JMA as Beneficial for Clinicians
The ways in which JMA practice mirrors mindfulness based social work has shown its benefits with the personal experiences mentioned from those interviewed and through the narrative of Eddie’s treatment. Such practices not only provide benefits on a personal level, but can also have benefits on the professional therapeutic ability of clinicians who chose to practice JMA.
Mindfulness training has been shown in social work studies to help social work students regulate their emotions and fears that may arise in therapy sessions from the clinician’s point of view (Birnbaum 2008). JMA training can yield similar results and help the clinician train in affect control, acceptance of the situation, and maintaining a non-judgmental attitude in the face of therapeutic interventions with more challenging clients. This training can help clinicians to not only examine their own thinking but also become more accurate in the ability to see their client’s mental processes (Turner 2008).
Personally, I believe that my training in JMA has allowed me to become a better therapist. Through my training in martial arts I have been taught to recognize subtle changes in a person’s affect and body language and make snap decisions in simulated combat scenarios. Being able to do these under pressure in training drills has led me to being able to recognize changes in the client’s attitude and recognize when I need to change my approach when what I am doing does not seem to be meeting the client’s needs. Through this training, I have become more comfortable with myself, which allows me to be more focused totally on the client and not get caught up in my own thoughts while providing therapy.
Training in the mindfulness based skills of JMA has provided me with the ability to be actively present with the client during therapy sessions. I find that it is easier to stay in the here and now, despite how uncomfortable some moments can be within the therapeutic process just as other mindfulness based practices are expected to do (Birnbaum and Birnbaum 2008).
Limitations
JMA is a valid way to build up mindfulness based skills within an individual and can be helpful for many people, but it does have some flaws as a method of therapeutic intervention. There are several limitations that might make JMA training applicable as a method of therapeutic intervention to only a select few.
JMA training requires some considerable amount of time before benefits become apparent. To properly get a hold of the mindfulness concepts the practitioner must be devoted to the study, which requires that the practitioner actually likes the training and is willing to put effort into it. While Eddie managed to use JMA training as a means to learn mindfulness based skills, he did have almost an entire year to learn the basics for this purpose. Not all clients will have this kind of time to devote to JMA practice or perhaps not be interested in it and therefore would not get the same kind of benefit from participating.
A second limitation of offering JMA as a form of mindfulness based therapy is that the client will need someone to teach it to him or her. If the therapist has experience with JMA, the he or she could guide the client through the basics of practice if there is an appropriate place to practice as the normal therapist’s office is obviously not the ideal place for martial arts training. This would mean that if the therapist could not provide the training the client would need to find a qualified teacher elsewhere. This could cause financial difficulties or time constraints. This could be feasible if the client did not have the need to see a therapist very frequently and could more easily work out some problems with schedule or money conflicts, but would be far more cumbersome to those did have these issues.
Because of the sometimes demanding nature of JMA training, individuals with serious mental health challenges may not always benefit the way Eddie did. Eddie managed to work through many challenging aspects of training because he was interested in it from the beginning, but even if others are interested in the training at first, there is no guarantee they will stick to it until they have experienced the benefits and internalized the mindfulness concepts. In addition, those who may be actively psychotic would be putting themselves and others at a higher risk of harm than those without psychotic features.
Conclusion
One could argue that the mindfulness based concepts in JMA training discussed here do not necessarily add anything to client therapy that does not already exist. To address that attitude, the reader should be aware that the concepts of mindfulness describe above are expanded upon further as one’s training in JMA progresses. Though for the sake of shorter term therapy, it could be said that the meditation based mindfulness practice would teach many of the same concepts in a more traditional clinical setting and thus be more appropriate.
JMA training can serve as a useful way to instill mindfulness skills that lead to a better awareness of the self and of others, but it is absolutely not for everyone. JMA takes a considerable amount of dedication, and those who participate in it must be self-motivated. The best usage for JMA as a form of therapy is to combine it with more traditional clinical approaches. Encouraging certain clients to participate in JMA can be a beneficial assistance to them as a secondary form of therapy.
