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Independent Study Annotated Bibliography
Dealing With Trauma Through Mindfulness
Sundy Preston
University of Washington
8/26/13

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Independent Research
1. Goals/Planned Outcome:
a. Gain a better understanding of mindfulness, and how it can be
implemented to help alleviate stress and anxiety caused by trauma.
b. Develop a personal testimony of mindfulness practice and evaluate its
effect in my life.
c. Gain an understanding of how mindfulness can be implemented on a daily
basis.
d. Gather evidence that supports the using of mindfulness practice.

2. Reason for independent research.
a. The summer quarter does not offer a course on mindfulness, and I feel that
mindfulness is essential in the process of helping people become all that
they are capable of being, regardless of negative influences.
b. Summer quarter would be an ideal time to have a break from my hour and
twenty minute commute from North Bend.
3. This independent research will contribute to the achievement of the core competency of
engaging in research-informed practice and practice-informed research by:
a. Engaging in an in-depth observation of evidence based research done to
measure mindfulness effects through reading up to date scholarly articles
and books that have been written.
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4. Supervision of faculty can be through email and periodic in person visits or through
Skype.
a. Faculty preference determines type of contact.
5. Learning Materials:
a. There are articles cited below of possible text as well as books, videos,
and workshops.
6. Evaluation
a. Faculty preference.
b. Paper, video, demonstration, presentation, practitioner interviews.
7. Work for this independent course will be complete by the end of quarter.
8. Core Competencies addressed by this independent study:
a. Engage in research-informed practicewith a summer-long personal
practice and study.
b. Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments
through reading and applying mindfulness practice.
c. Apply knowledge of human behavior and social environment through
observation of video demonstrations and practitioner visits.

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Articles in Periodicals
Apsche, J. A. (2010). A Literature Review and Analysis of Mode Deactivation Therapy.
International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 6(4), 296-340.
Mode deactivation therapy (MDT) has shown to be more effective than other approaches
such as CBT, DBT, and SST. This article showed an in-depth study of the effectiveness
of MDT when working with adolescent youth that have violent, sexual, and suicidal
behaviors. The results show that it is the most effective method when dealing with this
age group. This evidence-based approach can be successful for multiple levels of care,
both as preventative and as interceptive therapy.
After reading this in depth article full of case studies, I am inspired to read the following
books & articles referenced from this article:
Apsche, J. A. (2010). Mode Deactivation Therapy: The Complete Guidebook
for Clinicians. Oakland, CA:
Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1987). Social information processing factors in
reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146-1158. Eisenberg, N.,
Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard,S. A., Reiser, M., et al.
(2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to childrens
externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72,
11121134.
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Apsche, J.A. (2010). Mindfulness and Imagery Manual for Adolescents,
Groups and Families. Unpublished.
Berceli, D., & Napoli, M. (January 01, 2006). A Proposal for a Mindfulness-Based Trauma
Prevention Program for Social Work Professionals. Complementary Health Practice
Review, 11, 3, 153-165.
In reading this article, I learned that social workers are subject to secondary trauma. This
can affect their work and home life if they do not have tools available to process and
integrate these traumas. There is mindfulness training available to experience present
moment awareness, which helps people to get through their day-to-day responsibilities,
while dealing with a trauma. (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). PTSD can cause a deficit in memory
and attention. Mindfulness fosters awareness to the present moment emotions; when we
are mindful we can deal with our feelings in the moment, which is better for us then
hiding or avoiding it. Suppressing emotions is a false healing. Through mindfulness
practice, psychological flexibility is developed. This article also talks about how animals
experience trauma; they go through tremors that reduce the effects of PTSD. There is a
survival advantage to experiencing tremors after trauma. Trauma releasing exercises are
designed to engage the primal traumatic releasing mechanism. This is called TRE
technique. TRE can be used for groups of people that do not have access to healthcare.
Mindfulness is a key component in this technique.
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I would like to learn more about the TRE technique and read case studies of people that
used it. I found the information about the animals experiencing tremors fascinating and
so instinctual.
Chopko, B. A., & Schwartz, R. C. (2009). The Relation Between Mindfulness and Posttraumatic
Growth: A Study of First Responders to Trauma-Inducing Incidents. Journal of Mental
Health Counseling, 31(4), 363-376.
This article investigated 183 police officers and their relation between mindfulness and
post-traumatic growth. First responders commonly experience high levels of trauma
related stress because of their witnessing destruction of physical property, violence, or
death. Interventions to help these first responders have been implemented, such as
exposure therapy, brief eclectic therapy, and eye movement desensitization, and
reprocessing. The common thread between each of these therapies is mindfulness, and
being with the present moment awareness instead of avoiding it. Mindfulness can break
the cycle of trauma related avoidance. This article also introduces post-traumatic growth
(PTG), which it describes as a positive outcome of trauma because it manifests in things
like greater appreciation for life, increased sense of personal strengths, and more
meaningful interpersonal relationships. PTG develops because prior basic assumptions
cannot accommodate the new reality presented by the traumatic experience.
