This book proposes a new approach to mindfulness-based interventions, presenting them not as individual, but as relational practices. In the last decades, mindfulness has exerted a growing influence on many fields of research and activity, but always as an individual practice. The authors in this volume believe that the strong development of mindfulness today implies considering a dialogue between this individualistic approach and the perspective of relational mindfulness based on social constructionism. The volume is organized in two parts. The first part focuses on the theoretical foundations of relational mindfulness. The second part presents possibilities of applications of relational mindfulness in clinical and organizational settings to promote mental health and personal development. Relational Mindfulness: Fundamentals and Applications will be of interest to a wide range of professionals interested in applying mindfulness-based interventions in mental health care and productive organizations, such as clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals and human resources analysts and consultants, among others. "It is true that the metaphor of mindfulness has been enormously fruitful in its invitation to innovate. By removing meditative practices from their ancient roots, practitioners were free to create practices especially relevant to context. (...) At the same time, there was also a recognizable loss in the profoundly rich heritage that was left behind. For many of us, the greatest loss resulted from the absorption of such practices into Western individualism. What had once been an orientation to practice emphasizing our fundamental inter-being, had become a gateway to silent separation. It is in this context that the present volume bursts into significance. With special appreciation to the editors of this book, we are treated to a multi-dimensional exploration into the relational dimensions of mindfulness practices. Bringing ideas, experience, and wisdom from across professions, and across continents the contributors open an exciting path to the future." - Excerpt from the Foreword by Kenneth J. Gergen

This book is a manual for self-application of the Attachment-Based Compassion Therapy (ABCT) protocol, that can be either self-applied by any individual in a psychoeducational context or as a support for a therapeutic process guided by a professional. Compassion therapy is a third-generation psychotherapy that has been used in association with mindfulness in recent years. In particular, attachment-based compassion therapy (ABCT) is a protocol that can be used in both the general and psychiatric population with the aim of promoting compassion and self-compassion. ABCT is based on attachment theory and, therefore, includes practices to raise awareness and/or address maladaptive aspects, where appropriate, of the attachment styles developed with parents. This process is taught as a form of both compassion and self-compassion in order to improve present-day interpersonal relationships and well-being in general. In the face-to-face group format, ABCT has been demonstrating efficacy and applicability for healthy people and for the treatment of fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders. This book presents a self-applied version of ABCT that operates along the lines of the original model and has been adapted and developed to be fully self-applied via the Internet in 8 sequential modules: Introduction to attachment-based compassion therapy Preparing ourselves for compassion: kind attention Discovering our compassionate world Developing our compassionate world Understanding our relationship with compassion Working on ourselves Understanding the importance of forgiveness Consolidating the practice of compassion The content is presented through texts, pictures, tables and figures, including links to downloadable audio files for formal meditation practices with specific guides and instruction for each meditation. The transcripts to each guided meditation are also included as appendices.

This book proposes a new approach to mindfulness-based interventions, presenting them not as individual, but as relational practices. In the last decades, mindfulness has exerted a growing influence on many fields of research and activity, but always as an individual practice. The authors in this volume believe that the strong development of mindfulness today implies considering a dialogue between this individualistic approach and the perspective of relational mindfulness based on social constructionism. The volume is organized in two parts. The first part focuses on the theoretical foundations of relational mindfulness. The second part presents possibilities of applications of relational mindfulness in clinical and organizational settings to promote mental health and personal development. Relational Mindfulness: Fundamentals and Applications will be of interest to a wide range of professionals interested in applying mindfulness-based interventions in mental health care and productive organizations, such as clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals and human resources analysts and consultants, among others. "It is true that the metaphor of mindfulness has been enormously fruitful in its invitation to innovate. By removing meditative practices from their ancient roots, practitioners were free to create practices especially relevant to context. (...) At the same time, there was also a recognizable loss in the profoundly rich heritage that was left behind. For many of us, the greatest loss resulted from the absorption of such practices into Western individualism. What had once been an orientation to practice emphasizing our fundamental inter-being, had become a gateway to silent separation. It is in this context that the present volume bursts into significance. With special appreciation to the editors of this book, we are treated to a multi-dimensional exploration into the relational dimensions of mindfulness practices. Bringing ideas, experience, and wisdom from across professions, and across continents the contributors open an exciting path to the future." - Excerpt from the Foreword by Kenneth J. Gergen