Interview with Javier Elcarte: Mindfulness as a therapeutic tool

We talked about the nature of Mindfulness with an expert on its use in therapy.

Mindfulness or mindfulness is a resource increasingly used in psychotherapy to work on disorders related to the regulation of emotions and anxiety.

However, despite its usefulness, compared to other psychological intervention tools, it is not easy to explain what it is or how it works.

Unraveling the keys to understanding Mindfulness, with Javier Elcarte

On this occasion we talked with Javier Elcarteneuropsychologist and therapist, founder of the psychology center Vitaliza, located in Pamplona, to explain what he knows about Mindfulness from his specialized perspective.

This expert organizes several "Mindfulness meetings" for therapeutic interventions away from the traditional model of the patient attending the psychologist's office, and has spent years training people in mindfulness.

In short, what is Mindfulness and how does it apply to the therapeutic field?

Our mind, as usual, constantly wanders back and forth without orientation or perspective, jumping from one thought to another, dragged by emotions. Mindfulness, in this sense, is the ability to be aware of the contents of the mind in each moment.

Through the practice of Minfulness or mindfulness we learn to focus our attention in a conscious way, without identifying with those thoughts or emotions that take us away from reality and distort it.

Mindfulness or mindfulness is nothing more than enhancing the brain's natural ability to perceive itself and consequently, to live the present moment to the fullest. And it is here where we place the therapeutic use of mindfulness.

Indeed, this ability of the mind to see itself, the ability of the brain to map itself, becomes an extraordinary therapeutic tool, useful for most schools and psychotherapeutic approaches.

It is about making the patient aware of his internal states, including traumatic events if any, as well as helping him to develop the ability to remain in full awareness, to hold himself in a calm state in the memory of such events. This is especially important in any body-centered therapeutic approach.

What is the relationship between Mindfulness and the traditional practice of meditation?

Westerners should be a little more humble when talking about Mindfulness or mindfulness. Those of us who come from the practice of meditation, prior to the Mindfulness boom, know perfectly well that it draws directly from Eastern meditation, especially Buddhist Zen, and that it is nothing more than a formatting of traditional meditation to the needs and parameters of society and the Western mind.

The great contribution of Kabat Zinn has been to collect an ancient science and transform it into a psychological tool that can be popularized and incorporated into the world of health, both medical and psychological.

We often talk about the importance of focusing attention on the present moment. Why is this beneficial?

In the community of Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Plum Village) in France, the flow of daily life is interrupted by a bell that rings every fifteen minutes and causes all members of the community to stop their activity for a moment, concentrate on their breathing and become aware of their state at that moment.

Despite its relative youth, Western Mindfulness is one of the therapeutic approaches with the greatest profusion of research studies. As a result, we can affirm that mindfulness is the therapeutic tool that produces the greatest changes in the brain at a neurobiological level, especially in everything related to anxiety and stress, which is like saying almost everything, because the correlate of anxiety appears in practically all mental pathologies.

Like everything else, nothing is a panacea, and Mindfulness can also become an avoidance tool or reactivate recent traumatic memories, so the therapeutic use of mindfulness should always be in the hands of properly trained and certified health professionals, keeping away as far as possible from empty esotericism.

What role does the management of emotions play in all this?

Undoubtedly, most therapeutic approaches, regardless of their orientation or psychological school, are still different ways of getting the patient to learn to recognize, accept and manage the emotions that overwhelm and overflow, whether they are the result of external triggers (exogenous), internal (endogenous) or both.

And it is in this context that mindfulness becomes a unique tool, making the patient much more aware of his or her internal states, and therefore able to recognize and accept his or her emotional and sensory world.

But what is even more important, the practice of Mindfulness will allow the patient to "hold" in full awareness when these overflowing emotions or sensations arise, so that he or she can, with the therapist's help, learn to manage states that were previously frightening or traumatic.

What are the advantages of attending a therapeutic Mindfulness meeting at Vitaliza?

In Vitaliza we like to talk about "encounters", because that is what they are, life encounters, from the practice of mindfulness.

For us, these meetings, as well as the weekly or weekend groups, are just another part of the therapeutic triangle of intervention composed of psychotherapy itself and the tools of regulation, neurofeedback and Mindfulness.

There are many dysfunctions that are very difficult to solve completely in the office with the therapist and that need "real" contexts of intervention.

The meetings that we call "Sharing in Mindfulness" are unique opportunities for the participant to make a definitive leap in dealing with traumas, blockages and insecurities, in a real life context, supported by meditation or mindfulness, supported by the respect of the group and the understanding of colleagues, and led by therapists who are experts and competent in meditation and in dealing with trauma.

In general, what goals do people who attend Mindfulness meetings set for themselves, and how do you help them to achieve them?

The participants of the meeting know that they come to a space where, from the conscious presence, they will live scenarios that will activate their inner states, in a context of deep respect and with the security of being picked up and cared for at all times, which will provide them with a unique opportunity, based on three foundations: mindfulness, security and respect, to recognize, accept and manage emotions and states previously painful and overflowing.

The basic modus operandi of the encounter is that, from a conscious presence, we learn to establish contact with the other, to "resonate" with them through what we call "relational meditation".

For this we must be able to maintain ourselves in mindfulness and thus be able to regulate our own states and those of the other. This state of resonance in mindfulness facilitates and encourages compassion and psychological integration.

Finally, could you tell us about the case that you remember the most and that makes you feel better about a person you have helped through Mindfulness?

The truth is that there are many, countless. One of the ones I remember most fondly is that of a girl who came to Vitaliza with severe depressive anxiety with self-injury. Let's say her name was Maria.

Maria could not relax. When she tried to relax she would vomit and panic. Through practice and mindfulness we were able to get her to relax in the presence of the therapist (safe place). Severe trauma was intuited, but there were no concrete clues.

Little by little, from the cultivation of mindfulness and sustained by a very solid therapeutic bond established with me, we observed that sometimes she "did not remember what she had done". We discovered that there were spaces of "complete amnesia", where she did not remember absolutely nothing of what had happened, especially when she interacted with children.

This was a case of severe, tertiary dissociation. Working with the different states, always from mindfulness and a solid therapeutic bond, Maria was finally able to connect with the "erased" part, which produced a strong emotional reaction and the appearance of a lot of forgotten memories. Sharp memories of shocking abuse, loneliness and mistreatment emerged, which Maria was able to hold on to thanks to Mindulness work and my safe and welcoming hand.

At this point, Maria stated that she had "begun to inhabit her body". A phrase I will never forget.

From then on, the amnesias stopped, as well as the self-injuries, Maria's life has regained meaning and she is in a moment of personal construction from art and life. He is a reference for many people and from his drawing (he draws extraordinarily well) he expresses aspects of his inner journey, once terrible and unknown, now intense and grateful.