Mindfulness in Vallcarca: this is how the Psicotools center works

In Barcelona, ​​more and more psychology centers are incorporating Mindfulness into their repertoire of therapeutic tools. This set of practices, also known as “Mindfulness”, aims to help people regulate their attention focus so that they are able to direct it towards the here and now.

In this article we will see Why an idea as simple as this is useful therapeutically and how the Psicotools Psychology Center (Barcelona), located in the Vallcarca neighborhood, applies it to its work, and that directs a good part of its psychological assistance proposals towards the use of Mindfulness.

• Related article: "What is Mindfulness? The 7 answers to your questions"

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a set of practices developed from the tradition of Vipassana meditation. This type of meditation, originally from the area of ​​India and Nepal and with more than two thousand years of history, was based on the principle of seeing things as they are, without seeing our point of view compromised by preconceived and old ideas obsessions

Mindfulness makes this philosophy its own and turns it into a form of psychotherapeutic intervention detached from religious implications, so that it can be used in multiple contexts and regardless of the cultural roots of the person.

In addition, Mindfulness has been designed according to scientific criteria in order to be reliably investigated and tested. In this way, professionals who use or teach Mindfulness do so without referring to associated concepts. to religion or magical thinking, and are concerned with giving systematized and clear instructions, avoiding ambiguities.

In this way, using Mindfulness means learning to focus your own consciousness in the present moment, from an acceptance mentality and avoiding prejudice, so that we avoid feeding the discomfort that we produce certain situations and we face them in a more constructive way, without letting anxiety dominate.

So, Mindfulness is used in situations where we experience high stress, anxiety, or painregardless of whether there is a psychological disorder or not. It can be used in very different contexts; from the work context of organizations, to therapy through clinical psychology, or in schools and educational centers, with boys and girls. That is why centers like Psychotools Not only do they see Mindfulness as one of the resources used in psychotherapy, but they have also developed a department specialized in Mindfulness.

Mindfulness in Vallcarca: the case of Psicotools

Ferran García de Palau García-Faria, Head of the Mindfulness, Personal Growth and Services Area in-company of Psicotools, is in charge of coordinating the work related to Mindfulness applying it to many contexts.

From its position as one of the reference centers in the use of Mindfulness in Vallcarca, this organization develops work that shows the flexibility and versatility of Mindfulness to offer benefits in various areas of life, both in the day-to-day and in the teamwork of companies and organizations.

How is it used in Mindfulness in psychology?

On the one hand, Psicotools offers the Mindfulness MBSR training program (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program), a type of psycho-educational intervention of 8 weeks duration that combines the learning the theory with training in Mindfulness practice, and which has shown good results in making the participants cope with previously anxiogenic or harmful experiences in a more positive and constructive way and with significantly less discomfort.

On the other hand, in the Mindfulness Area of ​​Psicotools Mindfulness interventions are also carried out in companies.

These interventions are specialized in different objectives: enhancement of creativity, playful Mindfulness, and Mindfulness to reduce stress. The latter is especially useful in recent times, when markets change quickly and the environment in which companies compete with each other by adapting to new contexts, also. As each organization is different, it is usually specified in a personalized way what the needs of the company are.

On the other hand, Mindfulness for children applied to educational and learning needs is another of the intervention focuses on which Psicotools focuses. Mindfulness practices, despite being based on the same principles, are very diverse, and that is why there are simplified versions that can be used so that the youngest learn to regulate their emotions and their level of anxiety.

In this way, through Mindfulness, children are given tools to face challenges and uncomfortable situations without developing totally avoidable fears and insecurities.

A very versatile form of psychological intervention

As we have seen, Mindfulness can be used in a wide variety of situations and in response to clearly differentiated needs. However, there is a common core of these practices: focusing on the aspects of the present that really matter, seeing the past and the future not as sources of concern, but as sources of information that help us face the here and now in a more positive and constructive way.

This combination of versatility and foundation in a single philosophy of life makes Mindfulness a A very useful tool that is being used more and more by psychology centers in avant-garde cities such as Barcelona. Hopefully, as the years go by, new and interesting ways of applying it will emerge both in psychotherapy and outside of it.

Bibliographic references:

• Hofmann, Stefan G.; Sawyer, Alice T.; Witt, Ashley A; Oh, Diana (2010). "The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 78 (2): 169 - 183.
• Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M. and Teasdale, J.D. (2006). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. A new approach to relapse prevention. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer.