Therapeutic skills and mindfulness.

Abstract

The research about common factors in psychotherapy emphasizes the importance of personal therapist variables in psychotherapy change, particularly the influence of the therapist's attitude, his ability to create a comfortable atmosphere of respect and acceptance, expressing warmth, emotional tune and a genuine interest on the client, and his ability of self-observation and self-care. Considering this evidence, it is challenging to develop training programs that allow therapists to acquire or develop these skills. From neurobiological and psychological evidence of the effects of mindfulness practice, the present article develops the thesis that this practice and its inclusion in some clinical skills training programs, could provide a new, practical and effective alternative for training key therapeutic skills, such as self-observation and self-care.