Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Older Adults

In this book, Carla Martins presents a brilliant and clear summary of the field of mindfulness as applied to older adults and how it might serve as a complementary and holistic approach to augment physical and emotional well-being, stimulate cognitive performance and creativity, provide tools to deal with loss and daily life with more awareness, to foster personal development and serve as a means to dive deeper into understanding who we are as individual beings as we age. The book weaves together the rigor of clinical science and the wisdom of deep reflection to offer a text that will be of benefit to many - not only for those working with older adults, but for all those seek to explore how mindfulness can change the way they relate to the aging process, moment by moment. – from the foreword by Shauna Shapiro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University and co-author of Mindful Discipline and The Art and Science of MindfulnessWe are living longer, but how might we live better? Martins explores this question in her thoughtful and multifaceted study of an MBSR group for well elders. Not surprisingly, both qualitative and quantitative data support improvements for group members in well-being, physical health, spirituality and cognition. Weaving theories on aging, Buddhist philosophy and physical and cognitive sciences, Martins provides texture and context for her research and offers an important prototype for working with the growing population of older adults and their unique experience. – Lucia McBee, Author, Mindfulness Based Elder CareThis research work, groundbreaking in its execution, shows how mindfulness-based interventions with older people should be integrated into health promotion in order to foster active ageing. Mindfulness is established as a non-pharmacological treatment that allows practice to take the form of person-centred care. Carla’s research shows how health treatment is more than merely clinical results. Her work makes us look upon ourselves to transform the mind and, incidentally, gives meaning to the new 21st century Geriatrics. – Domingo J. Quintana Hernández Ph.D., Neuropsychologist and Associate Professor at the International University of La Rioja, Spain

Carla Martins, PhD is founder and director of Integral Being: Portuguese Center for Mindfulness, where she works as a mindfulness instructor and psychologist in private practice with clinical offices in Portugal. She has an MSc in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology with a focus on older people, and holds a PhD in psychology with a focus on Transpersonal Psychology. She worked for three years as a researcher at the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Aging, Oxford University and she completed her training as an MBSR instructor at the University of Massachusetts.