Mindfulness

and Self-
Soothing
Strategies
Sarah Caligiuri, LPC NCC
Objectives
 Describe the benefits of a living a mindful
life for both themselves and their clients
 Identify which techniques could be
beneficial based on diagnoses
 Have a repertoire and understanding of
mindfulness exercises to use with a range
of settings
Mindfulness Activity #1
 Setting an intention for this session
Definition of Mindfulness
 “awareness without judgment of what is,
via direct and immediate experience”-
Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP

 “payingattention in a particular way: on

purpose, in the present moment, and
non-judgmentally” –John Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness…
 meditation has had a long history in
eastern spiritual traditions
 These traditions believe that regular
practice decreases suffering and
increases insight, awareness, wisdom,
compassion, and composure
 Mindfulness can be seen as the concepts
of these eastern religions without the
spiritual belief set.
Why Mindfulness?
 Why choose mindfulness when we live in a society
that values multi-tasking and being busy?
~multi-tasking does not lead to fully
attentive work or the best work
~by not being in-tune fully we allow for us
to avoid emotions and thoughts
~medical, emotional, and psychological
improvements
~allows for making better “balanced”
decisions
Why Mindfulness?
 We all have to deal with pain at some point
(and more likely multiple points) in life; life is
not pain free
~avoiding pain may lead to more
problems
~avoiding pain may lead to acting
impulsively by engaging in unhealthy
behaviors(i.e. substance use, binge
eating, purging, SIB, reckless sex, binge
watching Netflix, skipping out on
responsibilities, and reckless driving)
Mindfulness
 Mindfulness is turning TOWARD/TO HAVE
rather than AWAY/AVOID from our
experience
~clients often do things to avoid how
they are feeling
~because we live in a busy society it is
easy to not realize the emotions we are
experiencing(or put a name to them), or
thinking
~mindfulness allows us to live in the here
and now
Self-Soothing
 Something
we often think about with
babies…however it is a life long skill

 Thecapacity to self-soothe can be

defined as the ability to manage and/or
regulate affect
Self Soothing
 We develop a capacity to self-soothe by
the internalization of early life comforting
and soothing experiences
 Horton defines the process of transitional
relatedness “as the person’s unique
experience of an object whether animate
or inanimate, tangible or intangible in a
reliable soothing manner based on the
object’s association or symbolic
connection” to a main/primary presence
Self-Soothing
 For individuals who struggle with self-
soothing they are particularly vulnerable
when alone (or perceive they are alone)
with intense emotion
 Many different diagnoses share a
common thread of individuals showing
difficulty identifying, expressing verbally,
and regulating emotions
Mindfulness and Self-Soothing
 Mindfulness and self-soothing are two
sides of the same coin
 If we are mindful we are better able to
recognize the emotion, label it, and
better activate skills
Self-Soothing in DBT
 In DBT self-soothing is part of Distress
Tolerance Skills specifically under crisis
survival skills
 Mindfulness skills are the foundation to all
skills and especially important to utilizing
self-soothing
 Self-soothing=self-care
 Self-soothing uses 5 senses and movement
(think of it as the kinesthetic sense)
Distress Tolerance – Self-
Soothing
 Vision
 Hearing
 Smell
 Taste
 Touch
 Movement
Eliciting Self-soothing Ideas
 Ask about what was comforting when they
were younger
 For music make sure it will help to change the
mood
 Have them think of ones for different settings
(i.e. at school may not be able to have music
available)
 Make portable self-soothing kits
 Teach them to use what is in the environment
around them to soothe
Mindfulness Activity #2
 Self-soothing…
Mindfulness for the Practitioner
 Engaging in mindfulness as a practitioner
has a number of benefits including…
~living what you teach/preach
~the same benefits we see in our
clients
~being fully present in our sessions
~helps to make mindful decisions to
present to clients and shows being
more genuine
Mindfulness for the Practitioner
 Learning the same techniques as the clients
and applying them
 We often as practitioner can then better
regulate ourselves in sessions
 Most mindfulness trainings involve the clinician
doing the skills and practicing them as a way
to learn to teach them
 In DBT encouragement to be mindful in
session and between sessions about the client
and becomes reinforced when being part of
DBT Consultation Team
Mindfulness Steps
 Set the scene (especially when first
explaining)…with 60,000 thoughts a day and
the emotions they can produce, it can be
easy to understand how our minds become
unfocused and cluttered
 Tie what the client is already connected to
the practice (sell it!!!)
 Relate it to how it can help their
concerns/problems
 Point out times or how the client is already
being mindful
Mindfulness Steps
 Formal vs. informal practice
 Become aware of what is arising in us as it
is happening
 Encourage during practices to enter with
a “beginner’s mind”
Mindfulness Steps
 Normalize…
~the mind will wander…it’s okay!
Each time you catch it you are being
mindful again
~gently bring it back to what the
practice is asking you to be aware of
~accept that there may be a reason your
mind is wandering and wisely decide if
your attention needs to be there for a
moment
Mindfulness Steps
 Try to avoid judgments (emotions are just
that emotions…)
 Things will come up as you
practice…become comfortable with
discomfort
 This will feel like effort at first and each
time will feel different...we cannot
replicate the experience perfectly
Mindfulness Activity #3
 Breathing exercise
How does this translate for
teenagers
 Buy-in is important…selling this is most
important by using previous mentioned ways
 Express can help in many areas…for high
achievers or teens wanting to do better there
are studies showing it helps with
concentration, and meditating before tests
has shown better scores
 It is training for their brains…great videos out
there to show how it helps (TED talk by Dan
Siegel, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of
the Teenage Brain)
How does this translate to
teenagers…
 Encourage informal practice and typical
settings and experiences
 Make it fun…try activities!
Mindfulness Activity #4
 Teen endorsed activities
Diagnostic differences for
mindfulness
 There has been extensive research done
on the benefits for depression, anxiety
disorders, ADHD, Borderline Personality
Disorder, chronic pain disorders, binge
easing disorder, bulimia, psoriasis, type 2
Diabetes, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid
arthritis, sleep issues, smoking cessation,
substance abuse, and chronic low back
pain. It has been shown to help with
anger and neural plasticity
Diagnostic Differences for
Mindfulness
 With all the benefits there are things to keep
in mind for different diagnoses and individual
differences
 For clients with traumas, who have a fear of
loss of control, and psychosis, closing there
eyes maybe particularly uncomfortable and
make them feel vulnerable to unwanted
memories
 For highly anxious clients it can be better to
use more of a “grounding” techniques and
less abstract
Mindfulness Activity #5
References
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Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills. Assessment, 11(3), 191-206.

Burdick, D. (2013). Mindfulness Skills Workbook for Clinicians and Clients.

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Esplen, M.J. & Garfinkel, P.E. (1998). Guided Imagery Treatment to Promote Self-
Soothing in Bulimia Nervosa: A Theoretical Rationale. The Journal of
Psychotherapy Practice and Research, 7(2), 102-118.

Horton, PC. (1981). Solace: The Missing Dimension in Psychiatry. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are. New York: Hyperion.

Koerner, K, (2011). Doing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy: A practical Guide. New York: Guilford Press

Linehan, M.M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality

disorder. New York: Guilford Press.

Rathus, J.H. & Miller, A. L. (2015). DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents. New York:
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