Welcome to MindFulChoice™, an innovative method developed by Best Mind Associates as a tool to bring about real change in the way people think, the way they feel and the way they live their lives. This overview will address MindFulChoice™ as it applies to psychotherapy, therefore much of what is described here is directed towards people who are operating in the mental health field.
MindFulChoice™ is an innovative method representing a significant shift in the treatment of clients’ psychological disorders. Likewise, it incorporates a cutting-edge approach to enhance self-awareness and choice. This is also incorporated in the development of the MindFulChoice™ Self-help Educational and Training program for individuals challenged by inattention and impulsivity in decision-making.
The Overview Objectives of MindFulChoice™
Objective 1: To get a basic understanding of an innovative intervention technique called MindFulChoice™ that entails paradigm shifts.
Objective 2: To grasp the underlying principles that create the platform for real changes with MindFulChoice™.
Objective 3: To discern MindFulChoice™ skills acquisition for the mental health professional.
This is an overview, training about the specific uses of the MindFulChoice™ method begins at seminars where mental health professionals can learn how to incorporate it into their practices.
Brings Clarity and Remove Resistance to Change
Best-Minds Associates has combined best psychology practices with leading expertise in physiology and Human Factors science to create the MindFulChoice™ Process – an original, innovative methodology to help organizations and individuals achieve professional success and personal satisfaction in our increasingly challenging society.
MindFulChoice™ illuminates the ineffective thought patterns that people struggle with in their quest to comprehend “why” things happen as they do.
MindFulChoice™ advances an alternative approach by focusing on “WHAT” is happening at any given moment in time, thus making it possible to respond optimally to any situation at hand.
MindFulChoice™: An Overview
MindFulChoice™ was started by two cognitive psychologists who merged over fifty years of combined laboratory, classroom, and practice-based experience into one comprehensive “toolbox.” Dr. Robert Lebovits is a senior clinical psychologist whose practice focuses on treating the dysfunctional patterns that impede the personal and professional lives of both adults and adolescents.
Dr. Gerard Meyer is a physiologist and bio-psychologist whose research has focused on educational science and the process of change, predictive modeling in human performance, and safety decision-making under stress. Based on their experiences with individuals exhibiting behaviors associated with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD, ADHD, etc.), they sought to understand what compels people to habitually behave inappropriately instead of doing the “right thing”. This question generated the development of a training method to enhance one’s cognitive clarity and positive attitudes so that one can set and achieve goals and attain satisfaction in life.
Dr. Robert Lebovits is a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience. During that time he has created novel approaches to understanding the perceptions and responses that influence people in the course of their lives. His methods for engaging in therapeutic change address the inertia of dead-end thinking that therapists so often find when working with their clients. And, with his partner, Dr. Gérard Meyer, has constructed a method to change behavior by altering the way people see themselves and see the course of their lives.
Dr. Gerard Meyer is a cognitive ergonomist who has investigated human response patterns; perception; memory; reasoning; and motor response. He has developed a person-centered, person-in-the-loop approach and investigated all aspects of cognition as a means for optimizing well-being and system performance. Dr. Meyer’s research interests include: mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance, human-computer interface, human reliability, work stress and training.
Six Facets of the BMA Way for Peak Performance
1. Knowing one’s self
An ongoing process of self-understanding begins with the holistic knowledge of mind/body interactions, including breathing methods, predispositions to various stresses, self-assessment of strengths & weaknesses, etc.; knowledge of cognitive & perceptual structures, including models of attention, thinking, & learning; and knowledge of personal processing of experience.
MFC provides a coherent structure for initiating & organizing a self-understanding of your Personal Processing Algorithm that includes:
• Reality bias
• Comfort zone
• Anxiety and moods
• Impairments
• Procrastination
2. Objective Observation and Awareness of the Environment
Being tuned in to the world around us and the people in our lives is key to achieving our goals. Utilizing mindful techniques and “soft skills” education, MFC trains individuals to know what resources are present in their world to maximize success. This includes:
• Relationship to others
• Communication
• Time management
• Flexibility/Adaptability
3. Seeing Choice Coming from Interactions with Our World
A critical element in overcoming negative and self-defeating response patterns is the perception of choice where it was never perceived before. A common human foible is the lack of broad thinking, which in turn limits our actions to the familiar and habitual. The MindFulChoice™ Process expands conscious awareness of new paradigms and pivotal choice points, thus allowing for fresh and innovative solutions to both new and old problems via a creative systems-thinking process.
4. Clarity and Purposeful Mindset for Choice
When we expand our vision of choices, we increase our ability to opt for those actions and responses that will lead to achieving our goals.
Every choice creates a new set of possibilities to choose from. The MindFulChoice™ Process focuses on creating the reality that you wish to forge by learning how to make the right choices and implementing them to your satisfaction by effectively regulating:
• Thoughts
• Impulses
• Behaviors
5. Creating Our Own Reality
At every moment in time, one is presented with a choice that calls for a decision. Each decision leads to a new choice. As one builds a tree of decisions, a unique and personal reality comes into being. One’s choices are determined by needs, thoughts, attitudes, and emotions. A personal reality represents the priorities and values one sets for self-gratification and life enhancement.
As values and priorities change, so do one’s choices and one’s reality. The MindFulChoice™ Process focuses on the What, When, Where, and How of decision-making in order to examine the choices made and thereby open up hitherto unseen potential.
The “What” paradigm also makes it possible to readily detect and remediate the early onset of impulsive or dysfunctional thinking or reactions. MindFulChoice™ provides techniques for self-regulation and avoidance of the Tunnel Vision Effect (TVE), which can lead to catastrophic consequences.
• What, when, where and how – but not why
• Attitudes
• Emotions
• Needs and addictions
• Self-gratification
6. A Constant Learning and Retooling
The MindFulChoice™ Process is made easily accessible to all. It is an exciting enterprise of personal enhancement and life-long learning that begins with our workshops and continues for as long and as far as you wish to take it.
“WHAT” not “WHY”!
a. At Best Minds Associates, we strive to teach people to think about that which is identifiable, quantifiable, precise, and directly related to the subject of interest and to focus on who can affect it.
b. We intentionally avoid the question WHY, because we do not want to teach people to think about intentions, purpose, and motivation. By maintaining a focus on WHAT, one can identify the impact of the problem and, without fixating on causes and responsibility, generate an array of solutions.
c. This innovative methodology is a “data-based” process, analyzing factual data versus bias and subjective judgments that are triggered by asking “why.”
d. Scrutinizing all the “what(s)” is a prerequisite for creative problem-solving and the opposite of problem perseveration that endlessly rehashes problematic behavior.
e. Asking “Why?” is unlike asking “WHAT?” because it cannot be construed as a pretext for making accusations and passing judgment.