Main description:

Mindfulness is the central ingredient in a growing number of empirically supported treatments, and mindfulness practices hold great promise not only for personal development, but as remarkably powerful tools to augment virtually every form of psychotherapy.

In Mindfulness for Anxiety, Dr. Siegel works with a young man who presents with stress-related chronic neck pain. First he helps the client to see that the mind plays a critical role in his presenting problem. Next, using the therapeutic understanding that resistance to mental and physical discomfort exacerbates suffering, Dr. Siegel works to identify the physical sensations and emotions that the client is struggling to avoid.

Through practising acceptance of pain sensations, anxiety, and other emotions, the client is able to become more comfortable with these experiences as they arise, placing him on a path toward freedom from his disorder.