I suggest meditation to a lot of people and I am specific about it, because vague advice to "try meditating" is the same as no advice.
What I actually suggest: a guided ten-minute practice, done most days, attached to an existing daily habit, for a fortnight before judging it. I name the kind — mindfulness for someone who wants to be less reactive, mantra for someone whose mind will not stop commentating, guided for anyone who finds silence uncomfortable — and I say plainly that a wandering mind is the practice rather than a failure.
Where I refer rather than teach: if the reason someone needs this is an anxiety disorder or depression, the structured programmes and psychological therapy are better than anything I can offer in a treatment room, and a GP mental health treatment plan makes them affordable. For chronic pain, there are pain programmes that include this properly. I would rather someone got the well-evidenced version than a version of it from me.
And the caution I always give: for some people, especially with a trauma history, sustained inward attention makes distress worse rather than better. If that happens, stop. It is a recognised response, not something you are doing wrong, and it needs a trauma-informed practitioner rather than persistence.
What I do use it for in the clinic is the practical end: getting someone down off a high state before treatment, breath work for a held chest, and something to do at 3am other than lie there. The clinic is in Lane Cove, opposite the library.