Liora and Aiton Birnbaum suggest that if traditional social work methodology is insufficient, then those in the field must find new methods to further reach out and help the client self-actualize (2008). It is important in the social work setting to constantly think outside of the box, and JMA training is one source of a new methodology to help clients learn about mindfulness based skills to help enrich their life experiences.
Beckerman, Nancy and Lynn Corbett. “Mindfulness and Cognitive Therapy in Depression
Relapse Prevention: a case study”. Clinical Social Work Journel. Vol 38 p.217-225.
Springer Science and Business Media. New York, NY. 2009. DOI 10.1007/s10615-
009-0219-z.
Birnbaum, Liora. “The Use of Mindfulness Training to create an ‘Accompanying Place’
for Social Work Students.” Social Work Education. Vol. 27:8 p.837-852. The
Board of Social Work Education. 2008. DOI 10.1080/02615470701538330.
Birnbaum, Liora and Aiton Birnbaum. “Mindful Social Work: from theory to practice”.
Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: social thought. Vol. 12:1-2
The Haworth Press. 2008. DOI 10.1080/15426430802113913.
Brenner, Mark. “Zen Practice: a training method to enhance the skills of clinical social
workers.” Social Work in Health Care. Vol. 48, p.462-470. Taylor and Francis
Group. 2009. DOI 10.1080/00981380802589860.
Coholic, Diana. “Mindfulness Meditation Practice in Spiritually Influenced Group Work.”
Arete. Vol. 30:1 p.90-100. University of South Carolina. 2006.
Marra, Thomas. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy in Private Practice: a practical and
comprehensive guide. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, CA. 2005.
Theebom, Marc, Paul De Knopp, and Paul Wylleman. “Martial Arts and Socially
Vulnerable Youth: an analysis of Flemish initiatives.” Sport, Education and
Society. Vol. 13:3 p.301-318. Taylor and Francis Group. 2008.
DOI 10.1080/13573320802200677.
Turner, Kielty. “Mindfulness: the present moment in clinical social work.” Clinical
Social Work Journal. Vol 37 p.95-103. Springer Science and Business Media. New York, NY. 2009. DOI 10.1007/s10615-008-0182-0
The ways in which JMA practice mirrors mindfulness based social work has shown its benefits with the personal experiences mentioned from those interviewed and through the narrative of Eddie’s treatment. Such practices not only provide benefits on a personal level, but can also have benefits on the professional therapeutic ability of clinicians who chose to practice JMA.
Mindfulness training has been shown in social work studies to help social work students regulate their emotions and fears that may arise in therapy sessions from the clinician’s point of view (Birnbaum 2008). JMA training can yield similar results and help the clinician train in affect control, acceptance of the situation, and maintaining a non-judgmental attitude in the face of therapeutic interventions with more challenging clients. This training can help clinicians to not only examine their own thinking but also become more accurate in the ability to see their client’s mental processes (Turner 2008).
Personally, I believe that my training in JMA has allowed me to become a better therapist. Through my training in martial arts I have been taught to recognize subtle changes in a person’s affect and body language and make snap decisions in simulated combat scenarios. Being able to do these under pressure in training drills has led me to being able to recognize changes in the client’s attitude and recognize when I need to change my approach when what I am doing does not seem to be meeting the client’s needs. Through this training, I have become more comfortable with myself, which allows me to be more focused totally on the client and not get caught up in my own thoughts while providing therapy.
Training in the mindfulness based skills of JMA has provided me with the ability to be actively present with the client during therapy sessions. I find that it is easier to stay in the here and now, despite how uncomfortable some moments can be within the therapeutic process just as other mindfulness based practices are expected to do (Birnbaum and Birnbaum 2008).
Limitations
JMA is a valid way to build up mindfulness based skills within an individual and can be helpful for many people, but it does have some flaws as a method of therapeutic intervention. There are several limitations that might make JMA training applicable as a method of therapeutic intervention to only a select few.
