Timothy Wachtel

Timothy Wachtel, an M.S. in Psychology graduate, was awarded Walden University’s Outstanding Thesis Award for The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Sustained Attention in Adults With ADHD.  

Expanding His Expertise
Wachtel’s diverse professional background includes management consulting in entertainment, health care and manufacturing—most recently focused on organizational change, organizational learning, performance improvement and leadership development—but he wanted his psychology master’s thesis to further expand his intellectual frontier.

“It would have been easy for me to write a thesis in an area in which I have a great deal of experience; yet, I wanted to challenge myself and investigate an area where I had little prior knowledge,” he explains. “I also wanted to develop a thesis not merely for simple task-fulfillment purposes, but to make a significant impact in the communities in which the research was intended.”

Mindfulness Meditation at Work
Wachtel combined his interest in Eastern philosophies with his interest in patient care to develop a thesis that would apply meditation as a treatment for adults suffering the effects of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a common psychological disorder that can profoundly affect adults’ quality of life, work performance, professional development and self-esteem. Mindfulness meditation, in simple terms, involves bringing one's awareness back into the present—away from concerns about the past or future.

“A body of research has recently emerged demonstrating the efficacy of mindfulness meditation in the remediation of several emotional and affective state disorders involving cognitive dysfunction,” Wachtel says.

He proposed comparing the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in improving attention in adults with the inattentive subtype of ADHD.

“Although some cognitive therapy programs exist that incorporate a mindfulness meditation component, no study has yet assessed treatment differences between cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation alone,” notes Wachtel, who conducted an extensive literature review as part of his thesis.

Next Steps
The proposed research, if carried out, would represent the first known analysis of mindfulness meditation in adults with ADHD. It would also subject mindfulness meditation to comparison with CBT, a strongly supported alternative intervention.

Wachtel hopes to turn his research design over to a clinical community for further analysis and has contacted a number of clinical psychologists regarding their interest in performing the study.

“The results would be of great interest to many communities, including educational psychology, education, neurocognitive science, psychopathology, alternative and complementary therapy, as well as many spiritual communities,” he says.

About the Award
Read more about the Outstanding Thesis Award and last year's recipient.

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