title: Mindfulness-based supportive therapy (MBST): proposing a palliative psychotherapy from a conceptual perspective to address suffering in palliative care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a mindfulness-based palliative psychotherapy to address psychoexistential suffering in palliative care.
  First, a theory of suffering was formulated by merging 2 models of suffering from 2 thematic analyses of 20 palliative care patients and 15 informal caregivers. Second, the results from a secondary thematic analysis of suffering caused by health care interactions were conceptualized into a psychotherapy framework. Third, principles of mindfulness were incorporated into the framework to form a mindfulness-based psychotherapy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mindfulness-based supportive therapy (MBST) was developed with the following 5 components of presence, listening, empathy, compassion, and boundary awareness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We believe that MBST is a potentially useful psychological intervention in palliative care, specifically designed to address psychoexistential suffering of terminally ill patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia pramudita_1@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Tan Seng
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Beng
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Loh Ee
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Ng Chong
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Cathie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Lim Ee
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Jane
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Christopher Boey Chiong
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Meng
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D064866:Mindfulness / Q000379:methods*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: mindfulness; palliative care; psychosocial care; psychotherapy; review; suffering