MBCT is based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) eight-week program, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Research shows that MBSR is enormously empowering for patients with chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and gastrointestinal disorders, as well as for psychological problems such as anxiety and panic.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Includes:  

  • Practicing useful meditation and mindfulness techniques
  • Learning cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches a person how to recognize the onset of negative thinking and what to do next
  • Exploring how to get in touch with the physical body and how it relates to depression
  • Engaging in physical movement and specialized meditation that helps to develop a relationship between your mind and body
  • Acquiring self-knowlege about depression and emotional disregulation
  • Creating action plans to put in place when depression threatens to overwhelm you

Can MBCT Help Me?

  1. Are you afraid that depression will creep up on you again?  If ‘YES’, have you recovered enough to consider taking steps to prevent future episodes?
  2. Do you find that, when you become sad, you tend to ruminate about things?
  3. Does your thinking rapidly become negative in response to small downward shifts in your moods?
  4. When your mood goes down, do you find yourself thinking about why you always react this way?
  5. When your mood goes down, do you find yourself thinking about how it will all end?
  6. When your mood goes down, do you find yourself trying to analyze everything?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you may find MBCT helpful.

Background:

Once you have had depression, there is an increased risk that you will become depressed again.

What causes depression to return?

If you have been depressed, and then recovered, you may have noticed that a small amount of sadness or disappointment can trigger a large amount of negative thoughts (e.g. ‘I am a failure’, ‘I am weak’, ‘I am worthless’). The same small amount of negative mood can also trigger bodily sensations of weakness or fatigue or unexplained pain.

Both the negative thoughts and fatigue often seem out of proportion to the situation. You may find yourself ruminating: ‘what has gone wrong?’, ‘why is this happening to me?’, ‘when will it all end?’.

How does Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy work?

MBCT helps you to see more clearly the patterns of your mind; and to learn how to recognize when your mood is beginning to go down. It helps break the link between negative mood and the negative thinking that might normally have escalated into a relapse. You develop the capacity to mindfully disengage from distressing mood, and negative thoughts. You find that you can learn to stay in touch with the present moment, without having to ruminate about the past, or agonize about the future.

The mindfulness approach is meant to enhance, not to compete with, whatever type of treatment you may be receiving for depression, whether antidepressants or psychotherapy. The aim is to continue the envelope of care into those periods when you are feeling well, and beyond. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy differs from mindfulness meditation as it is normally taught by the way it integrates mindfulness practice into a psychological model of depression and depressive relapse, and the way it uses specific exercises to bring mindfulness (and concentration) to bear in stressful situations.

 

Next MBCT Class will start in summer 2009 Please call 505 670-7372 to register