Mindfulness has become a widely embedded technique within contemporary psychological practice and is used for emotional regulation, stress reduction, and symptom management. While such applications may offer short-term relief, the usefulness of mindfulness in outcome-driven and technique-focused ways without a coherent psychological framework limits both the client's and the clinician's understanding why the practice works or how to make ideosyncratic changes for those instances when it does not work. In these contexts, mindfulness risks functioning as a form of experiential distancing, potentially drawing individuals away from reality rather than supporting grounded engagement with present-moment experience.

This presentation proposes that these limitations are not inherent to mindfulness itself, but arise from its decontextualisation from its original theoretical foundations. Drawing on Buddhist psychotherapy, the presenters argue for re-embedding mindfulness within a comprehensive psychological framework informed by early Buddhist teachings. Within this framework, mindfulness is not treated as a standalone technique, but a broader process of addressing suffering, impermanence, and the construction of self.

The presentation is organised into three components. First, Dr Debra Kawahara will introduce core Buddhist psychotherapy perspective that reframes psychological suffering away from a pathological model. She will present suffering as constructed through patterns of perception and meaning-making, rather than as evidence of internal defect. From this perspective, psychological symptoms are understood as expressions of misapprehension rather than dysfunction, and therapy is conceptualised as a process of supporting insight, rather than repairing a wounded self.

Second, Dr Tien will introduce how the Buddha Gotama conceptualises the human experience of existence, which are the three marks of existence. She will explain how mindfulness is one of the techniques used in the realization of the three marks of existence, thus supporting insight into our lived experiences rather than functioning solely as a techinque to regulate unpleasant emotions. From this perspective, the therapist’s stance, including how suffering, self, and impermanence are understood, is as clinically important as the interventions themselves.

Finally, Dr Hall will conclude by presenting a clinical case to illustrate how mindfulness, when situated within a Buddhist psychotherapy framework, is neither about inducing calm nor about fixing psychological distress, but about loosening identification with a fixed sense of self. Through the case material, she will demonstrate how mindfulness can support contact with lived experience while avoiding both symptom suppression and self-reinforcement. This case demonstrates how insight-oriented mindfulness promotes lasting psychological change by engaging directly with experience rather than controlling it.