Relational Mindfulness: Fundamentals and Applications

This book proposes a new approach to mindfulness-based interventions, presenting them not as individual, but as relational practices. In the last decades, mindfulness has exerted a growing influence on many fields of research and activity, but always as an individual practice. The authors in this volume believe that the strong development of mindfulness today implies considering a dialogue between this individualistic approach and the perspective of relational mindfulness based on social constructionism.  The volume is organized in two parts. The first part focuses on the theoretical foundations of relational mindfulness. The second part presents possibilities of applications of relational mindfulness in clinical and organizational settings to promote mental health and personal development. Relational Mindfulness: Fundamentals and Applications will be of interest to a wide range of professionals interested in applying mindfulness-based interventions in mental health care and productive organizations, such as clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals and human resources analysts and consultants, among others.    "It is true that the metaphor of mindfulness has been enormously fruitful in its invitation to innovate. By removing meditative practices from their ancient roots, practitioners were free to create practices especially relevant to context. (…) At the same time, there was also a recognizable loss in the profoundly rich heritage that was left behind. For many of us, the greatest loss resulted from the absorption of such practices into Western individualism. What had once been an orientation to practice emphasizing our fundamental inter-being, had become a gateway to silent separation. It is in this context that the present volume bursts into significance. With special appreciation to the editors of this book, we are treated to a multi-dimensional exploration into the relational dimensions of mindfulness practices. Bringing ideas, experience, and wisdom from across professions, and across continents the contributors open an exciting path to the future." - Excerpt from the Foreword by Kenneth J. Gergen 

Table of Contents:
1. Fundamentals of Relational Mindfulness.- 2. The Skillful Art of “Heartfulness” and “Kindfulness” in Relational Buddhism.- 3. Radical Presence: A Relational Alternative to Mindfulness.- 4. Recovering the Phenomenological and Intersubjective Nature of Mindfulness through the Enactive Approach.- 5. Relationship Enactive Perspective as a Principle of Relational Mindfulness.- 6. The Contribution of Francisco Varela to the Emergency of a New Paradigm in Social Sciences and the Practice of Relational Mindfulness.- 7. Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living: Cultivating Relationality with “Heartful Mind” and “Mindful Heart”.- 8. Mindfulness, Compassion, and Embodiment Practices in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Shifting Self-Enclosed Processing to Relational Processing at All Levels of the Human Mind-Brain.- 9. Mindfulness as Relational Ethics.- 10. Mindfulness for the Development of Relational Therapeutic Skills for Health Professionals.- 11. Mindfulness as an Embodied Relational Resource inPsychotherapy.- 12. Relational Mindfulness, Attachment and Deconstruction of the Self.- 13. Relational Awareness: A Stepping-Stone towards Flourishing Organizations.- 14. Mindfulness  and the Generative Perspective: A Dialogue/Virtuous Circle.

About the Author :
Roberto Arístegui is a psychologist and professor at the School of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, and former director of the master’s program in Relational Mindfulness and Wellbeing Practices of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile. Dr. Arístegui has graduated in psychology at the Pontificia Universidade Católica de Chile, holds a PhD in philosophy from Universidad de Chile and a PhD in Social Sciences from the Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is a mindfulness instructor certified by the Instituto EsMindfulness, Spain, and a clinical psychologist specialized in experiential psychotherapy.  Javier García Campayo is a psychiatrist in the Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Spain, full professor at the School of Medicine, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, and director of the master’s program in Mindfulness at the same institution. Dr. Campayo graduated in medicine and obtained his PhD in psychiatry from Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, and has conducted post-doctoral studies at McGill University, Montréal, Canada, with Professor Lawrence Kirmayer, to work on Transcultural Psychiatry. He is a past president of the Spanish Society of Psychosomatic Medicine. Patricio Barriga serves as International Relations Coordinator and Senior Instructor with the Institute for Mindful Leadership, USA. He has been developing his Mindful Leadership experience for the last ten years. He is a qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher receiving his training from the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and he is a qualified Mindful Leadership Senior Instructor, receiving his training from the Institute for Mindful Leadership.