Biopsychosocial Factors of Stress, and Mindfulness for Stress Reduction

This volume brings together basic research on the nature of stress reactivity with up-to-date research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness interventions. The chapters review the major research areas that elucidate the impact of stress reactivity on health, and explore the mechanisms and effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches for stress reduction and improved physical and emotional health. The first section examines biopsychosocial mechanisms of stress reactivity such as allostasis and allostatic load, neurobiology of stress, biology of the “fight-or-flight” and “tend-and-befriend” responses, and psychoneuroimmunology. This section concludes by addressing the roles of perception and appraisal, including the role of perceived threat in stress reactivity as well as the role that negative perceptions of the stress response itself play in compromising health. The second section opens with review of leading psychological models of mindfulness, including self-regulation, reperceiving, and the Intention, Attention, Attitude (IAA) triaxiomatic model. Subsequent chapters discuss mindfulness-based interventions and mechanisms of change for stress and related clinical conditions including chronic pain, traumatic stress, anxiety and related disorders, and clinical depression. The final chapter reviews possible neural networks and brain mechanisms associated with mindfulness meditation practice. As the research on stress reactivity and mindfulness-based stress reduction continues to proliferate, this book offers readers a single volume covering the most relevant information across this vast terrain. Other available volumes offer in-depth coverage of stress research with little mention of mindfulness and stress reduction. Conversely, many texts on the topic of mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions do not adequately cover the biopsychosocial processes of stress reactivity.

About the Author

Holly Hazlett-Stevens received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1999. Under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas D. Borkovec, she studied the nature of anxiety and worry as well as cognitive behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. From 1999-2001, Dr. Hazlett-Stevens was a post-doctoral fellow at the Anxiety Disorders Research Center in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under the mentorship of Dr. Michelle Craske. There she received training in cognitive behavioral treatment for panic disorder, coordinated panic disorder intervention research projects, and continued her own program of anxiety and worry research.

In 2002, Dr. Hazlett-Stevens joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she is currently an Associate Professor. She has published over 50 scholarly research articles and book chapters and authored two books, Women Who Worry Too Much and Psychological Approaches to Generalized Anxiety Disorder . She also co-authored New Directions in Progressive Relaxation Training with Douglas A. Bernstein and Thomas D. Borkovec, and the updated Progressive Relaxation Training: A Guide for Practitioners, Students, and Researchers with Douglas A. Bernstein.

Since 2010, Dr. Hazlett-Stevens attended a series of intensive professional training programs in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instruction from the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. She received over 260 hours of professional education in MBSR instruction and is a certified MBSR instructor. Dr. Hazlett-Stevens currently conducts research examining the effects of MBSR, the nature of mindfulness, and how mindfulness training reduces stress and anxiety while improving health and well-being.