ABSTRACT
Mindfulness can be difficult to introduce to clients, because it can sometimes seem to be either an abstract, foreign concept, or a new-agey fad, which clients may have already tried, embraced, or rejected. Mindfulness involves not only experiencing pleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations, but also experiencing unpleasant or uncomfortable ones. Mindfulness is also an activity that clinicians should experience directly rather than recommending to clients without personal lived experience of the intervention. A basic formal mindfulness practice might begin with mindful observation of the breath. Mindfully observing thoughts is a core aspect of the Accept Yourself! treatment program, and will be helpful to clients as they begin to practice accepting their thoughts and acting in ways contradictory to what their thoughts suggest. Mindfulness is one way to develop what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) describes as cognitive defusion from painful thoughts about the body or the self.
