Mindfulness-based interventions for women's health in Turkey: A systematic review from a social work perspective

This study aims to systematically examine postgraduate theses focusing on mindfulness-based interventions in the field of women's health in Türkiye, within the context of the social work discipline. Mindfulness-based interventions are generally designed to help individuals cope with stress, enhance psychological resilience, and improve self-care skills through awareness, acceptance, and non-judgmental approaches. In the field of women's health, these interventions are utilized as effective tools during physically and emotionally sensitive periods such as pregnancy, the postpartum period, menopause, infertility, and oncological treatment processes. As part of the research, a total of 694 records were retrieved from the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education in Türkiye. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria within PRISMA protocol, 11 theses were deemed suitable for content analysis. The findings were analyzed in terms of target groups, academic departments, intervention methods, measurement tools used, and qualitative outcomes. These results were also evaluated from a social work perspective. The review revealed that the studies on mindfulness-based interventions in Türkiye are primarily concentrated within health sciences disciplines such as Nursing, Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing, Mental Health and Psychiatry, Recreation, Clinical Psychology, and Midwifery. Notably, there are no theses from the field of social work to date. Most of the interventions focused on natural transitional phases in women's lives, such as menopause, or physically and emotionally sensitive processes like the postpartum period or post-cancer treatment. The studies generally reported positive effects on psychological well-being. Both the findings and the theoretical literature reviewed suggest that mindfulness could be a valuable tool in social work practice—for both service users and professionals—in terms of promoting self-care. Accordingly, it is recommended that mindfulness-based interventions be more widely and discipline-specifically integrated into social work practice, research, and education. Keywords: Mindfulness, mindfulness-based interventions, women's health, social work