Imagine having to keep your guard up every day because of bullying and the constant threat of violence . . .
. . . this is what life is like for many of the adolescents incarcerated in high security prisons all over the world. And the high stress that it causes can wreak havoc on their brain’s ability to control emotions, maintain focus, and perform tasks.
But could mindfulness help?
Noelle Leonard, PhD and her team of researchers looked at how power source intervention might affect adolescent prisoners’ ability to focus on a cognitive task. Power source intervention pairs the attentional and response effects of mindfulness training (MT) with the social and cognitive benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
The researchers randomized prisoners, based on their dormitory groups, into either a CBT/MT group or a control group. The experimental group received 750 minutes (over 3 or 5 weeks, depending on how safe the dorm was) of instruction in meditation and cognitive behavioral exercises. They were also told to continue practice outside of the training sessions.
The control group was given an “evidence-based cognitive-perception intervention” which required the inmates to focus on their attitude about substance use and violence.
Researchers used an attention network test to evaluate each participant’s response time, accuracy, and consistency. For the test, participants were instructed to focus on a point on a computer screen and press the right or left arrow key as soon as another point appeared on the screen. Baselines were established before the study and compared to the inmates’ responses after the 3-5 weeks of training.
Compared to their baselines, the CBT/MT group performed the task more accurately and more consistently. The same result was not found in the control group. These results may indicate that the experimental group had better cognitive control post-training.
We need to keep in mind, however, that the participants were randomized based on groups, instead of individuals, which could have skewed the randomization. Also, the study did not test the efficacy of CBT versus MT, therefore we have no way of telling which intervention might have had the most positive effect.
Nonetheless, these results are promising for the use of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness interventions with adolescents who experience high levels of stress.
If you’d like to find out more about the study, it can be found in Frontiers of Psychology (November 2013).
How have you used mindfulness to help your clients regain focus and improve their cognitive ability? Please let us know in the comment section.
Howdy just happened upon your website from Google after I typed in, “The Brain Under Stress – Using Mindfulness to Regain Focus” or perhaps something similar (can’t quite remember exactly). In any case, I’m pleased I found it simply because your subject material is exactly what I’m looking for (writing a college paper) and I hope you don’t mind if I collect some information from here and I will of course credit you as the reference. Thank you so much. Kindest regards
I have worked in youth detention in Oregon, these young people are damaged, cognitively, emotionally and physically, trying to rehabilitate them in the traditional model doesn’t work. i.e. action vrs consequences, we could never give and shouldn’t give them more consequences then they have already endured. Rehabilitaion is a return to an original state of wholeness, most of these young people were rarely if ever “Whole”, we need to habilitate them and teach them original skills. If that means we need to try different cognitive interventions to facilitate their healing then we should try any and all that have promise, if nothing changes , nothing changes, insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results, stop the insanity. Let s help the children, before their brains are at a set point that can’t be changed, and they carry this pain into adulthood, “hurt people, hurt people”. Phil
Phil,
I appreciate your distinction between rehad and hab! You are so right in calling out the difference. There is something wrong right from the start when kids are stuck with a faulty work set right from the beginning.
One of the discussions I’ve been having with friends is about the correlation between over-population, so much stress you don’t want to raise kids, broken or non-existent home-life, techno communications over personal interaction and UNHAPPINESS.
How do we create the habilitation…in schools?
Hakiomi Therapy is mindfulness based body/mind centered therapy that has been refining mindfulness methods for more than 30 years. You must check it out. I heard Ron Kurtz, the founder of the Work, once called Hakomi
“Assisted Self Study.” It sounded rather dry to me. I asked, “Why not call it Assisted Self Healing?” He said that healing was intrinsic in the person when awareness was activated and had nothing to do with us as practitioners. But we can bring attention to and support mindfulness.
When a more clear study is done that separates CBT and MT, perhaps we will see what healing effects mindfulness generates, or doesn’t.
Jude, what’s the best source for more info on Hakomi Therapy? When I googled it, I learned that the founder has died. Apparently he took the therapy in a different direction at one point. Is anyone
continuing his newer work? Many thanks, another Jude
Hi Jude, Google , Director of Hakomi Educational Resources. He was instrumental in founding Hakomi Therapy with Ron Kurtz (I was blest to study with them as well as others) and currently maintains a practice, a site, trainings, & info. You can see on the site the depth & breadth of informed caring he embodies. I encourage you to check it out. I believe Hakomi is a gift of Nature through humans + their work + allowing (as Ron mentioned, in the other Jude’s post. Although Hakomi therapists will adjustingly guide you to that place). Greg also wrote “Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao Te Ching”, which I believe gives a valuable taste of what healing can be. Best of luck!
Jude, whoops, “gregjohanson.net” for Greg Johanson’s site didn’t come through. Hope it did this time!
Thank you, thank you, Sherry! I will follow up on this lead and very much .appreciate your kind response.
Hi Ruth,
I signed up for Gold Membership for the recently concluded series on Mindfulness. Is the membership for the series only? Is there a time limit?
Thanks!
Kaye Coker, LCSW
Teaching NBSR since 1998
Hi Kaye,
The Gold Membership is for the Mindfulness series only, yes. There is a Gold Membership for each of our other series, and you can sign up for those if you would like the same perks.
Once you access your PDFs and downloads for the Mindfulness series, those are yours to keep – there is no time limit.
Thanks for your question,
Katelin – NICABM Staff
I am wondering how Power Source Intervention differs from DBT…. Anyone?
There is something odd about the use of young people who are incarcerated and in unsafe enough circumstances. This harkens back to the testing that was done on prisoners and those in mental institutions of the Milgram era. It also speaks to our lack of compassion for finding ways to rehabilitate young people who have allegedly committed crimes with compassion. The photo reminds me of the facility on Guantanamo Bay.
The results may be more interesting if we tested them on young people who actually could give their permission and volunteer. I am not reading any ethical understanding of this study.I sincerely hop I am wrong. I am amazed that you organization would use this particular study to boost interest in mindfulness, a way of being in the world that most often is associated with loving kindness.
FINALLY! So many of us know the negative impact methods used to control kids in the juvenile detention system is wounding but it has remained hidden. Though people like Bruce Perry have been working for years to educate people in the Juvenile Justice system. Thanks so much for getting out this much needed information. You can reach others in ways that many of us cannot.