The Impact of Mindfulness and Meditation Practice on Client Perceptions of Common Therapeutic Factors

Counselor mindfulness practice may help cultivate common therapeutic factors (e.g., empathy, working alliance). Researchers in this quantitative research study identified significant relationships between therapist mindfulness and client perceptions of the therapist's way of being and the working alliance. The impact of meditation training on these variables was also explored. Keywords: mindfulness, working alliance, counseling relationship, common factors ********** Despite an ongoing debate among theorists (e.g., Crits-Christoph, 1997; Wampold et al., 1997), decades of research continue to support what humanistic counselors have known all along: Common therapeutic factors such as empathy, congruence, and the therapeutic relationship correlate more highly with client outcome than specific treatment modalities (Hubble, Duncan, & Miller; 1999; Lambert & Barley, 2001; Sexton, Whiston, Bleuer, & Walz, 1997). Counselor education programs have a variety of techniques available for training future counselors in the external manifestations (e.g., reflecting feelings) of such common factors as empathy, but proven methods for cultivating the "person" of the counselor are still lacking. A need exists for more explicit information on how best to cultivate a way of being in the counselor that will facilitate the type of interpersonal process necessary for change in clients, as advocated by Rogers (1957). A number of theorists (e.g., Andersen, 2005; Germer, 2005; J. R. Martin, 1997; Walsh & Shapiro, 2006) have suggested that mindfulness training for counselors may fill this need. In fact, Dryden and Still (2006) suggested that the approaches of humanistic psychotherapists, such as Carl Rogers, Viktor Frankl, and Fritz Perls, with their emphases on acceptance and nonjudgment, were precursors to the mindfulness approaches seen in counseling today. However, empirical data on the impact of mindfulness on variables of interest to counselors (e.g., empathy) are limited to self-report studies, and the majority of those studies were conducted with the general population or clinical populations, not counselors. This study was designed to fill a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between counselor mindfulness and client perceptions of common factors. Because many theorists have suggested that mindfulness may be a critical variable in the counseling relationship (e.g., Andersen, 2005; Fulton, 2005; Germer, 2005; J. R. Martin, 1997; Shapiro & Carlson, 2009; Walsh & Shapiro, 2006), it is important to gather empirical evidence of such a relationship. The study also examines the impact of counselor meditation practice on levels of counselor mindfulness and client perceptions of common factors. Theoretically, this research is grounded in the principles of humanism: that the relationship is the core component of counseling and that creating an environment that promotes human development requires nonjudgmental acceptance, optimism, and hope on the part of the counselor (Cain, 2001; Raskin, Rogers, & Witty, 2008). The results of this study will provide counselors as well as counselor educators and supervisors with practical information on ways to cultivate the core skills espoused by a humanistic approach. The direct relationships between counselor characteristics and client perceptions of the counseling experience were assessed using matched information from counselor-client dyads. Eighty-three college counselors and 83 of their clients from universities across the United States participated. Counselors described their demographic information, counseling-related credentials, professional experiences, and mindfulness practices on an information questionnaire. In addition, they completed a measure of mindfulness and a measure of their cognitions about the client. Clients described their demographic information and completed questionnaires about their perceptions of counselor competence, empathy, working alliance, and overall satisfaction. …