Week 6: Understanding Meditation

Hello everyone! This week I was able to finally start my on-site placement at Small Brooklyn Psychology with Dr. Mandi White-Ajmani. I was also able to read the article “Meditative Therapies for Reducing Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials” and garner more responses to my questionnaire.

First off, my experience with Dr. White-Ajmani was wonderful! I met her at her office, where I met some of the lovely team. Then I was introduced to what each of the staff does and what my future there might look like. Then I was lucky enough to travel to Basis Independent Brooklyn, where Dr. White-Ajmani gave a talk to the AP Psychology students about neuropsychology. I learned quite a lot during this, and if this is a prelude to the knowledge I will gain interning for her, I am certain I will gain a vast array of knowledge by the end.

As I said, I also read the article “Meditative Therapies for Reducing Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” This article was quite insightful on the practice of meditation. I was initially interested in practices such as meditation due to its being a therapeutic practice that requires little to no outside help or monetary investment. Meditation is hopefully a resource that those who don’t have the means to access a therapist or simply don’t have the support of their peers can use to help control their anxiety. Through reading the article, I learned that meditation is to help an individual achieve inner peace. Some studies have shown the positive effects of meditation on one’s physical and psychological health. Meditation can be used to replace a fear-based response with one that is less anxiety-inducing, hopefully reducing anxiety over time. Lastly, the article provided that meditative therapies were found to be as effective as other alternative therapies such as exercise and music therapy.

In regards to my questionnaire, I have gained a few more responses, with the findings being quite similar to the weeks prior.

Next week, I plan to learn more at Small Brooklyn Psychology with Dr. White-Ajmani and begin interviewing the staff on their varying beliefs on therapeutic techniques such as DBT and CBT. I will also begin researching the potential downsides of various GAD treatments and read the article “Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) as an Unsuccessful Search for Safety.” Finally, I will hopefully garner more responses to my questionnaire. Thank you for reading my blog, and I will update you all next week!

Citation:

Chen, K. W., Berger, C. C., Manheimer, E., Forde, D., Magidson, J., Dachman, L., & Lejuez, C. W. (2012). Meditative therapies for reducing anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Depression and anxiety, 29(7), 545–562. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.21964