Mindfulness: medveten närvaro i socialt arbete

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Our curiosity was awakened when we became aware that many social workers use "mindfulness" methods in their profession. In this study, we used qualitative methodology in our desire to examine and understand why the mindfulness approach, with its roots in eastern philosophy, is becoming established in society at large and, simultaneously, being used in the social work field. We were interested in when and why social workers choose to use mindfulness with their clients. Our prior research has revolved around development and use of methods in social work, and on the human reaction to stress. We conducted seven semi-structured interviews, which incorporated four comprehensive questions: 1. Why has the mindfulness method become established in the social work field and in the culture in general? 2. Why do social workers use mindfulness? 3. How do they incorporate mindfulness into their work? 4. What experiences have they had in working with mindfulness? In our treatment of our empirical material we used a hermeneutics approach and, in addition, phenomenological elements in order to preserve the subjective experience and reporting of the social workers we interviewed. Two theoretical perspectives supported our analysis and understanding of the information from the interviews: Jürgen Habermas's framework of "Life World vs. System" from his Theory of Communicative Action and Aaron Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence. Our results indicate that it is the increasing stress in society that contributes to why a mindfulness ap...