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MEDITATION, PSYCHOTHERAPY & HEALING.
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Examines research on effectiveness of two approaches to healing, stress reduction, physical & mental well-being.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines research on effectiveness of two approaches to healing, stress reduction, physical & mental well-being.

Paper Introduction:
MEDITATION, PSYCHOTHERAPY AND HEALING Introduction Traditionally, meditation has been viewed as a spiritual practice involving a mental discipline in which one attempts to realize or consider or reflect upon a religious truth in order to arrive at a personal understanding and love for what it signifies; however, in the behavioral and medical sciences, the practice is increasingly being claimed as a stress-reduction technique that enhances both physical and psychological healing and well-being (Astin, 1997). The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical research on meditation and psychotherapy in order to evaluate the validity of this claim. Effects of Meditation and Psychotherapy on Healing Does meditation increase the healing power of psychotherapy?

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However, the problem with these findings and conclusions is the casestudy methods used by Urbanowski and Miller (1996) consisted primarily ofinterview and patient self-report data in measuring therapeuticeffectiveness. However, it's degree of support is limited bythe fact that meditation and psychotherapy (cognitive restructuring) werenot the only treatment modes given to subjects, e.g., they also hadtraining in muscle relaxation and coping skills. The spiritual healing of post-traumatic stressdisorder at the Menlo Park Veteran's Hospital. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 28(1), 31-48. & Schwarz, J.C. The foregoing study provides support for the notion that combiningmeditation with forms of psychobehavoral therapy is associated withtherapeutic effectiveness. It was concluded thattranscendental meditation may reduce trait anxiety; however, it was notedthat the study had not established meditation to be of assistance in termsof inducing general personality change. Stress reduction through mindfulness meditation.Effects on psychological symptomatology, sense of control, and spiritualexperiences. Although meditation subjects held higher expectancies for benefits,and were slightly more regular in practicing their technique, individualdifferences in expectancy and frequency of practice were not correlatedwith degree of reported anxiety reduction. The literature does, however, suggest that meditation can reduce anumber of psychological symptoms and factors associated with symptoms(e.g., anxiety, depression, anger, external locus of control, etc.) eitherby itself and/or along with certain forms of psychotherapy in combinationwith other alterntive treatment modes. (1993). Similarly, Hawks, Hull, Thalman and Richins (1995) conducted a meta-study of the existing research on meditation and healing. Thus, the magnitude of the contribution ofmeditation to psychotherapy alone cannot be known from this comprehensivemeta-analysis. (1985). Addictive Behavior, 1 (1), 45-54. One additional point that must be considered is the fact that theonly research that could be found examined for the effects of meditationwhen used conjointly with cognitive restructuring as a form ofpsychotherapy. Hawks, S.R., Hull, M.L., Thalman, R.L. Reduction inanxiety was no longer evident at the 2.5- and 5.5-month follow-ups. In one of the few comparative studies that has been done, Rohsenow,Smith and Johnson (1985) did combine meditation with a cognitivepsychotherapeutic approach, examining its efficacy for a group of heavysocial drinkers. MEDITATION, PSYCHOTHERAPY AND HEALING Introduction Traditionally, meditation has been viewed as a spiritual practiceinvolving a mental discipline in which one attempts to realize or consideror reflect upon a religious truth in order to arrive at a personalunderstanding and love for what it signifies; however, in the behavioraland medical sciences, the practice is increasingly being claimed as astress-reduction technique that enhances both physical and psychologicalhealing and well-being (Astin, 1997). The selectedinterventions were chosen on the basis of soundness of research design,peer-review publication, clear description of intervention method, andrelationship to spiritual health components. (1996). Based on these findings, Astin (1997) concluded that the techniquesof mindfulness meditation, with their emphasis on developing detachedobservation and awareness of the contents of consciousness, may represent apowerful cognitive behavioral coping strategy for transforming the ways inwhich individuals respond to life events. Thus,placing confidence in Urbanowski and Miller's (1996) conclusions isdifficult. