Research suggests that meditation is an effective and efficient modality for reducing psychological distress and enhancing individual health and wellbeing (Sedlmeier, Eberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger, & Kunze, 2012). In the last decade meditation has become a popular psychotherapeutic approach (e.g., MBSR, MBCT) in the field of mental health. Furthermore, empirical research on meditation and its effects on counseling practitioners demonstrate positive results for improving counselor self-efficacy (Greason & Cashwell, 2009), shown reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression (Elder et al., 2011; Kemeny et al., 2012), increase in attention (Chan & Woollacott, 2007), and emotion regulation (Kemeny et al., 2012). More recently researchers are studying the effects of meditation on student counselors.
Counselor education literature is replete with evidence suggesting that stress is an inherent issue amongst graduate counseling students, leading to psychological distresses, decreased job satisfactions and eventually burnout (Roach & Young, 2007). Thus, it is essential that counselor educators endorse and employ wellness strategies that support student counselors in maintaining their psychological health (Meyers & Sweeney, 2008). Past research studies on counselor trainees have popularly examined the use of mindfulness-based interventions (e.g., MBSR, MBCT). There are studies noting the effects of mantra-based and loving-kindness based meditations on counselor trainees as well. However, traditional mindfulness meditations such (e.g., Zen mindfulness meditation) have never been employed for enhancing student counselor wellness by studying changes in their psychological distresses. Consequently, the current study examined the effects of Zen mindfulness meditation on student counselor’s stress, attention, and self-compassion levels (pre-to-post changes). In addition, the researcher investigated if the frequency of meditation was related to these changes when participant demographics were co-varied.
The researcher conducted a one group pre-test post-test experimental design. Participants of this study (n = 11) were part of a Zen meditation-training group for six weeks. All student counselors completed self-report measures at the beginning and end of the six-week intervention and recorded their meditation frequency every week. The researcher conducted an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to measure pre-to-post test changes in the outcome variables (i.e. stress, attention, and self-compassion). In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to note the variances in the outcome variables, as meditation frequency and participant demographics were co-varied. The results of the study demonstrated the following: (a) changes in stress, attention, and self-compassion levels from pre-to-post intervention, causation of which is not known; (b) ANCOVAs reported that meditation was not a predictor of these changes; (c) the regression analyses demonstrated that meditation frequency and participant demographics also did not have a role in pre-to-post changes in the outcome variables. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed herein.