Mind Full or Mindful? How Mindfulness Can Support Mental Health and Psychedelic Integration
By Ilona Nemeth, Psy.D. | Kansas City Psychology
Mindfulness therapy can help people become more aware of their thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and patterns of responding to stress. By intentionally bringing attention to the present moment, mindfulness can provide practical tools for managing anxiety, emotional overwhelm, impulsivity, and other mental health concerns.
At Kansas City Psychology, Dr. Ilona Nemeth incorporates mindfulness-based approaches into psychotherapy for adults seeking greater emotional awareness, self-understanding, and psychological flexibility. She also has experience supporting individuals who want to process and integrate psychedelic or non-ordinary experiences within a therapeutic setting.
What Is Mindfulness?
When we complete a task that is a familiar part of our daily routine, our minds often go on autopilot. This is the process of habituation—when we have already been exposed to a stimulus several times, our mind accommodates the familiar and our full attentional awareness does not need to remain active in the moment.
On the other hand, when we approach an unfamiliar task, our brains recruit more attentional awareness to experience and understand novelty. If you have ever mistakenly turned down a familiar street you did not intend to while driving, your mind likely habituated to the situation while you were preoccupied with other concerns. Being more mindful would involve intentionally redirecting attention to your immediate surroundings.
Mindfulness consists of four basic components:
1. Paying attention: We recruit our awareness to what is happening in our environment, including our internal environment. By taking the stance of an observer, we can become more aware of our thoughts and emotions without immediately reacting to them.
2. Staying in the present moment: We do our best to attend to what is happening in the here and now. This involves noticing when our minds have strayed from the present and gently redirecting our awareness to what is happening around or within us.
3. Acting on purpose: Mindfulness involves intentionality. We can focus on a grounding point in our awareness, such as the sensation of breathing, sounds around us, physical sensations, or the colors and details in our surroundings.
4. Practicing nonjudgmental awareness: Taking a neutral and compassionate stance can help us reduce labels, criticism, and the “should haves” or “shouldn’t haves” that often influence how we view ourselves and our experiences. This can help us move beyond black-and-white thinking and develop a more flexible relationship with ourselves and others.
Mindfulness and Mental Health
Mindfulness skills are part of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., at the University of Massachusetts in 1979. MBSR is an evidence-based approach designed to help individuals develop and strengthen mindfulness skills. The approach incorporated elements of Vipassana meditation practices, which originate in Buddhism.
Research has identified a variety of potential mental health benefits associated with mindfulness-based interventions. For example, mindfulness approaches have been studied in relation to attention, hyperactivity, and impulse control among children with ADHD.
Mindfulness-based strategies have also been used with individuals experiencing concerns such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, social anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
Rather than attempting to eliminate every uncomfortable thought or feeling, mindfulness can help individuals develop greater awareness of their internal experiences and more flexibility in how they respond to them.
Mindfulness in DBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Mindfulness is an important component of several established psychotherapy approaches.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., initially for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Mindfulness is one of the foundational skills used within DBT and can help individuals increase awareness of their emotional states, develop a more reflective relationship with thoughts and emotions, and improve impulse control.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), developed by Steven Hayes, Ph.D., focuses on increasing psychological flexibility. ACT is considered a third-wave Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and emphasizes developing a different relationship with thoughts and emotions while increasing engagement in behaviors that align with what matters to the individual.
Mindfulness contributes to ACT skills such as cognitive defusion, which involves developing distance from distressing thought content, and self-as-context, which encourages individuals to recognize that they are more than the thoughts passing through their minds.
Mindfulness and Psychedelic Integration
Mindfulness can also play a role in psychedelic integration and in psychotherapy associated with legally administered treatments such as ketamine.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) may incorporate mindfulness during preparation for treatment and during the integration process following treatment. Within this model, ketamine functions as an adjunct to psychotherapy, with therapeutic work occurring before, during, and after ketamine treatment.
Psychedelic integration refers to the intentional process of exploring, understanding, and making meaning from experiences that occur during psychedelic or non-ordinary states of consciousness.
Mindfulness may support this process by helping individuals approach their experiences with curiosity and present-moment awareness. Entering a reflective or meditative state while recalling psychologically meaningful material may help individuals explore insights that arose during the experience and consider how those insights relate to their everyday lives.
Non-ordinary states of consciousness can sometimes involve powerful emotional, psychological, spiritual, religious, or mystical experiences. Integration provides an opportunity to explore these experiences and consider how they fit within an individual’s broader understanding of themselves, their relationships, values, and life.
A Simple Mindfulness Exercise: 2 Feet, 1 Breath
One simple mindfulness technique is called “2 Feet, 1 Breath.”
Lift and place down one foot.
Then lift and place down the other.
Then take one conscious breath.
Repeat.
The simplicity of the exercise is intentional. Focusing on physical movement followed by a deliberate breath can help redirect attention toward the body and the present moment.
Mindfulness does not always require a lengthy meditation practice. Sometimes a brief intentional moment of awareness can help interrupt autopilot and reconnect us with what is happening right now.
Mindfulness Therapy and Psychedelic Integration in Kansas City
If you are interested in becoming more aware of your internal experiences, reducing stress or anxiety, or developing greater emotional self-regulation, mindfulness skills may provide a useful foundation for therapy.
Dr. Ilona Nemeth, Psy.D., provides psychotherapy at Kansas City Psychology and incorporates basic mindfulness skills into her work when appropriate. These strategies can help clients develop greater attentional awareness, emotional self-regulation, and more intentional responses to difficult thoughts and feelings.
Dr. Nemeth also has experience helping adults explore and integrate psychedelic experiences and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Her psychotherapy style is relational and collaborative, with an emphasis on establishing a supportive therapeutic relationship and understanding each person’s individual experiences and goals.
Looking for Mindfulness-Based Therapy in Kansas City?
If you are seeking mindfulness-based therapy, support for anxiety or emotional regulation, or psychedelic integration in Kansas City, Kansas City Psychology can help you determine whether working with Dr. Nemeth may be a good fit.
Schedule a therapy consultation with Dr. Ilona Nemeth at Kansas City Psychology to learn more.
Educational Disclaimer
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice or an endorsement of illegal substance use. Psychedelic substances vary in their legal status, risks, and evidence base. Ketamine should only be administered when legally prescribed and under appropriate medical supervision.
Sources
Bathje, G. J., Majeski, E., & Kudowor, M. (2022). Psychedelic integration: An analysis of the concept and its practice.Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 824077.
Calderone, A., Latella, D., Impellizzeri, F., de Pasquale, P., Famà, F., Quartarone, A., & Calabrò, R. S. (2024). Neurobiological changes induced by mindfulness and meditation: A systematic review. Biomedicines, 12(11), 2613.
Hayes, S. C., & Lillis, J. (2012). Acceptance and commitment therapy. American Psychological Association.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness(Revised ed.). Bantam Books.
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press.
Wolf, C., & Serpa, J. G. (2015). A clinician’s guide to teaching mindfulness: The comprehensive session-by-session curriculum. New Harbinger Publications.