ABSTRACT
The men and women who have served in Iraq with Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or, currently, with Operation New Dawn (OND), and in Afghanistan with Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), deal—like any combat veteran—with a wide range of complicated issues. All wars leave scars—some visible, some not—but the current conflicts appear to have particular characteristics that set them apart from previous engagements. These differences, on top of painful lessons learned from the lack of support for our Vietnam veterans, have resulted in a call to widen the scope of approaches to assist our OIF/OEF/OND service members. This chapter responds to an aspect of that call by proposing the addition of mindfulness practice to programs that foster physical and mental healing. This chapter will discuss some of the particular challenges faced by our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan; provide an overview of mindfulness practices; mention research showing how such practices contribute to positive change, healing, and growth; and briefly discuss their integration into the psychotherapeutic context. Resources to further explore mindfulness practices and associated research are provided at the end of the chapter.
