Why interview me about my work and my new book (The 5 Hurdles to Happiness --Shambhala / Random House)? Because mindfulness is the hot ticket these days, right? It is way more likely to drive up book sales than “therapeutic root canals”! But seriously, I do have a somewhat selfish reason for focusing in on mindfulness for managing the bad reactive habits that get in everyone's way. It’s what’s been most helpful to me and to many of the clients I’ve worked with as a therapist. We all have knotted patterns of the five “Ws” (worrying, wrestling, wanting, wilting and wavering), and mindfulness is what penetrates right to the heart of them. In my writing and work, I'm looking to help people build the skill to deeply listen to what these hurdles are saying about how we play defense against pain every day, and how we might learn to be with our body and mind with spacious presence and clear awareness—such that we look out at our lives with less distortion and leap forward with more purpose and direction. Mindfulness can help us do all of this. I don’t know of any other “thing” we have available to us that is so “one size fits all” for overcoming hurdles!
Dr. Mitch Abblett is a clinical psychologist and has served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, a non-profit focusing on the education and training at the intersection of mindfulness and treatment. For over a decade, he was the Clinical Director of the Manville School, a Harvard-affiliated therapeutic day school program in Boston. He maintains a private psychotherapy and consulting practice, and writes about mindfulness, professional development, and family mental health.
Mitch Abblett Publications:
The 5 Hurdles to Happiness–and the Mindful Path for Overcoming Them (Shambhala, 2018)
The Mindfulness Activities Book for Children (PESI, 2018) with Chris Willard
The Challenging Child Client Toolbox: 50 Mindfulness-Based Principles, Pointers and Practices for Maximizing Clinical Effectiveness (PESI, 2018)
From Pissed to Powerful: The Teen’s Guide to Harnessing Anger for Positive Change (New Harbinger, to be released 2019)
Helping Your Angry Teen (New Harbinger, 2017)
The Anti-Burnout Deck (PESI, 2017) with Chris Willard and Laura Warren
Mindfulness for Teen Depression (New Harbinger, 2016) with Chris Willard
The Self-Compassion Deck (PESI, 2016) with Chris Willard and Tim Desmond
Growing Happy Card Deck (PESI, 2015) with Chris Willard
The Growing Mindful Deck (PESI, 2015) with Chris Willard
The Heat of the Moment in Treatment: Mindful Management of Difficult Clients (Norton, 2013)
