mindfulness for meditation haters: appliance of heartrate coherence training in act marco kleen msc...
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Mindfulness for meditation haters: appliance of heartrate coherence
training in ACT
Marco Kleen MScBrainDynamics Groningen / PsyAdvies.nl
University of Groningen
Mindfulness: definitions
• Skill: being present, observing one’s experiences in a non-judgemental way no matter how aversive those experiences may be
• Attitude: compound factor of four ACT processes in the hexaflex (acceptance, being present, defusion and self-as-context)
Disadvantages of formal mindfulness training
• Resistance against meditation-like techniques• Religious objections• Time investment• Dogmatic appliance
Goals
• Pragmatic mindfulness• Function of the excersize is more important
than the form• Increase accesibility of mindfulness for
‘meditation haters’• Research biological marker of mindfulness
Heartrate variability
• Variance of interval between heartbeats• Sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS • Reflects emotional functioning (among other
variables)
Coherence
Chaos
Coherence vs chaos
• Coherence focussing on breath, acceptance, being open minded, focussing on present, mindfulness. Technically: dominance of 0.1 Hz frequency.
• Chaos problem solving, non-acceptance, experiential avoidance
• Being coherent can be trained Heartrate Coherence Training (HCT)
Applications
• Heartmath Emwave® protocol (= HCT; counterconditioning). Primairy goal: symptom (stress) reduction
• HCT adapted to the hexaflex (HCT-ACT)‘mindfulness through heartrate coherence training’. Primairy goal = practical mindfulness
HCT-ACT
• Heartmath ® Freeze Framer/Emwave: easy to use biofeedbackprogram
• Low intensity: 3 x 7 minutes per session• Homework: 10 minutes a day
Phase 1: skilltraining
• Teaching basic mindfulness• Focus on breath• Focus on bodily experiences• Focus on thoughts (self as process)
Phase 2: exposure
• Graduated exposure• Teaching clients to be accepting and curious
towards aversive emotions, thoughts, memories
• Autobiographic material, symbolic letters, photographs, imaginary exposure, exposure in vivo, hyperventilation provocation
Pilotstudy• Pre-posttest design: Mindfull Attention Awareness
Scale (MAAS)• Avarage weighted cohrence scores (GGC’s):
- low = 0- medium = 1- high = 2
• T0: Baseline• T1: After skilltraining• T2: First exposure• T3: Last exposure
Population
• N =7 clients refered to outpatient mental health facility for psychotherapy
• Experiential avoidance
Primairy results
• Qualitative: positive reactions of clients, automatic generalization of techniques in daily life, no dropouts
• Quantitative: paterns of coherence and self reported mindfulness in accordance with predefined hypotheses
Hearrate coherence
Mean weighted coherence scores
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, p < o.o5
Mindfulness
Mean self-reported mindfulness (MAAS)
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, p < o.o5
Conclusions
• Mindfulness throught HCT-ACT seems feasable
• HCT increases mean weighted coherence scores and mean selfreported mindfulness
• Heartrate variability may be a biological marker for mindfulness
Restrictions
• Small non-randomized group• Control of breath?• Enthousiasm researcher
Publication
• Kleen, M. & Reitsma, B. (in press). Mindfulness door middel van hartslagcoherentietraining. De toepassing van biofeedback in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Psychopraxis, summer 2009.
Mindfulness through hearratecoherence training: appliance of biofeedback in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
