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Mindfulness and progressive muscle relaxation as standardized session-introduction in individual therapy: A
Johannes Mander1, Paul Blanck1, Andreas B Neubauer2
1Center for Psychological Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Objective:
There is scarce research on the effects of mindfulness in individual therapy. As many practitioners integrate mindfulness exercises into individual therapy, empirical evidence is of high clinical relevance.
Method:
We investigated the effects of a session-introducing intervention with mindfulness elements (SIIME) in a randomized, controlled design. The effects of SIIME on therapeutic alliance and symptomatic outcome were compared with progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and treatment-as-usual (TAU) control conditions. The sample comprised 162 patients with anxiety and depression.
Results:
Multilevel modeling revealed a significant symptom reduction and significant increase of alliance over the course of therapy. There were no significant time-condition interactions on outcome and alliance, indicating the comparable efficiency of all three treatment conditions.
Conclusions:
We found no advantage of SIIME versus PMR and TAU. Add-on mindfulness might not improve individual therapy related to alliance and outcome.
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