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.

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