MBCT

       Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

Beyond the ordinary

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combines elements of mindfulness practice and cognitive behavioral therapy to help individuals develop greater awareness and acceptance of their thoughts, emotions, and experiences in order to cultivate resilience and prevent relapse in depression and anxiety and related conditions.

Beyond the ordinary

This psychotherapy was designed to help people who experience repeated episodes of depression and to help prevent depression from returning.

Mindfulness interventions have shown promise for improving OCD symptoms (Pseftogianni et al., 2023).

MBCT usually takes the form of 8 weekly sessions, with guided meditations accompanying the program so that participants can practice skills at home throughout the course.

Beyond the ordinary

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a type of meditation that focuses on being aware of any sensations and feelings in the present moment without interpretation or judgment.

It is a compassionate type of awareness with a sense of knowing what is happening in the external and internal world as it is happening.

Mindfulness has grown in popularity over recent years and can involve breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress and anxiety.

Beyond the ordinary

How was mindfulness-based cognitive therapy developed?

In the 1990s, psychologists Jon Teasdale and Phillip Barnard found that the mind had two main modes: the ‘doing’ mode and the ‘being’ mode.

The ‘doing’ mode is goal-orientated, triggered when the mind sees a difference between how things are and how it wants things to do. Whereas the ‘being’ mode isn’t focused on achieving specific goals but rather accepting and allowing what is.

 

It was found that the ‘being’ mode was the one that led to lasting emotional changes.

Therefore, the psychologists concluded that effective cognitive therapy would have to promote not just cognitive awareness but also the ‘being’ mode of the mind, such as mindfulness offers.

Psychiatrists Zindel Segal and Mark Williams, as well as Jon Kabat-Zinn, became involved and helped combine these new ideas about cognitive therapy with Kabat-Zinn’s 1979 mindfulness-based stress reduction program to create what is known as MBCT.

The program was developed specifically for depression. What is known about depression is that it is a recurrent and episodic condition, with people more likely to continue having depressive episodes for years.

With MBCT, the idea is that the person with depression will learn skills to catch negative thought spirals as they are happening and be able to disengage from them before it develops into a depressive episode.

Beyond the ordinary

MBCT vs. CBT

MBCT and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) help recognize unhelpful thoughts and involve learning that these thoughts aren’t facts but something one can take a wider view of.

They both aim to make the person feel less likely to be drawn into automatic reactions to thoughts, feelings, and events. Also, both CBT and MBCT are short to medium-term therapies, and both tend to work best for those with depression and anxiety.

The main difference between the two therapies is that MBCT uses mindfulness, which involves recognizing what is going on in the present moment, and how an individual is thinking, feeling, and experiencing in the present moment.

CBT, on the other hand, uses cognition to understand negative thought processes – it is very analytical, with clients charting their emotions and reactions as homework.

So, while MBCT encourages noticing what is going on around the person, CBT encourages the person to constantly notice their thoughts.

CBT also encourages the individual to push out unhelpful thoughts, whereas MBCT involves letting negative thoughts drift through the mind without judgment.

MBCT utilizes a combination of mindfulness meditation, cognitive restructuring, and psychoeducation to help individuals recognize and modify unhelpful thought patterns, increase self-compassion, and develop a more present-focused and accepting mindset.

Below are some of the techniques specifically used in MBCT:

Meditation

People may learn meditative techniques during MBCT. This can involve practicing guided or self-directed meditation that helps them gain a greater awareness of their body, thoughts, and breathing.

Body scan exercise

This exercise typically involves lying down in a comfortable position and focusing on the breath, noticing the rhythm and sensation of this.

 

 

 

Then, the individual will be asked to bring awareness to different areas of their body, usually beginning at the toes and moving up through the body until they reach the top of the head.

During this awareness, they will be asked to note how each part of their body feels, the texture of clothing against their skin, any temperature or sensations they feel, and whether areas feel sore or heavy/light.

Mindfulness practices

This involves becoming more aware of the present moment. It is something that can be practiced during meditation but can also be incorporated into the everyday activities people complete.

For instance, mindfully making a cup of tea, mindfully washing up, and mindful cooking.

Mindfulness stretching

This technique involves stretching the body in a mindful way to help bring awareness to the body and the mind.

Rushing straight into exercise can be a missed opportunity to prepare the mind and body for physical exertion.

Mindfulness stretching can also add more benefits to exercise, such as increased awareness and a sense of balance.

Yoga

MBCT may also encourage people to practice yoga poses that can help facilitate mindful stretching of the body.

 

Some poses can help to open up the chest or other areas of the body, bring awareness to parts of the body, and incorporate working and moving with the breaths.
 

3-minute breathing space

People in MBCT may be taught what is known as the 3-minute breathing space technique. This focuses on three steps, each one minute in duration:

  1. Observing the experience (the individual brings awareness to how they are doing at that moment).

  2. Focusing on the breath.

  3. Attending to the body and any physical sensations that might be experienced.

These techniques of MBCT allow the individual to move away from automatic and unhelpful responses, towards an understanding that there are other ways to respond to situations.

By developing a mindfulness meditation routine, individuals can use the techniques whenever they start to feel overwhelmed by negative emotions.

The idea is that when sadness occurs and starts to bring up all the usual negative associations that trigger depressed feelings, the individual is equipped with the tools that will help them substitute negative thought patterns with positive ones.

Beyond the ordinary

 What can mindfulness-based cognitive therapy help with?

MBCT was developed for people with recurring episodes of depression or unhappiness to prevent a relapse.

 

Though originally developed to address recurrent depression, MBCT can be a beneficial treatment for a wide range of concerns, including:

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