In contrast, because mindfulness focuses on accepting experiences as they are may
interfere with the development of PTG. This article recommends practitioners implement
understanding of how the traumatic experience may have led to a broader connection
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with forces larger than oneself; in other words, help them connect with religious or
spiritual practices.
This article was intriguing and made me want to read the following:
Cross, C. L., & Ashley, L. (2004). Police trauma and addiction. FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin 7324-32.
Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive change following trauma and
adversity: A review. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 11-21.
Morash, M., Haarr, R., & Kwak, D. (2006). Multilevel influences on police
stress. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 22, 26-43.
Goodman, R. D., & Calderon, A. M. (2012). The Use of Mindfulness in Trauma Counseling.
Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 34(3), 254-268.
Some of the impressive outcomes of mindfulness practice used in counseling people who
have experienced trauma are decreased anxiety, depression, and stress, and increased
compassion. This article goes into depth about the usefulness of body awareness in
trauma counseling. Through mindfulness, trauma survivors build strength and awareness
of here and now and are able to differentiate between the traumatic events and now. They
increase their sense of control and are able to be more present in their daily life.
Counselors need to keep in mind that any mindfulness practice they use needs to be
culturally congruent with the clients worldview and drawing upon the clients existing
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strengths. Mindfulness practice can play a dual role for the practitioners self-care needs
and the clients needs to overcome trauma and daily stress.
This article makes me want to gain a deeper understanding of ethnically diverse
mindfulness practices and different cultural beliefs that might affect this process.
Hamiel, D. (2005). Children Under Stress and Trauma: The Use of Biofeedback, Cognitive
Behavioral Techniques, and Mindfulness for Integrated and Balanced Coping.
Biofeedback, 33(4), 149-152. I did not have a chance to read this article but I plan to in
the future.
Mensinga, J. (September 01, 2011). The Feeling of Being a Social Worker: Including Yoga as an
Embodied Practice in Social Work Education. Social Work Education, 30, 6, 650-662. I
did not get a change to read this article but I can say that I have been practicing yoga as a
social work student and it has given me relief from the stress of self-examination. During
my jounyer year I was required to examine my positionality relating to people that had
different races and social status than me. This caused an awakening in me that caused
emotional responces often. I felt like I was going through a transformation of my
awareness of life as I knew it. Yoga and meditation gave me a chance to integrate these
changes and come to a place of peace and acceptance.
Niles, B. L., Klunk-Gillis, J., Ryngala, D. J., Silberbogen, A. K., Paysnick, A., & Wolf, E. J.
(2012). Comparing mindfulness and psychoeducation treatments for combat-related
PTSD using a tele-health approach. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice,
and Policy, 4(5), 538-547. doi:10.1037/a0026161
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Thompson, R. W., Arnkoff, D. B., & Glass, C. R. (January 01, 2011). Conceptualizing
mindfulness and acceptance as components of psychological resilience to trauma.
Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 12, 4, 220-35. doi:10.1177/1524838011416375
This article talked about mindfulness, children, and trauma. Past influences on the
emotional brain must be discharged and this process should involve the body because
cognition is not always connected to the emotional brain. This is accomplished by the
second component in therapy, the psychological component.
Some people are not capable of facing their fears head on and distraction is a better
approach. When one faces of fear they need to back up their disconnection using both
physiological components and mindfulness. The physiological component helped resolve
the strong connection between past experiences and sympathetic responses. The
mindfulness component teaches letting go of negative thoughts by observing them and
not reacting to the negative feelings that come.
Books
Kornfield, J.PhD & Siegel, D.J.MD (2010). Mindfulness and the Brain: A professional training
in the science and practice of meditative awareness. Sounds True, Incorporated.
This book discusses Buddhist psychology and mindfulness that is based on a two-day
seminar for clinicians practicing neuropsychology and interpersonal neuropsychology.
They put spiritual together with science and demonstrate how Buddhist principles can go
with the idea of clinical therapy, remodeling the mind through integration and
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compassion. The authors discussed the brain and narrow plasticity in technical terms that
bring insight to the possibilities of the human brains functioning abilities. They discussed
neurobiology and how relationships, the mind, in the brain into Racht to shape who we
are. Although this book is scientifically technical and deals with complex details, they
share it in a way that brings practical application to anyone interested in mindfulness.
There are a variety of experiential instructions as well as tools and practices for
meditating and for anyone interested in your transformation and the development of inner
compassion.
I found this book fascinating and want to study neurobiology in the brain more. I
also want to continue to discover the many dimensions of my own brain through my own
practice of mindfulness meditation mostly in a formal meditation way but also on a daily
informal awareness practice.
Leary, Joy DeGruy (2005). Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring
Injury and Healing; Uptone Press.
