Mindfulness Research in Social Work: Promise, Pitfalls, and Praxis

The last three decades have shown a slow growth in the research of mindfulness-based practices as therapeutic intervention for those who are suffering with chronic illness and pain, substance use disorders, and a multiplicity of mental health concerns. In the past 10 years the use of mindfulness-based practices have grown exponentially in the field of clinical social work. This roundtable discussion builds on the work that began with 2017 SSWR SIG on Mindfulness-based Intervention Research. The aim of the roundtable to promote more in-depth exploration of the current state of Social Work Research in the area of mindfulness-based interventions. We will discuss the type of research being conducted, as well as the specific lens that the field of Social Work can bring to this innovative and growing practice and research movement.

In the past year alone research articles published by social workers on mindfulness-based interventions are plentiful. This includes work in the area of depression and anxiety (Mizera, Bolin, Nugent, & Strand, 2016), trauma (Kelly & Garland, 2016), addictive behaviors (Froeliger, Mathew, McConnell, Eichberg, Saladin, Carpenter, & Garland, 2017; Garland, Bryan, Finan, Thomas, Priddy, Riquino, & Howard, 2017; Garland, Roberts-Lewis, Tronnier, Graves, & Kelley, 2016; Li, Howard, Garland, McGovern, & Lazar, 2017), children's mental health (Borquist-Conlon, Maynard, Brendel, & Farina, 2017; Coholic, Oystrick, Posteraro, & Lougheed, 2016; Shlonsky, Dennis, Devine, Tufford, Barlow, & Bjorndal, 2016), burn-out and compassion fatigue (Constantine Brown, Ong, Mathers, & Decker, 2017;Crowder & Sears, 2017; Ho, Sing, & Wong, 2016), healthcare (Garland, Thielking, Thomas, Coombs, White, Lombardi, & Beck, 2016), social work education (Gockel & Deng, 2016; Howie, Innes, & Harvey, 2016; Paulson, 2016), scale development (Li, Black, & Garland, 2016), theory development (Garland, Kiken, Faurot, Palsson, & Gaylord, 2016), and facilitating the fight for social justice (Cheung, 2016). Additionally, several books on practice have been published in the same time period (Nicotera & Laser-Maira, 2016; Northcut, 2017). Social workers obviously have a voice in this moment in the field of mindfulness-based research and practice, however there is little discussion in the field regarding what exactly social work as a profession brings to the discussion.

This roundtable aims to discuss the state of mindfulness-based research in social work, and to engage attendees in creating recommendations for further development of this novel research area. Social work brings a specific person-in-environment view on human suffering, and has much to contribute to the discussion, application, and measurement of the effect of mindfulness-based practices and interventions on the alleviation of suffering. Panel members will promote dialogue among attendees as means to add to the current knowledge base on social work research by focusing particular attention on the following areas: discussion of optimal research designs and mixed quantitative-qualitative methodologies for elucidating the outcomes and mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions; exploration of the value of working with community partners to increase the generalizability and impact of mindfulness research; and integration of mindfulness-based programs and research across systems and settings.