Eavesdrop On Experts

“One of the biggest problems we face is people thinking ‘we’ll just throw mindfulness at them and it’ll fix the problem’ or at least it feels like it’s fixing the problem,” says Dr Nicholas Van Dam, Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. “We’re increasingly seeing that [mindfulness] isn’t a silver bullet, it’s not a panacea. It won’t fix every problem for every person and it probably shouldn’t be for every child in every school. That kind of thinking just probably isn’t going to work and the science doesn’t support that, but we’re starting to get better.” Dr Van Dam is the inaugural director of the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne, a first point of entry into the world of mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practice. The Centre focuses on interdisciplinary, evidence-based research into contemplative practice and methodology. “We’re trying to understand these practices - we’re starting to actually look at comparing meditation