JMA training requires some considerable amount of time before benefits become apparent. To properly get a hold of the mindfulness concepts the practitioner must be devoted to the study, which requires that the practitioner actually likes the training and is willing to put effort into it. While Eddie managed to use JMA training as a means to learn mindfulness based skills, he did have almost an entire year to learn the basics for this purpose. Not all clients will have this kind of time to devote to JMA practice or perhaps not be interested in it and therefore would not get the same kind of benefit from participating.
A second limitation of offering JMA as a form of mindfulness based therapy is that the client will need someone to teach it to him or her. If the therapist has experience with JMA, the he or she could guide the client through the basics of practice if there is an appropriate place to practice as the normal therapist’s office is obviously not the ideal place for martial arts training. This would mean that if the therapist could not provide the training the client would need to find a qualified teacher elsewhere. This could cause financial difficulties or time constraints. This could be feasible if the client did not have the need to see a therapist very frequently and could more easily work out some problems with schedule or money conflicts, but would be far more cumbersome to those did have these issues.
Because of the sometimes demanding nature of JMA training, individuals with serious mental health challenges may not always benefit the way Eddie did. Eddie managed to work through many challenging aspects of training because he was interested in it from the beginning, but even if others are interested in the training at first, there is no guarantee they will stick to it until they have experienced the benefits and internalized the mindfulness concepts. In addition, those who may be actively psychotic would be putting themselves and others at a higher risk of harm than those without psychotic features.
Conclusion
One could argue that the mindfulness based concepts in JMA training discussed here do not necessarily add anything to client therapy that does not already exist. To address that attitude, the reader should be aware that the concepts of mindfulness describe above are expanded upon further as one’s training in JMA progresses. Though for the sake of shorter term therapy, it could be said that the meditation based mindfulness practice would teach many of the same concepts in a more traditional clinical setting and thus be more appropriate.
JMA training can serve as a useful way to instill mindfulness skills that lead to a better awareness of the self and of others, but it is absolutely not for everyone. JMA takes a considerable amount of dedication, and those who participate in it must be self-motivated. The best usage for JMA as a form of therapy is to combine it with more traditional clinical approaches. Encouraging certain clients to participate in JMA can be a beneficial assistance to them as a secondary form of therapy.
Liora and Aiton Birnbaum suggest that if traditional social work methodology is insufficient, then those in the field must find new methods to further reach out and help the client self-actualize (2008). It is important in the social work setting to constantly think outside of the box, and JMA training is one source of a new methodology to help clients learn about mindfulness based skills to help enrich their life experiences.
References:
Relapse Prevention: a case study”. Clinical Social Work Journel. Vol 38 p.217-225.
Springer Science and Business Media. New York, NY. 2009. DOI 10.1007/s10615-
009-0219-z.
Birnbaum, Liora. “The Use of Mindfulness Training to create an ‘Accompanying Place’
for Social Work Students.” Social Work Education. Vol. 27:8 p.837-852. The
Board of Social Work Education. 2008. DOI 10.1080/02615470701538330.
Birnbaum, Liora and Aiton Birnbaum. “Mindful Social Work: from theory to practice”.
Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: social thought. Vol. 12:1-2
The Haworth Press. 2008. DOI 10.1080/15426430802113913.
Brenner, Mark. “Zen Practice: a training method to enhance the skills of clinical social
workers.” Social Work in Health Care. Vol. 48, p.462-470. Taylor and Francis
Group. 2009. DOI 10.1080/00981380802589860.
Coholic, Diana. “Mindfulness Meditation Practice in Spiritually Influenced Group Work.”
Arete. Vol. 30:1 p.90-100. University of South Carolina. 2006.
Marra, Thomas. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy in Private Practice: a practical and
comprehensive guide. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, CA. 2005.
Theebom, Marc, Paul De Knopp, and Paul Wylleman. “Martial Arts and Socially
Vulnerable Youth: an analysis of Flemish initiatives.” Sport, Education and
Society. Vol. 13:3 p.301-318. Taylor and Francis Group. 2008.
DOI 10.1080/13573320802200677.
Turner, Kielty. “Mindfulness: the present moment in clinical social work.” Clinical
Social Work Journal. Vol 37 p.95-103. Springer Science and Business Media. New York, NY. 2009. DOI 10.1007/s10615-008-0182-0
