The Instruction Of Mindfulness: Developing Standards And Objectives For Mindfulness Training In Graduate Programs

Mindfulness is an effective therapeutic tool for multiple disorders and conditions. A set of standards, methods, assessments, and teacher characteristics had not been formulated to effectively teach future mental health providers mindfulness. This study utilized a Delphi Method to meet this need in the field. This methodology was used to assemble a panel of experts to provide data on the best practices in teaching mindfulness. The experts participated in three rounds of data collection. They provided information pertaining to their ideal and real teaching standards, methods, and assessments. They, then, narrowed down the concepts in each domain until consensus was found between the experts. The results indicated the following: Standards should include the practice of mindfulness, learning about attention processes, compassion skills, learning the definition of mindfulness, and the cognitive and physiological processes involved in mindfulness. Methods should be lecture, discussion, sharing, and practice/experiential. Assessment methods are reflection papers, class discussion, class participation, and teacher evaluation. Last, while collecting this information, it became apparent that teacher characteristics were an important variable for teaching mindfulness