Main description:

Mindfulness is flavour of the month. When its leading exponent was invited to Downing Street in 2010 it was clear that it had entered the mainstream. But has Mindfulness now become McMindfulness? A globalised junk version of its former self, denuded of context and not that nutritious? This book argues in favour of a therapeutic approach that puts mindfulness back in its rightful place as one of the eight limbs of the Buddhist path. This path does not place a sticking-plaster on suffering but embraces it as part of the human condition. The book asks questions too: what kind of Buddhism is appropriate for psychotherapists? what are the dangers and possible benefits? The author's answers come from a long and deep personal involvement with Buddhist practice and with Core Process Psychotherapy, the UK's first training in mindfulness based psychotherapy. The personal narrative of this journey, through naivety to dis-illusion and back, forms the main part of the book.