Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) is a method that combines mindfulness, manual and psycho-educational approaches. It is a type of awareness training that is anticipated to the capacity of the participants to understand and process the sensory information relayed by their bodies.
MABT was initially developed to help patients who feel disconnected from their bodies as a result of pain, traumatic experiences or chronic health issues.
In the drug addiction treatment centers, the MABT approach has been tried as novel approach along with other substance abuse disorder treatments for better results. By combining mindfulness, manual, and psycho-educational approaches to teach introspection and self-care, MABT complements the traditional addiction treatment methods.
To understand the effectiveness of this new approach for the substance abuse treatment, researchers from the University of Washington studied in a large group of women in Seattle through a randomized trial using the mindfulness approach as an adjunct treatment.
In the study, while a group of 187 women participated in the standard treatment for addiction, another group received MABT also as a complementary treatment. Women in both groups were given general education and information sessions to ensure that MABT approach is the only difference between the two groups.
To record the responses of the treatments, assessments were done at 3, 6, and 12 months from the beginning of the study. These included questions about substance use, distress, cravings, emotional regulation, mindfulness skills, and personal interoceptive awareness.
The study led by Cynthia Price, Professor from the University of Washington School of Nursing concluded that women who received MABT training relapsed less to drug and alcohol use as a result of learning to attend to their bodies by applying the skills for better self-care.
The success of combining the MABT approach with the regular addiction treatment is attributed to the knowledge that often people suffering from addiction get trapped in the habit of numbing problematic emotions, rather than addressing them which in turn leads to reduced ability to process and work through challenges. The MABT method also takes into consideration one of the challenges of addiction where almost all systems in the body, including the brain’s emotional range, are disrupted. In this condition, the person lacks the ability to tune into their body’s needs to control them which makes cravings particularly dangerous and unpredictable.
With the support of the mindfulness training, as shown in the study by Cynthia Price, patients get the benefit of increased physical understanding and get in touch with their minds and bodies in new ways through identify feelings, urges, and points of tension. Essentially, listening to what their bodies are trying to tell them, they gain the power to regulate their own reaction to the cravings and urges that control the addiction.
For more information about the study check out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4784109/