Mindfulness Therapy in Persistent Mental Health Diagnosis

Introduction

Mindfulness therapy seeks to prevent the relapse of individuals with persistent mental conditions into the mental state. In this report, the case of an encounter in a housing facility for adults with persistent mental illness is considered. In particular, I employed the use of breathing techniques whenever an individual experienced extreme agitation. The effectiveness of body sensing techniques is underpinned by the body’s response system. The body tends to respond to stress by releasing chemicals, leading to a sympathetic state. Persistent cases of stress inhibit the body’s ability to maintain a balance between this state and the normal parasympathetic state. By relieving the body of the hormones that keep it suspended in a sympathetic state, an individual is able to achieve a state of relaxation.

Case for Study

Currently I am interning at a residential housing facility for adults with persistent mental illness. I encounter residents with extreme agitation quite a number of times, and this could be for many reasons. One main reason is because of communication breakdown, when someone feels like that they have not been heard. In those times I have been able to use breathing techniques with residents to calm them and prepare them for clear communication.

Mindfulness Therapy in Persistent Mental Health Diagnosis

One of the biggest challenges that I have come across while working with patients with persistent mental illness, is their extreme agitation. Extreme agitation in such patients could be a result of a number of reasons. One such reason is a breakdown in the communication process, which leads to frustration in the patient. The buildup of such frustration is due to a perception among the patient that he/she has not been heard. This frustration presents a problem not only for the patient, but also for the healthcare professional and other patients, who may be objects of this frustration. The problem is further exacerbated by the persistence of negative emotions (Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008). Negative emotions tend to persist for longer durations, and within a residential housing facility, this could mean a prolonged exposure of other patients to the state of frustration. Such an exposure could then result in a negative outcome on these other patients.

In lieu of this fact, it is imperative to take action that will help to avert these negative outcomes. My response, when faced with these situations, has been to use breathing techniques to calm down the patient in preparation for clear communication. The purpose of such therapeutic interventions is to alleviate the frustration facing these patients. This approach constitutes a basic intervention under mindfulness therapy. In particular, it is characterized by body sensing and intentional breathing and belly breathing interventions.

Body sensing interventions employ somatic principles in order to relieve subjects of cognitive stresses (Altman, 2012). The need for such interventions is underscored by the failure of the body to restore normal functioning in the body, especially after prolonged frequent episodes of survivor trigger responses. This frequency of chemical flow triggering causes the body to become transfixed in the sympathetic state. Body sensing aims to restore a parasympathetic state, which induces relaxation. By so doing, these techniques are able to address mental and cognitive problems. For example, progressive muscle relaxation has been indicated to lead to better treatment outcome in ADHD patients (Safren et al., 2010). The logical explanation of the mechanism, as well as such research evidence, corroborates the effectiveness of body relaxation interventions.

The other method that I employed is the use of breathing techniques. Breathing, a somatosensory process, has been used in meditation therapy. In particular, the technique employed is breath-focus meditation, which is aimed at channeling the attention of individuals towards breathing (Hasenkamp & Barsalou, 2012). Breathing has been indicated to be the central process that leads to the development of mindfulness. Moreover, it facilitates the acquisition of insight into internal and external processes that humans can perceive and understand (Grossman, 2007). There are various means of channeling breathing towards therapeutic intervention such as intentional breathing and belly breathing (Altman, 2012). The aim is normally for the subject to breathe in at the belly, without any conscious attempt to alter breathing patterns. The objective of the whole process is to maintain a continuity of sensory awareness. Grossman (2007) suggests that ultimately, the individual gains a deeper understanding of themselves. What this implies is that even while projecting communication, individuals will be able to provide better feedback.

In the intervention for patients, body sensing aids in the relaxation process, by restoring a parasympathetic state. Once this state has been achieved, continuous bell breathing patterns are then employed to assist the patient acquire a deeper understanding of themselves. This is beneficial to mindfulness interventions. This is because by achieving a state of relaxation, the patients are then able to communicate more peacefully. Furthermore, by gaining a deeper understanding of themselves, they are also able to establish meaningful communication.

Conclusion

This paper has looked at the role of the mindfulness therapy process in addressing persistent mental health diagnosis. In particular, it has addressed a case study of a residential housing facility for patients with persistent mental illness. I constantly had to deal with residents with extreme agitation, arising from an ineffective communication process. In order to address the problem at hand, I employed breathing techniques aimed at calming down the patient and preparing them for the communication process. Body sensing interventions have been indicated to be effective in alleviating stress. This is because consistent stress leads the body to sustain a sympathetic state. By the release of chemicals associated with this state, the body is able to regain its parasympathetic state. Moreover, breathing techniques allow the individual to achieve relaxation. This is because breathing facilitates mindfulness, and it also helps the individual to attain a continuity of sensory awareness. In this way, mental diagnosis patients are able to communicate better by deriving these benefits of body sensing and breathing techniques, thereby becoming more effective in their communication.

References

Altman, D. (2012). The joy compass. New Harbinger Publications.

Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal responses. Journal of Personal Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045-1062.

Grossman, P. (2007). Mindfulness practice: A unique clinical intervention for the behavioral sciences. n.p.

Hasenkamp, W., & Barsalou, L. W. (2012). Effects of meditation experience on functional connectivity of distributed brain networks. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 6.

Safren, S. A., & al., e. (2010). Cognitive behavioral therapy vs relaxation with educational support for medication-treated adults with ADHD and persistent symptoms. JAMA: the journal of the American Medical Association, 304(8), 875-880.