Conclusion to Special Issue: Mindfulness and Social Work

The intersection between mindfulness and spirituality is complex and rich with possibilities for social work exploration and practice. While mindfulness has garnered considerable attention in a variety of academic and nonacademic areas, this issue highlights unique dimensions and uses of mindfulness in a variety of fields of social work practice. As the contributions in this special issue have demonstrated, applications of mindfulness are multifarious with largely positive though nuanced results.

Contemporary investigations of mindfulness cover substantial ground. This special issue has highlighted scholarly work and research in the areas of education, addictions, compassion, and ethnocultural practices. Future scholarly work at the intersection of mindfulness and spirituality would do well to address a number of related areas not sufficiently explored in existing literature. For example, the uncertainty surrounding the relationship between mindfulness and spirituality needs to be addressed. Greater scholarly attention regarding the roots of mindfulness and the Western appropriation of this practice from the Buddhist tradition is warranted. There is both a need for definitional precision and an exploration of when and in what circumstances mindfulness is suitable and beneficial.

A great deal of mindfulness research and scholarship focuses on direct practice and education but there are indications (see, e.g., London, 2009; Lysack, 2009; Todd, 2009) of the relevance of mindfulness in community and social policy work. Does the potential for mindfulness to be open to all aspects of a situation contribute to a more critical analysis and more effective engagement?

The articles in this issue draw particular attention to the need to study and clearly articulate how and in what ways mindfulness is nurtured, or not, in social work education. Care needs to be extended to the measurement of mindfulness, on what basis and how it is being introduced in social work education, and what factors contribute to or inhibit its development in students.

Moreover, a future direction necessarily includes the intersection between mindfulness and spirituality internationally. This special issue derives from North American contributors having largely a North American focus, and does not adequately address the mindfulness–spirituality intersection on a global scale. An exploration of the particularities of this intersection at the juncture of family, community, culture, gender, politics, and economies, in a variety of settings globally would prove invaluable.

This dedicated issue of the Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought has just “scratched the surface” of the potential benefits and limitations of mindfulness to social work practice. Additional research and scholarly discussions of its relevance and impact is clearly warranted.