It’s my sincere hope that these articles will help bring together a community of truly scientific psychologists and counsellors (and clinical researchers) and that together we can be at least somewhat successful in driving false therapies out of clinical practice, and replace them with far more strongly scientifically verified strategies and processes.
Today we attack … mindfulness.
If you adore mindfulness, and may have even hung your reputation and future on it, don’t hate me, because I also have been deceived by my own “beliefs” about what was happening with my clients, and deceived by very bad studies that nevertheless got massive acceptance. It’s dead easy to understand how tough it is to contemplate that we can be mistaken.
If you believe that mindfulness has been of benefit to your clients, please understand that it was not the mindfulness, but your own qualities and skill in creating a quality therapeutic liaison which created that benefit.
The quality of mindfulness research is mindbogglingly bad - less than 0.2% are considered adequate to analyse
It’s no wonder that so many clinical researchers and academics are screaming about the use of mindfulness as a therapy strategy.
In a paper published in the journal “Perspectives on Psychological Science” in October 2017, the author claimed that current research on mindfulness was completely unsatisfactory, and said: “As mindfulness has increasingly pervaded every aspect of contemporary society, so have misunderstandings about what it is, whom it helps, and how it affects the mind and brain. At a practical level, the misinformation and propagation of poor research methodology can potentially lead to people being harmed, cheated, disappointed, and disaffected”.
A comprehensive meta-analysis and review was carried out for the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This paper screened over 19,000 citations and could find only 47 that were of sufficient quality to analyse. That’s 0.1%! Yikes!
Nevertheless it included the scathing commentary: “The modest benefit found in the study …. begs the question of why, in the absence of strong scientifically vetted evidence, meditation in particular and complementary measures in general have become so popular, especially among the influential and well educated…What role is being played by commercial interests? Are they taking advantage of the public’s anxieties to promote use of complementary measures that lack a base of scientific evidence? Do we need to require scientific evidence of efficacy and safety for these measures?”
Allan Goroll, a doctor at Harvard University said of this analysis: “Contrary to popular belief, the studies overall failed to show much benefit from meditation with regard to relief of suffering or improvement in overall health.”
Most studies in mindfulness carefully avoid comparing mindfulness with other activities. One which did, compared daily playing a brief game of Tetris with mindfulness. The Tetris players reported less stress, more job satisfaction and more energy than the mindfulness cohort.
And in real life?
There is no indication at all that many hours of mindfulness (which is what it is claimed is necessary before “results” can be experienced) are superior to a brief walk, a nap, having a hobby, playing computer games, kicking a ball around, watching television, listening to music, or spending time relaxing with friends or family. We should not be pushing clients to spend time and effort learning and using a spurious technique when they can get better and faster benefits from doing far more rewarding and beneficial activities.
In addition, when we expose the general public to psychology-endorsed quackery we don’t just promote gullibility, we also teach people to denigrate science and increase disrespect and resistance to health experts who are doing their best to promote good health practices that are scientifically based.
Where did mindfulness come from?
Mindfulness can be regarded as another name for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It comes directly from Buddhist meditation practice, first gained a foothold in Europe, and now unfortunately has spread worldwide and is popular amongst psychologists, even though so far valid studies show it to be of no or little effect, and clearly not superior to anything else someone may do for recreation.
In mindfulness one mindfully contemplates and recognises one’s thoughts and experiences and “accepts” them, which supposedly reduces suffering. Proponents of mindfulness make all kinds of claims for health and wellbeing and this is what deeply annoys neuroscientists, who say this is a hyped-up claim and that mindfulness studies are of appalling quality, and show no such thing.
As I mentioned, a significant quantity of poor-quality, flawed studies claim to show benefit. Peer reviews of those studies basically debunk them and make it clear that mindfulness is no more beneficial (and in fact less beneficial) than other forms of relaxation or recreation. Mindfulness is strongly contra-indicated for depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders because it can often make symptoms worse.
Even Buddhists are aghast at the unwarranted claims for mindfulness, and neuroscientists are aghast at the hype, deeply concerned that mindfulness has been corporatized in a way that is intended to support employees to tolerate unnecessarily stressful conditions instead of fixing the conditions.
ACT/mindfulness does not have real evidence for efficacy and should not take up valuable time in the therapist’s office, nor waste the client’s time which could be used for far more beneficial activities.
It is snake oil. Dump it. There are far better ways to engage with, understand, and help clients, and I bet you know those already.
Me, reading this whilst an in patient at an NHS FND specialist centre, where around 40% of the activities for helping us manage and understand our disability has involved mindfulness... 👀
Think that I need to do some digging and some more reading.
Hi, I am new to this page but captivated by your eloquence. But when I tried to explain your ideas to my scientifically mindful friends, I was not able to provide with any references. As a newbie to your page I don't know where to find sources of your quotes. Thank you