3 Reasons to Consider Incorporating Meditation Into Your Counseling Strategies
Meditation has certainly moved into the mainstream in recent years, and Virginia Tech is one university that so strongly believes in its benefits that students who take part in the Marriage and Family Therapy program are taught mindfulness meditation in hopes they’ll be more able to engage with clients during counseling sessions. Regardless of if you’re curious about whether meditation could make you more able to relate to patients, there are several reasons why you should consider practicing it and recommending it to the people who rely on you for expertise. We’ll look at a few in detail below.
It Changes the Body’s Stress Response
When a person begins seeing a counselor for the first time, it’s likely he or she will struggle with nervousness. That emotion can continue to plague someone who has an established relationship with a counselor, and interfere with the effectiveness of counseling overall. Dr. Herbert Benson is a Harvard University medical professor who has studied the effects of meditation at length, and compiled findings into something he calls the “relaxation response.”
In 1971, Dr. Benson published a study in the American Journal of Physiology. He found some of the benefits of meditation include decreased breathing rate and blood pressure. Additionally, meditators had lower blood lactate levels. Blood lactate is an indicator of stress. In conclusion, Dr. Benson believes meditation can change the body’s natural “fight or flight” response that occurs during stress.
It Causes Visible Positive Brain Alterations
A study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging and conducted by scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital also used brain scan imagery from 16 participants. Results determined after test subjects meditated for only eight weeks, the areas of the brain associated with compassion and self-awareness grew larger, while the parts associated with stress became smaller.
It May Allow Practitioners to Think More Quickly
The UCLA Medical Center has conducted numerous meditation studies over the years and discovered such benefits as a healthful thickening of the brain, along with improved connections between cells. Also, last year more information was published to indicate there are particular advantages to meditating over a long-term basis. Specifically, it was found that as a person meditates over a prolonged duration, he or she is more likely to have a higher incidence of “folding” in the cerebral cortex. In the medical field, this is called gyrification, and it’s thought to contribute to a person’s ability to process information, including thinking at a more rapid rate, reaching decisions more speedily and retaining memories.
The UCLA study results were published in a journal called Frontiers in Human Neuroscience and looked at MRI brain scans of meditators who had been practicing the activity for an average of two decades. Meditation preferences varied within the group, suggesting that the type of meditation a person chooses is not a telling factor in the likelihood of results. The study authors found more brain gyrification in meditators who had been taking part in the activity for longer lengths of time, but cautioned how more research is necessary to rule out other potential reasons for the differences, such as environmental factors.
These are just a few reasons to think about suggesting meditation to your counseling clients, or even trying it yourself. Although research is still ongoing, meditation is worth a look, particularly when people are struggling with complex mental or emotional issues that have ultimately caused them to book counseling sessions at your office.
Brett Harris is a full-time blogger. If you’re looking at for new ways to practice, consider enrolling in one of the Top 10 best online masters in counseling degree programs.