This book is about the European whites spending great amounts of resources and
efforts to justify the way they treated African slaves over the last 500 years. The book
goes into gruesome details about the trauma the African people endured at the hand of the
whites. These traumatic acts of violence, mutilation, and death were not held accountable
because it was not illegal to kill a slave. I do not think there is any trauma experienced
today that the African people did not experience during their time being enslaved. It
defines cognitive dissonance as when one commits a negative act or thinks about
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committing one and experiences discomfort because of the difference between these
negative acts and what one believe about oneself. Human behavior is that if we do
commit a crime we want to fix it immediately because of the discomfort we feel. This can
be done by owning up and telling the truth, or justifying why we did it so it makes sense.
Carl Von Linnaeus and Johann Friedrish Blumenbach are identified because of their
contribution to so called scientific systems of labeling living things so that we can know
every living things relation to other living things. These men claimed their opinions were
scientific evidence that white people are superior and therefor justified to treat people of
color how they want. This resulted in the worst kind of trauma I can think of because it
involves life times of horrific mistreatment of innocent people.
This book made me want to explore the history of African people more and have
compassion on the African Americans I come in contact with every day. It also made me
want to explore further what our founding fathers claimed as scientific evidence and
perhaps unveil further falsehoods that are perpetuating the negative effects of historical
trauma.
Simpkins, C. A., & Simpkins, A. M. (2012). Zen Meditation in Psychotherapy: Techniques for
Clinical Practice. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
This book is about integrating meditation into traditional psychotherapy. I
enjoyed the stories the book used because I was able to relate and it kept my attention
piqued. It shares in-depth case examples that share methods of treatments that can be
used to help people suffering with psychological problems, as well as with personal and
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professional problems like depression, anger, and addiction, weight management,
anxiety, burnout, and stress. Facebook provides a method of seeing feelings and problems
as an object that you are separate from and during the meditation process, this
objectification of the problem allows the person to have a new perspective where they
feel less threatened and more in control of their response to the non-threatening object.
When a person feels like they have a choice, they feel more in control of their
experiences and gain a sense of freedom of expression and creativity. This book has
evidence that supports the use of meditation using neuroscientific and clinical research. I
enjoyed the specific examples shared that a counselor could use in practice to meet the
needs of clients.
After reading this book I am curious to learn more about mirror neurons and
attachment theory.


Films
Gehart, D. R., & Microtraining Associates. (2012). Mindfulness in Counseling. Alexandria, VA:
Microtraining.
This film talks about healing depression using mindfulness and meditation. This approach
of mindfulness refers to John Kabat-Zinns focus on the present moment awareness
without judging what is happening in the present moment. It introduces mindfulness-
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based stress reduction and describes how it is used in treating anxiety, depression, bi-
polar disorder. The most developed area of this work is mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy, which is taught over an 8-week course. They have found that it doesnt matter
where the depressed feelings came from; what matters is that if they have the symptoms
lasting for 2 weeks or longer, they need to be treated. DSM4 is considered clinical
depression and should be treated. Mindfulness meditations can be mixed with CBT to
achieve positive effects. They discuss the formal practices such as: meditation or yoga
and non-formal mindfulness practices such as: eating mindfully, or focusing on the breath
in the moment.
Mindfulness helps depression through focusing on the here and now instead of focusing
on a negative aspect. MBC was originally called selective attention training because of
the ability it gives to ones ability to focus their attention. Rumination is a driver of
depression and mindfulness helps to decrease rumination. After a person ruminates for a
short time, they feel worse and after a person practices mindfulness for a few minutes
they feel better. Mindfulness creates distance from thoughts and feelings which help
people detach and develop space for compassion.
Kabat-Zinn, J., Hanley, J., Michael, P., Sleeping Giant Productions, Pleiades (Firm), Winstar
Productions., & Wellspring Media. (2000). Mindfulness & Meditation: Stress Reduction
& Mindful Parenting. New York: Wellspring Media.
This film talked about how if you lose track of who is doing the doing of each days
activities, you can get stuck in a state of suffering or lack of ability to be creative. We are
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living in a multi-dimensional realm and if we are doing things each day without tuning
the instrument that we are doing all these things with, then we are most likely playing out
of tune. Just as each musician in an orchestra has to tune their instrument before they play
together, we need to tune our interment each day before we go out and do. Practicing
mindfulness is going beyond thinking, which is something we never get educated about;
they called it awareness. The film asserts that our entire society is suffering from
attention deficit disorder because there is no place to rest. I disagree; this is not true
because mindfulness is happening everywhere. One does not have to carve time out to
meditate each day in order to tune into mindfulness. One can be mindful in each moment
wherever they are by being in the present moment just as the way things are and drop into
being.
We can set goals and make plans as to how we are going to get from here to there but if
we do not know our here we are missing an important component. If you think you know
the people you see around you like your family you must be aware of your senses
including your mind which is also one of your senses. We are often too busy getting
things done to tune into who we are in this moment. The only time we have is now, the
future is an idea.
I was not able to get a hold of this book but want to read it in the future: Kalayjian, A., &
Eugene, D. (2010). Mass trauma and emotional healing around the world: Rituals and
practices for resilience and meaning-making. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger.