Mindfulness has become a buzzword, and that can make it hard to know what it actually means in a therapeutic context. In my practice, mindfulness isn’t a technique I bolt onto therapy — it’s a way of paying attention that changes how the entire therapeutic process works. It means learning to be present with your experience as it actually is, rather than as you think it should be.
If you’ve tried therapy before and found it too focused on thinking your way out of problems, or if you’ve tried meditation and found it hard to sit with what comes up, mindfulness-based therapy occupies a useful middle ground. It combines the relational depth of psychotherapy with the present-moment awareness of contemplative practice. This approach is part of my broader individual therapy work.
Therapy doesn't have to be all talk. Sometimes the most powerful work happens when you learn to simply be present.
Schedule a free consultation →What Mindfulness Means in This Practice
In this context, mindfulness means developing the capacity to observe your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations without immediately reacting to them. It’s the difference between being caught in anxiety and noticing that anxiety is present. That distinction might sound subtle, but it changes everything — because once you can observe a pattern rather than being inside it, you have choices you didn’t have before.
This isn’t about clearing your mind or achieving some state of calm detachment. It’s about building a different relationship with your inner life — one characterized by curiosity rather than judgment, and by willingness rather than avoidance. For many people, this shift in relationship to their own experience is more transformative than any specific coping technique.
Where Mindfulness Shows Up in the Work
Mindfulness informs the therapy in several ways. I might slow down during a session to notice what’s happening in your body when a particular topic comes up. I might ask you to sit with a difficult emotion rather than immediately trying to understand or fix it. I might explore the stories your mind tells about who you are and what’s possible, and gently test whether those stories are as solid as they feel.
Between sessions, you might experiment with brief mindfulness practices — not as homework, but as ways of extending the awareness you’re developing in therapy into your daily life. Over time, this builds a capacity for self-observation that serves you well beyond the therapy room. The integration of mindfulness with psychodynamic and attachment-based approaches is what makes this work distinctive. If this resonates, you may also be drawn to my approach to Buddhist psychology in therapy, which shares much of the same philosophical foundation.
Learning to be present with yourself is one of the most powerful things therapy can offer.
Schedule a free consult →Who This Is For
Mindfulness-based therapy is particularly helpful for people dealing with anxiety, depression, chronic stress, emotional reactivity, perfectionism, and the kind of persistent self-criticism that makes it hard to feel at ease in your own skin. It’s also valuable for people in life transitions — career changes, relationship shifts, questions about direction — where the challenge isn’t a specific problem to solve but a need to develop a new relationship with uncertainty.
You don’t need any prior meditation experience. You don’t need to identify as spiritual or contemplative. You just need to be willing to pay attention to your experience with a bit more honesty and a bit less judgment than usual. I have extensive training in both contemplative practices and clinical psychology, and bring those together in a way that feels natural and grounded rather than abstract or prescriptive.
Practical Details
I’m located in Pittsburgh and also offer online sessions throughout Pennsylvania. Sessions are weekly and last 53 minutes. This is a private-pay practice, and evening and Sunday appointments are available. If you’re curious about whether this approach would be a good fit, a free consultation is the best place to start.
Ready to Get Started?
Schedule a free consultation to discuss how therapy can help.
Schedule a Free ConsultationFurther Reading
What is Buddhist Psychology? Ancient Wisdom for Modern Stress and Emotional Healing.
Anxious & Overwhelmed? How Mindfulness-Based Therapy Teaches You to Find Calm.
The Art of Self-Compassion: A Buddhist-Informed Path to Healing Self-Criticism and Fostering Inner Kindness.
Finding Balance in an Extreme World: A Guide to the Middle Path
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need meditation experience for this to work?
No. The mindfulness dimension of this work doesn’t require a personal meditation practice — though if you have one, it will inform the work in useful ways. What I’m doing is bringing a mindfulness-informed lens to therapy itself: noticing patterns of attention, tracking where you leave your experience, and helping you stay with what arises rather than managing it. You don’t need to meditate for that to be effective.
Is this different from MBSR or MBCT?
Yes. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy are structured, manualized programs with a specific curriculum. What I do is different — I integrate mindfulness as a clinical sensibility rather than a protocol. It’s woven into the psychodynamic and relational work, not delivered as a standalone technique. The roots are in a contemplative tradition, not a stress reduction framework.
How does mindfulness help with sexual problems?
Most sexual difficulties — spectatoring, performance anxiety, avoidance, loss of desire — involve a specific failure of presence. You’re monitoring instead of experiencing. Your brain is evaluating instead of your body being in it. Mindfulness-based work directly targets that split, helping you notice when you’ve left the experience and understand what staying would require. Sensate focus, a core intervention in sex therapy, is essentially this principle applied to physical intimacy.
Is this a Buddhist practice?
The contemplative tradition I draw on has Buddhist roots, but the clinical work is secular. You don’t need to have any interest in Buddhism, meditation, or spirituality for this to be relevant. What I take from the tradition is a sophisticated understanding of attention, awareness, and how the mind constructs and avoids experience — and I apply that understanding clinically, in the service of therapeutic change.
Do you take insurance?
This is a private-pay practice. I don’t bill insurance directly, but I can provide a superbill for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Private pay means no insurance company limiting sessions, dictating treatment, or attaching a diagnosis to your record.
How do I get started?
The first step is a free 15-minute phone consultation. It’s not an intake — it’s a brief conversation to see if the fit is right. You can schedule one here, or call or text 412-206-9080.
About Your Therapist
Jonah Taylor is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist practicing in Pittsburgh, PA. He specializes in Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples and individuals, with a particular focus on the intersection of attachment, sexuality, and shame. Jonah integrates psychodynamic understanding, mindfulness, and attachment science to help clients move beyond surface-level coping toward genuine change.