Our Research

Research Thesis 

Despite the increasing popularity of mindfulness based approaches there continue to be barriers to access. Those taking up training have tended to be self-funding professionals, and much of the existing research has been conducted with samples of white, middle class participants or on clinical populations, with an associated focus on treatment and pathology.  The Everyone Project seeks to broaden access by delivering Mindfulness Based Living Courses (MBLCs) to disadvantaged and isolated groups, often those living with multiple stressors.  In contrast to many other mindfulness approaches, MBLC was devised for a non-clinical population, has an explicit focus on self-compassion, and facilitates self-screening.  This is more congruent with an empowering, strengths-based approach that can bring genuine change to those who are marginalised or lack social capital.   

There is, however, a lack of research on this approach.  Our research programme aims to explore how MBLC is experienced in socio-economically and ethnically diverse communities, including vulnerable and isolated groups. 

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Research Projects & Outcomes

Our on-going research programme is providing us with resounding evidence of the impact of the mindfulness courses that we deliver.

Our research began in 2016 investigating changes in perceived stress, well-being and mindfulness before and after participants attended our courses. This research was overseen by Alan Hughes of the Mindfulness Association and Moira Harris, a PhD student with the University of Aberdeen. Julie McColl of the University of Strathclyde has also worked with us on writing up and presenting the results. It was very pleasing to see significant improvements in well-being and mindfulness, and reductions in perceived stress. A summary of the initial findings can be found in Chapter 25 of ”Mindful Heroes – stories of journeys that changed lives”. This chapter also reports on the outcomes of in-depth interviews carried out with five of the early course participants. A more detailed analysis and report of the research is available to download: Initial report - Analysis of Everyone Project data as is the report on the more extensive research in 2017 that corroborated the initial results: Everyone Project Cohort 2 Report - March 2018.

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Currently, the Mindfulness Association CIC is sponsoring a PhD by Laura Pellegrini studying at The University of Lincoln. Her research includes a randomised control trial with an active control of University students, but also includes analysis of data collected from Everyone Project course participant and the feedback from the tutors delivering the Everyone Project Courses. Please see below an abstract from a recent conference presentation Laura gave. We are hopeful that this work will, in due course result in a peer review research paper.

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“Background; Validation of mindfulness courses in terms of benefits, such as reducing stress and anxiety, in diverse populations is key, particularly as they are growing in popularity. The Everyone Project, a collaborative venture between the Mindfulness Association and the Hart Knowe Trust, committed to addressing the diversity in people attending the 8-week Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) across the UK. Aims; This research aimed to evaluate the MBLC in Cohort 1 and 2 of The Everyone Project. Methods; 33 courses were delivered to people aged 19-85 with group sizes of between 3 and 21. Participants completed 3 questionnaires which evaluated wellbeing (World Health Organisation 5; WHO-5), current perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale; PSS-10) and mindful awareness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale; MAAS) with differences between pre- and post- course scores analysed. Factors influencing course completion and impact were also investigated. Results; Preliminary data analyses indicate a significant increase across cohorts in the WHO-5 and MAAS and a decrease in PSS-10 post course. Dropout ranged from 0-81.8% and further analyses will investigate specific factors which may have influenced this. Conclusion; This research shows for the first time that the MBLC increases wellbeing and mindful attention and decreases current perceived stress across diverse populations, suggesting further deliveries of the course would be of benefit to these harder to reach groups. Future research should focus on investigating potential factors influencing dropout further in order to optimise the impact and delivery of 8-week mindfulness courses.”

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In 2022, following the sad death of our founding Chair Chloe Homewood-Allen, in honour of her memory, the Everyone Project sponsors a PhD with the University of Aberdeen through the Chloe Homewood Research Bursary for Inclusion in Mindfulness. 

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This bursary has been awarded to Josetta Malcolm (they/them) who will be studying Equity Diversity and Inclusion in Mindfulness: A Decolonial Approach. For more information about Josetta and their research, please see here.