Date of Award
January 2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Counseling Psychology & Community Services
First Advisor
Dorlene Walker
Abstract
Mindfulness is an effective therapeutic tool for multiple disorders and
conditions. A set of standards, methods, assessments, and teacher characteristics had
not been formulated to effectively teach future mental health providers mindfulness.
This study utilized a Delphi Method to meet this need in the field. This methodology
was used to assemble a panel of experts to provide data on the best practices in teaching
mindfulness. The experts participated in three rounds of data collection. They provided
information pertaining to their ideal and real teaching standards, methods, and
assessments. They, then, narrowed down the concepts in each domain until consensus
was found between the experts. The results indicated the following: Standards should
include the practice of mindfulness, learning about attention processes, compassion
skills, learning the definition of mindfulness, and the cognitive and physiological
processes involved in mindfulness. Methods should be lecture, discussion, sharing, and
practice/experiential. Assessment methods are reflection papers, class discussion, class
participation, and teacher evaluation. Last, while collecting this information, it became
apparent that teacher characteristics were an important variable for teaching
mindfulness.
Recommended Citation
Rofkahr, Crystal, "The Instruction Of Mindfulness: Developing Standards And Objectives For Mindfulness Training In Graduate Programs" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 1704.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/1704