Online Mindfulness-based Therapy through Skype or similar web-based services has gained significant popularity over the last few years, mostly because of convenience and cost-effectiveness and also because Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) have both proven to be very effective in several clinical studies for the treatment of anxiety and depression and for reducing emotional stress, including PTSD. When I ask people what they most want from a therapist, most will answer that they just need a few pointer on how to work with their emotions, their anxiety or depression, stress or other form of suffering. They want to learn how to stop being overwhelmed by their emotions, of becoming the victim of emotional reactivity over and over again. People want to break free from their negative habitual reactivity, and learn new ways of processing their feelings that is positive and leads to healing, balance and happiness. We all need help with difficult emotions, but many of us are afraid of therapists! We don’t like the idea of showing our vulnerability to a complete stranger and we may feel embarrassed telling them all about our personal history. Yet at the same time, part of us recognizes that we have become stuck and remaining stuck is just not an option anymore. Perhaps our anxiety or inner turmoil is causing us to be depressed and negative all the time leaving us feeling listless and fatigued. We see how this affects our personal relationships and family life, how we are just less “there” for our partner or our children. Life should be a passionate dance in which we interact positively with all the challenges that face us. No one at home; Do not disturb; Leave me alone. This is the state that so many of us find ourselves in, condemned to live our life as slaves to our reactive habits. We live as victims of our emotions, thoughts, beliefs and memories, enslaved by the contents of our mind that arise out of habit and years of denial, and this is what Mindfulness Therapy tries to put right. Interestingly, communication through a videocam is definitely more comfortable for many people, and conducting a session in the familiar surroundings of ones own home (or office) makes the client feel much more empowered in the therapy process. Mindfulness Therapy is all about regaining a sense of our real identity as something so much more than all the petty contents that make up the story of who we think we are. At some level, we know that there is more to us than the material content of shadowy forms; we sense an inner spirit that is bigger than all our worries, disappointments, frustrations and anxieties. Mindfulness Therapy puts us directly in touch with this spiritual dimension of our being, and as we make contact with this larger dimension, it breathes healing warmth onto the frozen and frigid regions of the contracted mind and transformation and healing begin. It is an extraordinary feature of the human mind that being completely present with our suffering is in itself directly healing. Mindfulness heals. Learning how to be fully present with our suffering, or the suffering of others, is the focus of Online Mindfulness Therapy. When we focus mindfulness on painful emotions, we create a space around them that is the essence of compassion and kindness and non-reactivity. Not surprisingly, contracted emotions respond to this inner freedom by unclenching and releasing their grip on you. In this inner space of full engaged-presence, which is what mindfulness is, painful emotions are finally given permission and freedom in which to change and heal. This is the remarkable insight pointed out by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago, and which is now regaining popularity with therapists and counsellors everywhere. The big mind, called the True Self or Buddha mind, is more than capable of healing the suffering created by the little mind, the ego, if…and this is the big IF…it is given the freedom in which to change. No freedom, no change. Mindfulness is the conscious awareness that generates this inner freedom and facilitates healing at the core. I encourage all of you who genuinely want to make a change for the better to learn mindfulness skills, including mindfulness meditation and apply this remarkable form of conscious awareness to heal the wounds of the heart. I now provide Mindfulness Therapy online over Skype for those who are interested in learning how to overcome the root cause of anxiety, depression, addiction, stress and other forms of emotional suffering. CONTACT ME via my website https://pdmstrong.wordpress.com if you would like to schedule a Skype therapy session.
