Japanese Buddhist monk undertakes opening ceremony at Bournemouth University health conference
16 October 2008
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Reverend Dr Je Kan Adler-Collins, the first European Koyasan Shingon monk, based in Japan, recently joined health practitioners from across the UK at an innovative Bournemouth University conference. |
The Buddhist concept of Mindfulness is emerging as a new therapeutic approach to our health and coping strategies, as delegates to a recent BU conference discovered.
Reverend Dr Je Kan Adler-Collins, the first European Koyasan Shingon monk, based in Japan, recently joined health practitioners from across the UK at an innovative Bournemouth University conference
The topic for discussion was mindfulness – an approach based upon the awareness of one’s thoughts, actions or motivations. Delegates discussed how this concept could be used to help prevent the occurrence of illness and the benefits it could bring to some of the physical and psychological problems experienced by patients.
Welcomed by a Buddhist opening ceremony, Reverend Dr Je Kan Alder-Collins, a nurse and Associate Professor in the Health Promotion Centre at Fukuoka Prefectural University in southern Japan, provided a compelling insight into how mindfulness-related Japanese Shingon teachings and practices, such as higher-state meditation (without thoughts), could improve the treatment of pain, anxiety, stress and depression.
He also discussed how Western culture, which is bound by a strong context of conformity and resistance to change, is restrictive in its understanding of the root cause of illness.
Attendees also heard from Senior Lecturer, Dr Francis Biley, from the University’s Centre for Qualitative Research, who spent a month with Reverend Dr Je Kan Alder-Collins in Japan to explore the authentic cultural origins of mindfulness, paying particular attention to its application to mental health care practice.
Dr Biley also observed how arts and humanities can be usefully and therapeutically employed in health care to promote social inclusion and benefit mental and physical health.
Caroline Hoffman, Clinical Director and Research Co-ordinator of London-based Breast Cancer Haven and the first Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist in Complementary Cancer Care shared her experiences of mindfulness. She talked about her training and experience in a range of complementary therapies including traditional Chinese acupuncture, shiatsu, massage, aromatherapy, reflex zone therapy and iridology (a technique involves observing the patterns, colours, and other characteristics of the iris to determine information about a patient's systemic health) in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
Dr Biley, who has published a number of research papers on the role of arts and humanities in mental health care, said: “In recent years, the value of mindfulness-based interventions in health and social care have been attracting increasing attention and have been used in response to a wide variety of clinical conditions that include substance use, stress, depression and cancer.
“This event has given health practitioners a rare opportunity to to question existing Western techniques and gain an understanding of how they own ‘critical thinking’, rather than looking at what has been done in the past, could benefit patients.”
Bournemouth University’s Centre for Qualitative Research has developed a dedicated research programme that focuses on the human dimensions of care.
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