Sitting Together ─ Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy

This practical guide helps therapists from virtually any specialty or theoretical orientation choose and adapt mindfulness practices most likely to be effective with particular patients, while avoiding those that are contraindicated. The authors provide a wide range of meditations that build the core skills of focused attention, mindfulness, and compassionate acceptance. Vivid clinical examples show how to weave the practices into therapy, tailor them to each patient's needs, and overcome obstacles. Therapists also learn how developing their own mindfulness practice can enhance therapeutic relationships and personal well-being. The Appendix offers recommendations for working with specific clinical problems. Free audio downloads (narrated by the authors) and accompanying patient handouts for selected meditations from the book are available to purchasers at the companion website.

Susan M. Pollak, MTS, EdD, is Clinical Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, where she has taught and supervised for nearly 20 years. She is President of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (IMP) and a psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A longtime student of meditation and yoga, Dr. Pollak teaches about mindfulness and compassion in psychotherapy, and has been integrating the practices of meditation into psychotherapy since 1985.

Thomas Pedulla, LICSW, is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist in private practice in Arlington, Massachusetts, where he works with individuals and leads mindfulness-based cognitive therapy groups. A faculty and board member at the IMP since 2007, Mr. Pedulla has also served on the board of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and has been a practitioner of meditation in the Vipassana tradition for over 25 years.

Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, where he has taught for over 30 years. He is a longtime student of mindfulness meditation and is a faculty and board member at the IMP. Dr. Siegel teaches internationally about mindfulness and psychotherapy and mind-body treatment, while maintaining a private practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts. His books include The Mindfulness Solution, Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, and Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, Second Edition.