The Ethical Space of Mindfulness in Clinical Practice: An Exploratory Essay

Donald McCown is Assistant Professor of Integrative Health at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and has held positions as Lecturer at Thomas Jefferson University, and Director of Mindfulness at Work programs at Jefferson's Mindfulness Institute. He holds a PhD from Tilburg University, a Master of Social Service degree from Bryn Mawr College, and a Master of Applied Meditation Studies from the Won Institute of Graduate Studies. He has completed the advanced Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) trainings through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is the primary author of Teaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators, the first text of its kind.

This book makes a vital contribution to the understanding of ethics as the cornerstone of mindfulness-based practice, and will be of interest to all those involved in delivering mindfulness-based interventions, including psychologists, counselors, spiritual directors, occupational therapists, physicians, nurses, and educators.

Foreword by Kenneth Gergen. Start Here: A Final Scene as a Prologue. Part I: In Search of What's Already There. 1. The Unique Situation of the MBIs. Growth and Proliferation of Identities. Place and Person of the Teacher. 2. Potential Approaches to Ethics in the MBIs. Professional Codes. The Health Care Ethos. The Temptation of Buddhist Ethics. Moving Toward a Deeper Understanding of the MBIs. Part II: Where Something Ethical Happens. 3. Definitions of Mindfulness in the MBIs. A Scientific Definition. A Western Social Psychology Definition. An "Eastern" Definition. A Definition from Neuroscience. Turning Definitions Upside Down, or Inside Out. A Definition for Co-creation. Not Mindfulness, but its Pedagogy in the Practice. 4. Investigating the Curriculum and Pedagogy. Defining the Metastructure of the MBIs. Qualities Revealed in the Curriculum. Describing the Pedagogy of the MBIs. Qualities Revealed in the Pedagogy. Toward a Model of Ethical Space. Part III: Dimensions of an Ethical Space. 5. Describing How an MBI Gathering "Works". Mapping the Work of the Gathering. None of these Maps are the Territory. A Review of the Relational View. 6. Building a Multidimensional Model. The Doing Dimension. The Non-doing Dimension. The Third Dimension. The Model of Ethical Space. Part IV: Always Room for More Implications. 7. Putting First-order Morality First. Bringing the Gathering Together. Letting the Ethical Space Work. Tensions in the Ethical Space. Maintaining the Ethical Space. Using the Ethical Space. 8. Addressing the Urgencies of the Community. First: Defining Mindfulness. Second: Ensuring Teacher Quality. The View from the Ethical Space. Clarifies the Urgency. Approaching Conclusions. Don't Stop Now: Ongoing Practice as Epilogue. References. Index.