OPPORTUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

Opportunity High School - Student Intake

Opportunity High School - Student Intake

What interventions would you select to help this individual, with the stressors observed during the intake and why did you choose them?

The transformational practices of yoga and mindfulness soothe the body and quiet the mind. They rewire your thinking mind, teach you how to live in the present moment and help you be more comfortable in your body. Science clearly shows they are powerful clinical tools that heal depression and anxiety. Sensible and compassionate, these practices empower clients, enhance the professional relationship and heal client and clinician alike.

According to yogic philosophy, there are five causes of suffering: separation from the spiritual, limited self-concept, attachments, aversions, and fear of death. With this philosophical contextualization, Yoga for Anxiety examines the causes of anxiety and helps readers create personal yoga programs designed to heal their symptoms and promote personal growth.

What is/are research evidence base for these interventions?

Derived from ancient Buddhist and Yoga practices, mindfulness-based therapy (MBT), which includes mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; e.g., Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; e.g., Kabat-Zinn, 1982), has become a very popular form of treatment in contemporary psychotherapy (e.g., Baer, 2003; Bishop, 2002; Hayes, 2004; Kabat-Zinn, 1994; Salmon, Lush, Jablonski, & Sephton, 2009). Several of the applications of MBT (such as MBCT) have been designed as relapse prevention strategies rather than to reduce acute symptoms. Other studies have examined MBT as a symptom-focused treatment. The present study is a review of MBT as a therapy to reduce acute symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness refers to a process that leads to a mental state characterized by nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment experience, including one's sensations, thoughts, bodily states, consciousness, and the environment, while encouraging openness, curiosity, and acceptance (Bishop et al., 2004; Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Melbourne Academic Mindfulness Interest Group, 2006). Bishop and colleagues (2004) distinguished two components of mindfulness, one that involves self-regulation of attention and one that involves an orientation toward the present moment characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance. The basic premise underlying mindfulness practices is that experiencing the present moment nonjudgmentally and openly can effectively counter the effects of stressors, because excessive orientation toward the past or future when dealing with stressors can be related to feelings of depression and anxiety (e.g., Kabat-Zinn, 2003). It is further believed that, by teaching people to respond to stressful situations more reflectively rather than reflexively, MBT can effectively counter experiential avoidance strategies, which are attempts to alter the intensity or frequency of unwanted internal experiences (Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006). These maladaptive strategies are believed to contribute to the maintenance of many, if not all emotional disorders (Bishop et al., 2004; Hayes, 2004). In addition, the slow and deep breathing involved in mindfulness meditation may alleviate bodily symptoms of distress by balancing sympathetic and parasympathetic responses (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). For example, in the case of MBSR (Kabat-Zinn, 1982), the three key components are sitting meditation, Hatha Yoga, ...