In Barcelona, more and more psychology centres are incorporating Mindfulness into their repertoire of therapeutic tools. This set of practices, also known as “Mindfulness”, aims to help people regulate their focus of attention 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 one is useful therapeutically and how the centre of Psychology Psicotools (Barcelona), located in the district of Vallcarca , applies it to its work.

What is Full Care?

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 ideas and old obsessions.

Mindfulness makes this philosophy its own and makes it a form of psychotherapeutic intervention that is detached from religious implications, so that it can be used in multiple contexts and independently of the person’s cultural background.

In addition, Full Care has been designed according to scientific criteria so that it can be reliably researched and tested. In this way, professionals who use or teach Mindfulness do so without reference to concepts associated with religion or magical thinking, and are concerned with giving clear, systematic instructions, avoiding ambiguity.

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

That is why Full Attention is used in situations where we experience high stress, anxiety or pain , regardless of whether a psychological disorder exists or not. It can be used in very diverse contexts; from the work context of organisations, to therapy through clinical psychology, or in schools and educational centres, with children. That is why centres like Psicotools not only see in Mindfulness one of the resources used in psychotherapy, but they have developed a department specialized in Full Care.

Mindfulness in Vallcarca: the case of Psicotools

Ferran García de Palau García-Faria, Head of the Area of Mindfulness, Personal Growth and In-company Services 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 centres in the use of Mindfulness in Vallcarca, this organisation is developing a project that shows the flexibility and versatility of Full Care to offer benefits in various areas of life , both in daily life and in the teamwork of companies and organisations.

How is it used in Mindfulness in psychology?

On the one hand, Psicotools offers the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program MBSR , a type of psycho-educational intervention of 8 weeks duration that combines learning theory with training in the practice of Mindfulness, and that has shown good results in making participants face previously anxious 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 , Full Care interventions are also carried out in companies .

These interventions are specialized in different objectives: creativity enhancement, Mindfulness play, and Mindfulness to reduce stress. The latter is particularly useful in recent times, when markets are changing rapidly and the environment in which companies compete with each other is adapting to new contexts as well. As each organization is different, it is usually customised to the needs of the company.

On the other hand, Mindfulness for children applied to educational and learning needs is another of the intervention focuses on which Psicotools focuses. The practices of Mindfulness, despite being based on the same principles, are very diverse, and therefore 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, Mindfulness gives children 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: the focus 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 to face the here and now in a more positive and constructive way.

This combination of versatility and foundation on a single philosophy of life makes Mindfulness a very useful tool that is increasingly being used by psychology centres in avant-garde cities like Barcelona. It is to be expected that over the years new and interesting ways of applying it both in psychotherapy and outside it will emerge.

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). Cognitive therapy of depression based on mindfulness. A new approach to relapse prevention. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer.