In recent years, Mindfulness has become a very useful tool in psychological therapy. This is especially true in large cities with a great international projection, such as Madrid and Barcelona.

In this case we will focus on the Catalan capital to see what the day-to-day life of a Barcelona psychology centre is like, which uses this set of practices in its assistance to patients. This is Psicotools, an organization that offers Mindfulness services in Gràcia , in the Vallcarca area.

What is Mindfulness?

First of all, let’s start with the basics. What is Mindfulness? It is a set of physical and mental practices that aim to situate the person’s attention in the present moment , valuing the experiences of the here and now from a perspective free of prejudice and without giving in to worries and obsessions about things that happened or could happen later.

Thus, everything that is done throughout the Mindfulness exercises is aimed at experiencing one’s own consciousness for what is really happening, and not for our biased interpretations of what happened in the past and what could happen in the future; hence Mindfulness is also known as Full Attention or Full Consciousness: one feels one’s own state of consciousness fully, without added extras arising from worries and experiences that generate anxiety.

On the other hand, Mindfulness is inspired by a millenary practice frequent in many regions of India: Vipassana meditation . However, Mindfulness has been developed as a group of exercises detached from any religious burden and based on clear instructions applied systematically, so that it can be a scientifically studied tool that everyone can use in the same way, without irregularities or room for ambiguity.

Psychotools: psychology applied to Mindfulness in Gràcia

Something that calls the attention of Psicotools is that it focuses much of its services specifically on Mindfulness. This is a trend that is increasingly seen in clinics and psychology centers: the use of methodologies linked to the management of attention focus to regulate negative emotional states, pain and, above all, anxiety.

The psychological states linked to anxiety are present in practically all forms of emotional and behavioural discomfort: phobias, obsessions, emotional dependence, relationship crises, etc. Stress and anguish not only indicate that something is wrong in our lives, but also contribute to the maintenance of this discomfort, creating a vicious circle of anxiety. Tools like Mindfulness allow us to break this cycle and take control of the situation again .

Therefore, at Psicotools they apply Mindfulness in many contexts of psychological intervention: education and accompaniment in childhood, organizational psychology and business dynamics, and, of course, psychotherapy with patients who present disorders. Let’s see how it is used in each case.

Full attention in education

Childhood is a key stage in which it is essential that children learn to manage their emotions.

This is why doing Mindfulness sessions can be useful: starting with simple exercises adapted to their age, it accustoms them to adopting a more neutral and constructive mentality free of value judgments , which protects them from many experiences of frustration, resentment and stress.
These Mindfulness practices are varied and easy to perform, similar to simplified forms of meditation, and can often be done collectively, something very useful in classrooms in educational centers but also at home with siblings.

For this reason, Mindfulness services in education, which have differentiated formats for children and adolescents, teachers, and parents, help to learn the basics of Full Care and apply them both to the little ones and to oneself, in the case of the youngest in the household.

Mindfulness in the company

Mindfulness is a great ally in the organizational context, more so given the ease with which business environments expose us to the stress and psychological wear produced by uncertainty and the need to adapt quickly to market variations. That is why many of the leading multinationals, such as Google or Nike, have implemented Full Care programs among their workers.

Psicotools is one of the psychology centres that offers organisational intervention services based on Mindfulness, and whose design is adapted to the specific objectives of the contracting companies: development of resilience skills in hard contexts, stress management, improvement of productivity and use of time, etc.

It is a trend that is being seen in psychology clinics in large cities, and which responds to the new needs that are emerging in cities with a dynamic and competitive economy. For companies to adapt to the new, their workers have to be centred .

Mindfulness for therapy and everyday problems

Finally, Psicotools also carries out Mindfulness programs for individuals who simply want to improve their quality of life and their way of facing reality. For this, this psychology centre is supported among other things by the Stress Reduction Program based on Mindfulness (MBSR) , of 8 weeks duration and with the aim of improving the management of stress, a practically universal problem that affects us all sooner or later.

This program, based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, offers the necessary practice to perform mindfulness exercises in many different situations, so that it can be used in a semi-improvised way for the challenges of everyday life.

Conclusion

The example of Psicotools and its Full Care services shows how one of the references of Minfluness in Gràcia adapts these practices to very diverse purposes, starting from principles so simple that they are easy to adapt to various objectives.

Part of the potential of Mindfulness lies in how simple it is to teach and use it on a daily basis, which is why the popularity of Mindfulness has been spreading in parallel through very diverse environments, from schools to law firms. It is up to each individual to make the most of this tool.

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.