Mindfulness Practice
The tradition of training and practice paths for perception is as old as recorded human history. Centuries old techniques from Vipassana, Zen Buddhism, Christian Mystics, Yoga and more modern ones such as Sensory Awareness, Hakomi, Focusing, MBSR and others are cultivated, because self-perception, such as hearing, or taste, is refined when (regularly) practiced. In counselling processes, it is worth making elements of these perception disciplines available to clients: the mindful feeling of tension (“If you feel into this tense area around your shoulders, which inner images then awaken in you?”) or from pleasant and unfriendly areas in the body (“What happens to you when you feel/look/listen from the area in your body where you feel best to the spot where you feel worst?”) or the linking of bodily with emotional senses (“Which feeling is connected with the narrow feeling in your throat?”). These examples are arbitrary. They only give an indication about which knowledge is available for broadening and refining self-perception. The pre-requisite for the usage of such techniques – this is only mentioned for the sake of order – is like everything; without the counsellor’s own experience and practice, such techniques are without reference, meaningless and ineffective.