Mindfulness-based research

Research at the CMRP

Our CMRP core staff team are very research active and each has their own specialised area of research interest. Have a read of the staff profiles below to see what we are up to…

Dr Rebecca Crane 

Throughout the process of developing CMRPs training programmes since 2001 we have faced many interesting and challenging dilemmas and questions around the implementation of mindfulness-based interventions and my research reflects this journey. I led a paper outlining the current training models we use and the theoretical principles underpinning these. Following this I led a paper which looked at competency in related areas and considered how we could look at it from a mindfulness teaching perspective. This led into research with colleagues at Oxford and Exeter universities through which we developed a tool for assessing competence – the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) - and then conducted research on its reliability and validity. I also wrote a very personal piece on the theme of competence and 'being good'! I have also investigated the process of inquiry using conversation analysis. We discovered that facilitating inquiry is a bit like playing jazz! I have become increasingly interested in the process of implementing mindfulness-based programs. I conducted a preliminary survey based research project on implementation of mindfulness-based programmes, and have then been part of a wider collaboration called the ASPIRE project. You can read the protocol paper here.

My current projects include:

• Predictors of Outcomes in MBSR Participants from Teacher Factors (PrOMPT-F). I am a consultant on a National Institutes for Health funded research collaboration led by Dr Jud Brewer at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Prof Rick Hecht at the University of California.
• I am co-supervising with Professor Rhiannon Edwards Lucy Bryning's PhD - a health economics analysis of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for people with cancer funded by Tenovus.
• I am a collaborator on the learning disability research mentioned in Gemma Griffith's section.
• I am a collaborator on a project led by Dr Clara Strauss at Sussex University - Low-intensity guided help through mindfulness (LIGHTMind funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

You can see my publications here.

Dr Gemma Griffith

A lot of my work here at the CMRP involves teaching research, so for me, it is so important to keep my own line of research going and having time to work on my research projects in amongst my teaching duties feels like a real pleasure. Before I worked with the CMRP, I conducted quite a lot of research on people with autism spectrum disorder and Intellectual disabilities , as well as parenting research, and now focus much of my research effort towards how we might bring mindfulness to these populations.  At the moment I am working on two main mindfulness research projects which are detailed below, but have a lot of other bits of research going on too (watch this space!). We have a lot of high-quality innovative master's research projects from our Masters students, so I also work with students to publish these thesis findings in peer reviewed journals. 

• Can a mindfulness-informed intervention help reduce aggressive behaviour among people with learning disabilities? We aim to recruit 20 people with learning disabilities and aggressive behaviour and teach them mindfulness skills to help them manage their anger. Find out more about the project in this protocol paper (link to https://pilotfeasibilitystudies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40814-016-0098-3), and we hope to report the findings during 2017.

• Mindful Parenting and its Measurement. We have developed a Mindful Parenting measure (called the BUMPS) and have tested it on a sample of over 500 parents, we are currently writing up the factor analyses and hope to have this published during 2017. 

Eluned Gold

Much of my working life has been involved with well-being and mental health and as a mother of four and grandmother of two, I am particularly passionate about mindfulness as a way of supporting the well-being of families. I have developed an adaptation of MBSR specifically for parents called Nurturing Parents: Mindfulness-based Well-being for parents.
This course is useful to parents when delivered by well-trained teachers. We have been collaborating with Barnardo's locally and have trained some of their staff to deliver the Nurturing Parents Course. My current research involves our CMRP Master students and investigates:

• Does the training offered equip family support staff to deliver courses well and confidently and does the training have an effect on their own well-being?

• Once trained do the courses these family support staff deliver improve the well-being of parents on the course?

Sharon Grace Hadley

I am currently running a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) exploring the cost benefit analysis and impact on wellbeing of mindfulness-based training in the workplace. This is for my PhD with the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation (CHEME) and has involved offering 8 week mindfulness programmes for public sector emplyees across four locations: Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and London. See the CHEME (link to http://cheme.bangor.ac.uk/abstracts/sharon-hadley.php) page for more information about my research.