Psychology Essay: The Integration of Meditation in Counseling Programs

This essay delves into the significance of meditation within contemporary counseling programs, highlighting its profound influence on individuals, families, and communities. The paper explores meditation's role in promoting relaxation, spiritual awareness, and intellectual fulfillment. It examines the techniques utilized, such as focused breathing and mindfulness, and discusses the benefits of meditation, including stress and anxiety reduction, as well as its application in addressing mental disorders. The essay also presents different meditation techniques employed by health professionals, including muscle relaxation, guided imagery, and focused breathing. Furthermore, it acknowledges potential negative effects, such as exacerbating anxiety or depression in some cases. In conclusion, the essay underscores meditation's essential role in counseling, supported by its increasing popularity and proven benefits for individuals undergoing counseling.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
Counseling programs in the current decade are essential since it makes profound effect
over the lives of the communities, families and individual. These programs help individuals to
improve their performances related to profound living condition and pursue correct way to live.
Within the process and the program of counselling, meditation is an essential factor which is
used by the counsellors for the intentional self-regulations regarding the attention.
Meditation in the program and the process of counselling can be explained or illustrated
as the period of the relaxed contemplation that is usually utilized for the achievement of the goals
and the benefits like relaxations, spiritual awareness and the fulfillment at the intellectual level.
In the context of counselling process within the individual’s life, meditation has been practiced
by many of the cultural and medical counsellors focusing over the attainment of the mindfulness
and calmness (Engen & Singer, 2016). The procedure involves the factors such as the focus over
singular object and deep breathing or the complete empty of the mind.
The benefits of meditation within the counseling process
Process of meditation has been considered as the alternative of medicine and drugs for
several years and there has been several of the studies that demonstrated meditation as positive
contribution towards the health of humans (Lynch et al., 2018). Meditation causes both
psychological and physical changes among the individual helping many of the people to deal
with their regular living. This group of people includes the children within the school and the
patients suffering from mental illness. In some of the counselling process, it has been found that
the process of meditation helps in the reduction of the allergies, asthma, high rate of pressure
within blood and the pain (Pepping et al. 2016). It furthermore helps in the control of the mental

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disorders and the behavioral traits among individual undergoing counseling process. According
to many of the researches, the process of meditation points out the state of mind affecting the
state of body together with the peaceful mind that results the body of the individual to heal itself.
Many of the psychotherapists and doctors tends to incorporate their meditation and some of the
other techniques related to mindfulness within the counseling process (Millon & Halewood,
2015). The therapists recommending the process of meditation teaches people some of the simple
and deep breathing techniques and encourage some of the specified practices of meditation for
the improvement of their living.
To summarize, the process of the counselling including meditation has been particularly
effective for easing the symptoms of the anxiety and stress for the reduction of the frequency of
intrusive thoughts and similar flashbacks with the initiative of meditation.
Meditation based counseling courses
In the context of the process of counseling and psychotherapy, meditation has been used
for addressing a several range of concerns. This includes the conjunction with the other
modification of the behavioral techniques and also as a standalone tool for the therapists.
According to Bibeau, Dionne and Leblanc (2016) meditation in the counselling program has
been used by various of the counsellors and the healers in the field of psychotherapy for the
prevention of the early intervention in the disorders, anxiety, improval of mood, stress, alcohol
and drug abuse and to fight the symptoms of depression.
The meditation based counseling courses includes five of the major meditation
techniques that is being used by the health professionals both for the students and the individuals
suffering from mental disorders. The five meditation techniques includes the progressive

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relaxation of muscles, guided imagery, mindfulness meditation, hypnosis and focused rate of
breathing. As per the analysis by Palmer (2017) all categories and the types of the meditation
process shares similar objectives that is the prompting of relaxation responses. Meditation in the
counselling program is a deep serene state further induced by the release of the hormones that
calmness and soothes the nerves of the brain of the individual. Counseling program including the
meditation factor helps the clients to manage the challenges.
Negative effects of meditation
Besides all the positive results and implications of the counselling programs with the
inclusion of the meditation factors, there has been several of instances where meditation made
depression and anxiety among individual go worse. According to scientific researches,
meditation tends to elicit the resurgence of the repressed level of trauma that furthermore leads to
depression and anxiety but for some of other individual meditation might cause changes
regarding concentrations regarding neurotransmission that tends to provoke the level of anxiety
(Ivtzan & Lomas, 2016). Factors such as the amplification of awareness, changes or the
alteration of the activities of brain, readjustments of the wave patterns of wave, depersonalization
and the introspection nature spikes up the transitory phase for an individual furthermore making
them worse for a temporary period due to meditation process.
Conclusion
It can thus be concluded from the above essay that meditation is one of the essential
ingredient in the counselling program in the current decade. The popularity behind the use of
meditation in the healing and the counseling process within the field of psychiatry has been
increasing and more people are discovering and initiating to avail its benefits. The meditation is

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one of the habitual procedure that focuses and redirect the thoughts of individual. The
practitioners of health are using meditation for increasing awareness for the reduction of the
stress and develop concentration. Meditation in the program and the process of counselling can is
the period of the relaxed contemplation that is usually utilized for the achievement of the goals
and the benefits like relaxations, spiritual awareness and the fulfillment at the intellectual level.
The above explanation is the writing for the counselling process and the program where
meditation is an essential factor for resolving the health related concerns of the individuals
undergoing counselling.

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Reference
Bibeau, M., Dionne, F., & Leblanc, J. (2016). Can compassion meditation contribute to the
development of psychotherapists’ empathy? A review. Mindfulness, 7(1), 255-263.
Engen, H. G., & Singer, T. (2016). Affect and motivation are critical in constructive
meditation. Trends in cognitive sciences, 20(3), 159-160.
Ivtzan, I., & Lomas, T. (Eds.). (2016). Mindfulness in positive psychology: The science of
meditation and wellbeing. Routledge.
Lynch, J., Prihodova, L., Dunne, P. J., O’Leary, C., Breen, R., Carroll, Á., ... & White, B. (2018).
Mantra meditation programme for emergency department staff: a qualitative study. BMJ
open, 8(9), e020685.
Millon, G., & Halewood, A. (2015). Mindfulness meditation and countertransference in the
therapeutic relationship: A small‐scale exploration of therapists' experiences using
grounded theory methods. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 15(3), 188-196.
Palmer, S. (2017). Multimodal Relaxation Method applied to counselling, psychotherapy and
coaching. European Journal of Counselling Theory, Research and Practice, 1(5), 1-5.
Pepping, C. A., Walters, B., Davis, P. J., & O’Donovan, A. (2016). Why do people practice
mindfulness? An investigation into reasons for practicing mindfulness
meditation. Mindfulness, 7(2), 542-547.