All States of Mind Are Workable: Mindfulness Practice and Contemplative Psychotherapy in Recovery from Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) can cause significant functional impairment and new psychosocial treatments are needed. This dissertation reviews and summarizes contemplative psychotherapy (CP), reports on a qualitative study that was conducted to investigate how participants used mindfulness practice to promote recovery from BD, and conducts a theoretical integration of qualitative findings, CP frameworks, and other relevant fields to sketch a novel approach to recovery from BD. Three papers from this dissertation have been submitted for publication.

To establish a theoretical lens for interpreting the study results, CP is introduced and articulated. CP is a psychotherapeutic theoretical orientation that integrates Buddhist psychology with counseling skills and may enhance the common therapeutic factors across different schools of therapy. CP frameworks and practices may interact synergistically with mindfulness practice to support recovery from BD.

To gather evidence for how people use mindfulness to recover from BD, a qualitative study was conducted with 9 individuals who had used Buddhist-informed mindfulness practice and had experienced at least one of five dimensions of recovery. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis and four top-level theme categories were generated: effects of mindfulness, diverse mindfulness practices, other wellness practices, and principles and recommendations for recovery. Participants reported many benefits from a diverse range of mindfulness practices, used many different wellness strategies, and experienced an overall process of integrating self and experience. Respondents also made concrete recommendations for using mindfulness practice in recovery from BD.

A theoretical integration chapter uses CP to interpret and contextualize the qualitative findings and weaves together the qualitative study findings, CP frameworks and practices, and other relevant theories to sketch a treatment approach to support recovery from BD. More development of this approach is needed and future studies should include outcome research. This theoretical integration is a major first step towards establishing a new approach to mindfulness-based recovery from BD.