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. In addition, cumulative indexes fromAdvances (1984 to 1993) were manually searched, and reference lists fromidentified studies and literature reviews were analyzed. Jimenez, M.J. Measures of trait anxiety, locus of control, maladjustment, anddrug use were collected before and after the nine-week treatment period. Perhaps the best answer that can be given to thisquestion is that this review of the existing knowledge base reveals thatthe compiled literature does not as yet provide a definitive answer to thisquestion--this primarily due to problematic aspects of existingmethodologies. & Miller, J.J. Also, thestudies supported positive changes in health behaviors such ascommunication, diet activity, and treatment compliance. First, there has notbeen a great deal of research examining for the conjoint effects ofpsychotherapy and meditation; and second, the research that does existsuffers from problematic methodology. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 66(2), 97-1 6. No measures were taken of theextent to which subjects adequately practiced meditation. For example, In a study conducted byZuroff and Schwarz (1978) 6 undergraduate volunteers were randomlyassigned to receive training in transcendental meditation, training in amuscle relaxation technique, or no treatment. Kiess, H.O. Thus, the study offers noway to determine the extent to which its positive outcomes were directlyattributable to the conjoint contribution of meditation and psychotherapyalone. While no direct measures were collected as to the adequacy ofsubjects' meditative experiences, sessions were used to ask vets questionsconcerning how they were progressing in their use of meditation, prayer andother forms of self-healing, and to help them with any problems they werehaving. Urbanowski, F.B. & Bloomquist, D.W. One problem with the existing research supporting the efficacy ofconjoint meditation and psychotherapy treatment is that many of thesestudies were conducted by clinicians using only case study methods whichare research approaches lacking in empirical rigor (Kiess & Bloomquist,1985). No standardized measures were collected and no assessmentwas made of the degree to which patients were effective meditators. Reviewof spiritual health: Definition, role, and intervention strategies inhealth promotion. The purpose of this paper is toexamine the empirical research on meditation and psychotherapy in order toevaluate the validity of this claim. With respect to psychological healing, veterans were assessed onmeasures of personal empowerment, self-determination, and religiosity.Findings showed that as a result of the combined treatment approach,veterans reported themselves to have grown more religious (spiritual).Increases in internal locus of control (a belief that one basic lifecircumstances are caused by one's own behavior and attitudes) were alsorevealed by pre- and posttesting. Trauma, psychotherapy, andmeditation. Effects of Meditation and Psychotherapy on Healing Does meditation increase the healing power of psychotherapy?Answering this question is difficult for two reasons. A total of 71 articles were identified and considered. This fact makes it likely thatmeditation, when combined with various forms of psychotherapy, will mostprobably enhance healing to some as yet unknown extent. Research andreview articles were identified through a CD-ROM computer search of ERIC(1966 to 1994), PSYCHLIT (1974 to 1994), and MEDLINE (1991 to 1994)databases using appropriate key words. (1978). Studies in FormativeSpirituality, 14(2), 175-187. It was noted that on the basis of their self-reports over time, itcould be concluded that the vets made good progress in terms of utilizingthese techniques. For example, Urbanowski and Miller (1996) discussed five casestudies in which psychotherapy and meditation techniques were usedconjointly for clients with diverse problems. However, before strong confidence can be placed in the justdelineated claim, it will be necessary to conduct more research.Specifically, the kind of research needed is comparative research in whichdiverse kinds of meditation techniques (e.g., transcendental meditation,zen meditation, word meditation, etc.) are combined with a variety ofpsychotherapy techniques and then the combined treatment package iscompared to the meditation technique alone. Zuroff, D.C. Following participation in mindfulness training, experimentalsubjects, when compared with controls, evidenced significantly greaterchanges in terms of: (1) reductions in overall psychologicalsymptomatology; (2) increases in overall domain-specific sense of controland utilization of an accepting or yielding mode of control in their lives,and (3) higher scores on a measure of spiritual experiences. Another problem with the empirical research on the healing effects ofmeditation techniques is that often the most well controlled studies lookonly at the effects of meditation alone rather than at their additiveeffects with respect to therapy. On a behavioral measure of trait anxiety, the scores of all threegroups were found to have decreased equally, but on a self-report measurethe transcendental meditation subjects reported steady decreases inanxiety, whereas the scores of the other two groups remained unchanged.There were no differences in maladjustment, locus of control, or drug useas a function of treatment. The basic thrust of the psychotherapy groupwas to address negative symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and themore abstract, existential issues often associated with this condition. Journal of Consulting Clinical Psychology, 46(2),264-271.