“This article pertains to the study on how Mindfulness exists within a cross section of clinicians and its relation to the therapeutic alliance.“
Mindfulness and Therapeutic Alliance
Over the years, clinician’s Mindfulness has become increasingly acknowledged as a remarkable therapeutic mechanism but its impact upon the therapeutic alliance has not been explored to a great extent. Therefore, there has been a cross-sectional correlational design which was implemented in order to analyze the relationship between clinicians’ mindfulness and their perceived therapeutic alliance. The subscales of a questionnaire based on this were inserted into a regression model to further understand its relevance to the therapeutic alliance. The subscales were positively correlated with the therapeutic alliance and predicted its quality which thereby, explained the 32.4% of its variance. Along with that, the non-judgemental reception and openness to experiences were both reckoned as vital individual predictors. Therefore, the importance of the so-called relationship between mindfulness and the therapeutic alliance is definitely an established fact. And staff training in this subject has a chance of further improving the therapeutic alliances between the patients and themselves, proving to be beneficial for the overall care procedure.
Decades of research suggest that the therapy is an interpersonal process whereby a primary curative constituent is basically a characteristic of the therapeutic alliance. Therapeutic relationships can enable a better outcome for the client’s health than other specialised interventions of treatment. Now, there is also an increasing evidence of the fact that this alliance has a favourable outcome in the different kinds of psychiatric settings such as acute settings. It has the power to improve the outcome both directly, hinting at the therapeutic effect the basic nature of the interaction has, as well as indirectly i.e., via medical compliance. This impact has been established for overall psychiatric care as well as being considered for particular diagnoses including schizophrenia and depression.
The Practice of Mindfulness & Clinical Training
Mindfulness is basically an awareness that is an outcome of the deliberate attending whatever is arising in the present situation, in an open and discerning manner. This includes the clinician’s own present thoughts and feelings along with the patient’s present thoughts and reactions. It comprises continuing an attitude of non-judgemental acceptance towards everything that one experiences time and again. Other additional widely recognized constituents of Mindfulness are being present, compassion, and awareness.
Mindfulness is being accepted far and wide as a pivotal tool for improving the service user’s mental stress and well-being. Many eminent psychiatrists like Dr. Russell Razzaque has also drawn a conclusion that this has become a crucial part of many psychological therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MCBT), Compassionate Mind Therapy (CMT) etc. It basically helps the clinicians to pay attention to the patient’s distress, reach evidence-based decisions, identify their own mistakes, sharpen their technical skills, and elucidate their values, thereby allowing them to act with presence, insight, compassion, and better technical competence.
The qualitative study undertaken by Russell Razzaque has brought to light that the practice of Mindfulness with the clinical training can improve the therapeutic skills as well as the relationship between the counsellor and their clients. However, having said so, one needs to keep in the mind that extent to which this can be crucial for the therapeutic alliance has not yet been quantified. Mindfulness is likely to be a quality for most, if not all, that clinicians should deploy to altering degrees in order better the relationship they have with their patients. If one wishes to gain further knowledge on this subject, it is advisable that one goes through the research articles of Dr. Russell Razzaque.
Author Bio: Russell Razzaque, a research scholar, writes on the vital role Mindfulness plays in clinician therapeutic relationships. He suggests going through the articles of Dr. Russell Razzaque for further information.
