April 4, 2024
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In this episode, Wendy speaks with psychologist and contemplative researcher Simon Goldberg. Simon uses tools drawn from psychotherapy research to better understand the therapeutic processes and outcomes of mindfulness and meditation-based interventions. This conversation covers many topics, including:
- coming to practice through one’s own suffering;
- what we know from science about whether and how meditation “works;”
- the nuts and bolts of meditation research, and the importance of control groups;
- the file drawer effect and publishing negative findings;
- common factors in healing interventions;
- working with the self in psychotherapy vs. Buddhism;
- the critical role of acceptance;
- some challenges when measuring effects of meditation;
- individualizing contemplative practice to suit the person;
- delivering and studying meditation interventions through apps;
- and the possibilities of AI to help support meditation practice.
Simon Goldberg, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology and faculty at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Madison–Wisconsin. He conducts research on psychotherapy, with a specific emphasis on the effects of and mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based interventions, and is also interested in therapist characteristics (e.g., interpersonal skills and empathy) that relate to patient outcomes in psychotherapy. Simon has collaborated on several randomized trials of contemplative interventions and has conducted multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses of mindfulness-based interventions. He has also trained clinically in the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system and conducts research on military veteran mental health. Simon is currently implementing and studying the delivery of meditation training through mobile technology.
Resources
Faculty page at the Center for Healthy Minds
Healthy Minds Program (free app)
- Paper: A common factors perspective on mindfulness-based interventions, Nature Reviews Psychology, 2022
- Systematic review: The empirical status of mindfulness-based interventions: A systematic review of 44 meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, Perspectives in Psychological Science, 2022
- Meta-analysis: Mindfulness-based interventions for psychiatric disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Clinical Psychology Review, 2018