerial practices for their negative impact on individual well-being. Contemplative practices stemming from religious and philosophical traditions have provided individuals interpretive frameworks to attain empowerment and mindfulness in the midst of social and occupational …

Concurrent Session 3 – Mindfulness and SelfCompassion-Based Exposure Therapy for Combat Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Clinical Outcome and Neuroimaging Studies

Pilot work (thanks to a Mind and Life Varela grant) found significant symptomreduction following MBCT adapted for combat-related posttraumatic stressdisorder (PTSD). Our subsequent fouryear, federally funded project developed a novel 16-week PTSD group intervention for veterans returning from Afghanistan (OEF) and Iraq (OIF), utilizing mindfulness and self-compassion meditation (Mindfulness-Based Exposure Therapy, or MBET). PTSD patients …