Is mindfulness value free? Tiptoeing through the mindfield of mindfulness

[Extract] Mindfulness is increasingly being integrated into human service workers' professional practice on the basis that, as an approach, it is part of all spiritual traditions and can be practiced in a secular context without the values of those traditions (Hick, 2009). Over time, mindfulness has evolved from its traditional roots in Buddhism and been integrated as a secularized practice into modern therapeutic and social change interventions (Bishop et al., 2004; Didonna, 2009; Hick, 2009; Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Langer, 1989; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). This professional secularization has been supported by scientific research on the benefits of mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions for improving attention and emotional regulation processes and contributing to self-care in clients (Shapiro & Applegate, 2000; Shapiro & Carlson, 2009; Siegel, 2010). Many of these interventions also require the practitioner to be authentic, skillful, and accomplished in the mediation or mindfulness practices that they use in their intervention process.