Research Collaboration
Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy (GRMT) has developed through an ongoing interaction between clinical practice, practitioner training, and research. Research to date has examined the development of the GRMT model, practitioner training, and applications involving depression and anxiety, occupational stress in nurses, and chronic pain.
GRMT is a structured, manualised clinical approach, making it possible to investigate the intervention using defined protocols and standardised training. At the same time, its predominantly experiential and embodied nature raises a range of questions about therapeutic process, mechanisms of change, and the relationship between respiration, bodily experience, psychological processes, and therapeutic change.
Opportunities for Research
There are many questions within GRMT that remain open to investigation. These include:
- clinical outcomes across different psychological and health conditions
- comparisons with established psychological interventions
- mechanisms and processes of therapeutic change
- the role of breathing inhibition and respiratory change in treatment
- the relationship between embodied experience, mindfulness, and psychological change
- practitioner training, competency, and treatment fidelity
- individual and group applications of GRMT
- longer-term outcomes and maintenance of therapeutic change
- physiological and neurological processes associated with the GRMT experience
Research may be appropriate at undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, clinical, or institutional levels, depending on the question and study design.
Research Practitioner Training
Where a study requires GRMT to be delivered by multiple practitioners, training can be arranged for research practitioners.
The purpose of this training is to support consistent and protocol-accurate delivery of GRMT within the requirements of the research study. Training can include experiential preparation, instruction in the GRMT protocol, supervised practice, and ongoing review of recorded sessions where appropriate.
Research practitioner training is available by arrangement in New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, and other locations.
Working With GRMT
GRMT research needs to preserve both the integrity of the intervention and the requirements of rigorous research methodology. For this reason, research involving GRMT is developed collaboratively so that the proposed study, practitioner preparation, treatment protocol, and research procedures are appropriately aligned.
GRMT is an in-person intervention. Studies involving the GRMT therapeutic process therefore require an appropriate face-to-face setting, with participant safety, practitioner competency, and protocol fidelity taken into account in the study design.
Discuss a Research Project
Researchers, clinicians, universities, and postgraduate students interested in investigating GRMT are welcome to make contact to discuss a possible research project or collaboration.
Initial discussions can consider the research question, study design, participant population, practitioner requirements, training, and arrangements needed to maintain the integrity of the GRMT intervention.
If you are considering research involving GRMT, please contact Dr Lloyd Lalande to discuss the possibilities.