Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 32:144, 2011
Copyright © Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.
ISSN: 0161-2840 print / 1096-4673 online
DOI: 10.3109/01612840.2010.541589
BOOK REVIEW
Edited by
Lora Humphrey Beebe, PhD, PMHNP-BC
The University of Tennessee, College of Nursing, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician’s Guide to Mindsight and
Neural Integration
Daniel J. Siegel, MD
W. W. Norton, New York, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-393-70645-1
Reviewed by Mary Gunther, PhD, RN, CNE, The University of
Tennessee, College of Nursing, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA
School of Medicine with training in pediatrics and child, adoles-
cent, and adult psychiatry, Dr. Siegel is a recognized expert in the
interplay between human relationships and biologic processes.
Educated at Harvard Medical School, he completed a National
Institute of Mental Health Fellowship at UCLA studying fam-
ily interactions with an emphasis on how attachment influences
behavior. He is the Executive Director of the Mindsight Insti-
tute, a Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center
at UCLA, and a practicing psychotherapist. His previous pub-
lications address such topics as interpersonal neurobiology and
the cultivation of well-being. This latest publication explores
the clinician’s personal development.
A product of two decades of studying the connections
between the physical and psychological facets of human
interaction, Siegel’s theory characterizes mindfulness as
an intentional awareness of moment-to-moment experience
involving caring acceptance, conscious recognition of pos-
sibilities, and compassion, culminating in psychological and
interpersonal change. The central organizing theme of this book
is the premise that integration (synthesis of the differentiated el-
ements of mind and brain necessary for relational experiences)
144
is “at the heart of well-being” (p. 30). Expanding on earlier
work that identified the domains of integration, The Mindful
Therapist is presented as a primer “about the objective science
and subjective art of mindful being” (p. xix) within the domain
of consciousness. The book is organized using the acronym
PART. A discussion of Presence, Attunement, and Resonance
leads into an interpretive analysis of Trust, Truth, Tripod (open-
ness, objectivity, observation), Triception (interdependence),
Tracking (information flow), Traits, Trauma (resolution), Tran-
sition, Training, Transformation, Tranquility, and Transpiration
(awareness). Each chapter includes a definition of the featured
concept, an explanation of relevant neural circuitry, discussion
of integration, and practical exercises for development of
mindsight (perceptual) skills. An appendix provides explana-
tion of basic terminology and foundational proposals required
to appreciate the phenomena of mindsight and mindfulness.
This well-researched book concludes with a list of suggested
readings.
Writing in an informal conversational tone, Siegel provides
understandable descriptions of the physiological and mental
processes that fuse together to make us who we are. Through
discussion of awareness, balance, empathy, and resilience Siegel
examines what it means to be a therapist rather than describing
what therapists do. As Siegel admits, mindfulness is not “a com-
mon or necessarily scientifically or philosophically sanctioned
move to define the mind” (p. 25). Nevertheless, the theory is
both rooted in neuroscience and harmonious with the tenets of
evidence-based holistic practice. Whether or not the suggested
exercises reconfigure the clinician’s neural circuitry, they will
heighten awareness of the subjective self while increasing the
capacity to be present in the moment with clients.
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