Álvaro Ruiz de Ocenda: Mindfulness as a resource for discomfort

The resources that psychologists use in psychotherapy are part of the development of different techniques and technologies developed scientifically during the last decades, but that does not mean that these advances have arisen from the nothing. We have an example of this in the case of Mindfulness.

Mindfulness practices, a term also translated as Full Attention, are becoming more common among the range of forms of intervention by psychologists; but its historical roots are thousands of years old. To better understand what this phenomenon of consciousness and attentional focus management consists of, we spoke with an expert on this subject, psychologist Álvaro Ruiz de Ocenda, from the Psikonet therapy center.

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Interview with Álvaro Ruiz de Ocenda: the therapeutic potential of Mindfulness

Alvaro Ruiz de Ocenda He is a General Health Psychologist based in Viroria-Gasteiz and with a professional career of more than two decades caring for patients. In addition, he is an expert in Mindfulness both as a therapist and as a teacher; He is currently conducting research on the effect of Mindfulness programs in cases of chronic pain.

Throughout this interview, Álvaro talks to us about the aspects of Mindfulness that make it a useful resource in psychotherapy.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the translation of the word from the Hindu language Pali sati, and means awareness, attention and recollection. Mindfulness teaches people to pay attention to their inner and outer world with curiosity, kindness, and without judgment.

Based on this definition, a wide variety of Mindfulness-based intervention programs and techniques have been created that are having truly promising results.

Why is Mindfulness considered to have therapeutic potential, since it is inspired by a religious practice?

Mindfulness comes from the Theravada school, which is one of the schools of Buddhism, although I have doubts as to whether it is really a religious practice... in the words of the Dalai Lama, the Buddhist teachings are not a religion, they are a science of the mind.

Mindfulness shares with Buddhism its reading of human suffering, its causes and solutions. Thus, when it comes to addressing human suffering, attention training has been seen to be one of the most effective and through acceptance and other techniques and strategies, people learn to cultivate a more happy.

Specifically, meditation is one of the most powerful techniques for paying attention to various aspects of present experience: we can bring the attention to breathing, to bodily sensations, and we can also pay attention to those thoughts that come to our minds over and over again time. In this way, we can calm the mind in order to see reality more clearly.

For example, what beneficial aspects does Mindfulness have for people who suffer from excessive stress or anxiety?

In the case of stress and anxiety, the objective of Mindfulness programs is not to fight stress, nor to pretend that disappear, but rather develop awareness of the present moment as a way of being able to bring attention to what is happening here and now.

Front of rumination stressful thoughts, or anticipation of various scenes that we can imagine in our future, paying attention to what is happening in the present moment produces a feeling of relief important.

As each person begins to have this feeling of connection to the present, we become aware of that what really catches us are not so much the stressful situations, but the thoughts that we create when regard. And here Mindfulness is really powerful, leaving us room for choice.

And can someone experiencing insomnia or emotional fatigue also do well?

In the case of insomnia, more and more studies show that Mindfulness-based approaches are more effective than those based on other psychological models and even than medication.

In programs based on Mindfulness for Insomnia, the double objective of introducing modifications in sleeping habits, but the discomfort created the rest of the day due to not having rested. And here again, the management of thoughts becomes central, through different meditation practices, records and homework, anxiety related to sleep and the quality and quantity of sleep are considerably reduced improvement.

Emotional fatigue is a very broad term, in which different pathologies or conditions can be grouped... It would be necessary to analyze what this term means in each person who expresses it, since sometimes There are moments in life in which existential or vital crises appear, ambivalence of feelings... In this sense, being guided by a skilled therapist can be crucial for proposing different itineraries to follow.

Once the therapy session has finished, do the patients follow guidelines to learn to use Mindfulness autonomously, in their day to day?

In general, in Mindfulness-based interventions, the responsibility is usually shared between the professional and the client or patient... It is the task of the therapist to carry out the program, to be trained and accredited by an entity that belongs to the Network of Standardized Programs of Mindfulness in Spain, demonstrate professionalism and closeness, but there is a part of the path that the person who goes to these has to go through programs/therapies.

For this, audios are provided with the guided meditations, the student's manual, and a multitude of online resources so that each one is the protagonist of their conscious attention itinerary.

Beyond the professional field, has Mindfulness contributed anything to you personally?

In my specific case, I approached Mindfulness as a way to manage my stress, and its discovery was so revealing to me that I decided to train myself professionally to be able to take it to the people with whom I work in therapy and teaching courses. In fact, I continue to train, and at this moment I am conducting research on Mindfulness and chronic pain to obtain a PhD in Psychology.