Clyde Boiston – Effective Mindfulness Interventions: Techniques to Improve Patient Outcomes & Personal Well-Being

Outline

MASTER THE CORE SKILLS OF MINDFULNESS

Research and Treatment Concepts

• How mindfulness can benefit you
• Current state of research on mindfulness
• Neuroscience and mindfulness: how we can retrain our brain to be more resilient and compassionate clinicians
• Demystifying meditation – what it can and cannot do
• Experiential exercise: mindful breathing techniques

Professional Burnout and How to Avoid It

• How mindfulness can help ward off the symptoms of burnout:
  • Emotional exhaustion
  • Depersonalization
  • Low sense of personal accomplishment
• Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
• Three core skills of mindfulness every therapist should have
• Experiential exercise: STOP and RAIN practices

Techniques of Informal Mindfulness Practices

• Mindfulness vs. mindlessness
• Findings from the ‘Harvard Study’
• Telephone meditation
• Shower meditation
• Driving meditation
• Experiential exercise: eating meditation
• Connecting formal and informal mindfulness practices
• Experiential exercise: walking meditation

MINDFULNESS STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES

Mindfulness for Chronic Pain

• Cultivate awareness of our physical bodies
• Exercise infused with mindfulness
• Experiential exercise: mindful movement
• Jon Kabat Zinn and MBSR – “Leaning In” to touch the pain
• Experiential exercise: body scan meditation

Mindfulness for Aging and Death

• Understand impermanence
• Help your patients make peace with the “human condition”
• The unique dilemma of hospice care partners
• Strategies for mindful aging
• Experiential exercise: lighting rounds

Mindfulness for Better Assessment and Treatment

• Key to improving patient-therapist relations: incorporate relational mindfulness strategies
• Mindful speaking and listening
  • Authentic, truthful speech
  • Deep listening with full attention (80/20 rule)
• Experiential exercise: introducing the dyad

MINDFULNESS STRATEGIES TO COMBAT STRESS AND BURNOUT

How to Start Your Own Personal Practice

• Everything you need to know about sitting meditation
• Overcoming the obstacles to formal meditation practice
• Essentials for nurturing your own mindfulness practices
  • The synergistic relationship between formal and informal mindfulness practice
  • The importance of consistency, patience and forgiveness
  • Support for your practice after today
  • Resources in your community
  • Recommended reading

Create a Healthy Work-Life Balance

• The 8-role circle for conscious goal setting
• How to look within – heart-body-mind triad
• The importance of self-nurturing
• Find greater emotional stability
• Cultivate more acceptance, tolerance, and compassion
• Learn how to use vulnerability and sensitivity as your greatest strengths

Take Home Lessons for Immediate Application

• Become a better listener by truly “hearing” your patients
• Connect with the positive qualities of your patients
• Become less reactive by reframing your perceptions
• Accept all criticism as opportunities for learning