Introduction to Mindfulness - Dean Amory

Evaluation of the Deora Program - Qualitative
An analysis of follow up ‘qualitative’ data based on one-to-one
interviews two weeks following the course and ‘quantitative’ data
based on pre- and post scores on psychometric measures
Two weeks after the Deora mindfulness course ended, one of the
team (FS) met with each of the group members on a one-to-one basis
and asked them a number of structured questions regarding their
individual experiences. She also had each person complete a battery
of tests that had also been administered prior to the course beginning.
Although the number of subjects (6) who completed pre- and postquestionnaires
is much too small to form any conclusions regarding
the impact of mindfulness training on a population in recovery from
addiction, there were some interesting findings, which are reported
below.
Participant 1
How was the course helpful to you in your recovery?
It got me to recognise that my feelings, good and bad, pass. Like the
homework exercise, when we had to write down good and bad
feelings and how they pass was great. The good ones made me laugh,
the bad ones were hard… noticing the bad feelings passed made me
feel guilty that I wasn’t feeling good all the time. The homework
helped me deal with it, accept it, ‘I can’t do anything about it’
How could the course have been more helpful to you?
I enjoyed it an awful lot. All of the course really except that
sometimes the meditation was a bit long. I thought you (facilitators)
were all great. I was delighted and honoured to do it, to be an addict
and all! It has helped me to do things; especially the yoga was really
helpful. I miss it to tell you the truth.
What was a key moment in your experience of the course?
222