Jane Compson, Lynette Monteiro, and Frank Musten join us to speak about their new book, Practitioner’s Guide to Ethics and Mindfulness-Based Interventions.

One of the criticisms of mindfulness programs is that they don’t include any kind of ethical component. This is usually followed up by casting aspersions about mindfulness just being a watered down version of a particular tradition’s approach to living, and often said by those who may not have taken a secular mindfulness program, and certainly aren’t experienced teachers of them. As a mindfulness teacher and someone with decades living and teaching within traditional contexts, I find this to be not just misleading, but flat out wrong. It is based on a presupposition that ethics A) must be taught in a particular explicit way, and B) a specific set of ethics must be taught. I’m going to go out on a limb and call that what I think it is: a false equivalence. Ethics are deeply embedded in innovative ways using contemporary teaching methods shown to be more effective than some traditional didactic methods. They may not be as recognized because they don’t match pre-conceived notions of what they must look like — in a different context.

Jane Compson

Jane F. Compson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Her Ph.D is in comparative religion, and she has training in MBSR and Buddhist chaplaincy. She teaches in the topics of comparative religion and applied ethics and is a member of a clinical ethics committee. Her research interests are in the application of contemplative practices, particularly those associated with Buddhist traditions, to contemporary contexts. She has published articles in the journals Contemporary Buddhism, Mindfulness, Journal of Nursing Education and Practice and Interdisciplinary Environmental Review.

Lynette Monteiro

Lynette Monteiro, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Director of Training at the Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic. She is trained in CBT, Cognitive Processing Therapy for veterans and active military personnel, several mindfulness-based interventions, and Buddhist chaplaincy. Her primary treatment interest is developing the ethics-based mindfulness programs offered at the OMC; she also serves as a personnel selection psychologist for police and military units. As Clinical Professor at the University of Ottawa, she is in charge of training Ph.D. clinical psychology candidates in an ethics-based mindfulness intervention. She is co-author of Mindfulness Starts Here, contributor to Buddhist Foundations of Mindfulness and several articles and presentations on contemporary mindfulness, ethics, and treatment issues.

Frank Musten

R.F. (Frank) Musten, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic. In private practice, he treats persons managing stress-related disorders and relationship issues. In the Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic, he has developed a Burnout Resilience program for executives, police and military personnel and conducted mindfulness programs with various military units. Working with military and police services since 1970, he has developed various programs for dealing with stress and currently is involved with clinical and predeployment assessment and postdeployment treatment of military members, including using mindfulness-informed treatments to manage PTSD. He also trains and supervises health care professionals in developing ethics-based mindfulness for clinical treatment.

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Books

Web Links

• Jane Compson
• Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic
• Episode 057 :: Jane Compson and Lynette Monteiro :: Still Exploring the Middle Path: a Response to Commentaries

Music for This Episode Courtesy of Rodrigo Rodriguez

The music heard in this podcast is from Rodrigo Rodriguez. You can visit his website to hear more of his music, get the full discography, and view his upcoming tour dates.