ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy research has rarely examined interventions that lie outside of the mainstream of practice. And when research centers on these sorts of methods, it is rare that the findings about treatment effectiveness parallel the excitement of clinicians offering these interventions. The integration of mindfulness practice into psychotherapy is a major exception to this trend, with a solid base of research support accumulating. This chapter looks at some major trends in research on using mindfulness in psychotherapy. The practice of mindfulness has been part of many Asian traditions for thousands of years and part of some methods of psychotherapy since the pioneering work of Alan Watts and others brought Eastern ideas of consciousness into the world of psychotherapy in the 1950s and 1960s. Entire cultures have been profoundly affected by formal and informal exposure to ways of experiencing aimed at increasing mindfulness, such as meditation and yoga, and these methods are now also practiced by millions of Americans.
