A Multisite Pre/Post Study of Mindfulness Training for Therapists: The Impact on Session Presence and Effectiveness.

Background: To date, little research has tested whether the use of mindfulness by clinicians results in actual changes in psychotherapy sessions. The purpose of this multisite study was to test whether a brief 5-week mindfulness training program could lead to improved session presence and effectiveness for trainee clinicians ( = 31).

Methods: At the end of 85 pretraining and 132 posttraining sessions, clients completed the client version of the Therapist Presence Inventory (TPI-C; Geller, Greenberg, & Watson, 2010) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS; Johnson, Miller, & Duncan, 2000).

Effects of pre-session centering for therapists on session presence and effectiveness.

The present study tested whether engaging in a mindfulness centering exercise 5 minutes before a session could have a positive impact on therapy, in particular on the therapists' ability to remain present in session and on session outcomes. Results indicated that therapists perceived themselves as being more present in session when they prepared for their sessions by engaging in a mindfulness centering exercises (d=.45), while clients perceived their therapists as being highly present regardless of whether their therapist completed the mindfulness centering exercise.