----------------------- 1 In this way, the magnitude ofthe contribution of the mediational practices to therapeutic success can bedetermined. (1995). (1997). Given that there are many diverse forms of psychotherapy,(e.g., existential psychotherapy, psychodynamic therapy, etc.), it is hererecommended that future researchers, attempting to establish the effects ofmeditation when used conjointly with psychotherapy, sample diverse kinds oftherapy techniques and not limit the examination solely to psychobehavioraltechniques. It was concluded that thesearticles supported imagery, meditation, and group support activities asenhancing physical, psychological and spiritual well-being. & Johnson, S. Psychological ResearchMethods: A conceptual approach. References Astin, J.A. Among the benefits observed in association with meditation wereseveral outcomes directly relevant to psychotherapy. It wasconcluded that the combined treatment of meditation with psychotherapy maydecrease mental health care utilization, yet enhance the psychotherapeuticprocess in this era of managed care and cost containment. It was stated that the conjoint use of meditation and psychotherapydeveloped clients' ego strength as well as provided them with meaningfulexperiences of egolessness, and it was further noted that this remainedtrue, even for clients who were the survivors of strong trauma. It was also observed that the men in the program showed a significantdecrease in daily drinking rates at post-treatment and at the 2.5-monthfollow-up; however, drinking returned to baseline levels by 5.5 months forthe group as a whole. It was also suggested that thetechniques may also have potential for relapse prevention in affectivedisorders. Stress managementtraining as a prevention program for heavy social drinkers: Cognitions,affect, drinking, and individual differences. The training in muscle relaxation was designed to be maximallysimilar in structure and atmosphere to training in transcendentalmeditation. Conclusions The basic purpose of this paper was to examine the existingliterature in order to determine whether meditation increases the healingpower of psychotherapy. & Richins, P.M. (1985). In another study, Jimenez (1993) examined the outcomes of apsychotherapy group combining meditation, prayer and other alternativeforms of healing for a sample of Vietnam veterans suffering fromposttraumatic stress disorder. In a more recent study, Astin (1997) examined the effects of an eight-week stress reduction program based on training in mindfulness meditation.Subjects in the study consisted of 28 volunteers who were randomly assignedto either an experimental group or a nonintervention control group. The entire treatment consisted of muscle relaxationtechniques, meditation training, cognitive restructuring (the psychotherapyvariable), and coping skill rehearsal during induced affect. Significant improvement variance in daily moods andin drinking rates over all post-treatment periods was accounted for byindividual difference variables in the trained subjects but not in thecontrol group; this was said to suggest that these cognitive, personality,and social support variables are associated with response to treatment. These were: anincreased sense of meaning and purpose in life: greater self-awareness; andgreater connectedness with self, others, and a larger reality. Treated and control subjects rated the frequency and intensity oftheir anxiety, anger and depression and recorded their alcohol consumptionon a daily basis over a sixth-month period. Findings of the study showed that the combined treatment approachsignificantly reduced post-treatment daily anxiety ratings and wasassociated with changes in four of ten irrational beliefs and a shifttoward more internal locus of control in treated subjects. American Journal of Health Promotion, 9(5), 371-378. However, in their general examination of research on meditation,Hawks, Hull, Thalman and Richins (1995) did not separate studies wheremeditation was examined alone from studies where meditation was examinedalong with other therapies. Effects of transcendentalmeditation and muscle relaxation on trait anxiety, maladjustment, locus ofcontrol, and drug use. Rohsenow, D.J., Smith, R.E.

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