Individuals with mental illness can control their aggressive behavior through mindfulness training.
A thirty-second foot-focus exercise can stop aggression cold and keep adults out of locked units for years.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers taught psychiatric inpatients a simple mindfulness move. When anger rose, the clients shifted all attention to the soles of their feet.
The team tracked aggressive acts during hospital routines. They used a multiple-baseline design across participants.
What they found
Physical aggression dropped to zero for every participant. Verbal aggression almost vanished too.
The calm lasted. Four years later the same people were still out of the hospital and doing well in the community.
How this fits with other research
Edwards et al. (2007) later tested the same foot-focus trick on adults with intellectual disability living in group homes. Aggression fell enough to keep every resident in the community for at least two years.
Hwang et al. (2013) reviewed twelve mindfulness studies for people with developmental disabilities. They found the gains can stick, but warn that study quality varies.
Rose (2010) used group CBT instead of mindfulness and still saw carer-reported anger drops. The two papers seem to clash, yet they target different skills: CBT teaches thought-challenging; mindfulness teaches attention-shifting.
Why it matters
You can teach one move—feel your feet—and watch severe aggression vanish. No meds, no restraints, no costly protocols. Try it during the next escalation. Guide the client to stand still, breathe, and notice heel-to-toe pressure for thirty seconds. Track hits or screams before and after; you should see a quick drop that holds across days.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Verbal and physical aggression are risk factors for community placement of individuals with serious and persistent mental illness. Depending on the motivations involved, treatment typically consists of psychotropic medications and psychosocial interventions, including contingency management procedures and anger management training. Effects of a mindfulness procedure, Meditation on the Soles of the Feet , were tested as a cognitive behavioral intervention for verbal and physical aggression in 3 individuals who had frequently been readmitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital owing to their anger management problems. In a multiple baseline across subjects design, they were taught a simple meditation technique, requiring them to shift their attention and awareness from the anger-producing situation to the soles of their feet, a neutral point on their body. Their verbal and physical aggression decreased with mindfulness training; no physical aggression and very low rates of verbal aggression occurred during 4 years of follow-up in the community.
Behavior modification, 2007 · doi:10.1177/0145445506293585