Who is it good for? Examining the relationship between reflective practice and mindfulness for promoting healthy lifestyles

Reflective practice (RP) has received a wealth of support from numerous disciplines in the professional practice literature. Yet, resistance still remains for its use by practitioners beyond compulsory training. Reasons for this include a lack of empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of RP and the potential benefits it affords practitioners and end users. The study aimed to generate empirical evidence of the benefits of RP for health-seeking clients. 150 participants (mean age: 17.7 years; BMI: 44.2 kg/m2 ) were assigned to one of three intervention groups: (1) generic health and fitness; (2) generic health and fitness plus mindfulness training; and (3) generic health and fitness plus mindfulness and RP training. Outcome measures included body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness, which were collected at baseline and postintervention. Process measures assessed mindfulness and reflection skills and were collected four times during the intervention process. Interaction effects were noted for mindfulness and reflection skills indicating divergent trends between treatment groups F(6, 242)=5.3, p<0.05. Post-hoc analysis indicated no differences between Group 2 and Group 3, whilst scores for Group 1 were lower than Group 2 and Group 3. Both body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness, improved from pre- to post-intervention for each group, with Group 3 achieving better improvements than the other groups for waist-to-height ratio F(2, 123)=10.8, p<0.01, and body fat percentage F(2, 123)=49.2, p<0.01. The mindfulness and RP interventions appeared beneficial in terms of helping participants to improve their related skills which facilitated the adoption of healthier lifestyles. In line with calls from the literature the study adopted an experimental design to generate empirical evidence regarding the benefits of RP for health-seeking clients and adds to the already extensive purported benefits for practitioners and end users alike.