Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is based from an eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. In his book, Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn explains how mindfulness can effectively help people with chronic pain and other “life issues” by learning the practices of meditation, body awareness, and yoga. Mindful meditation has become a popular and effective therapeutic tool to reduce stress and improve quality of life by incorporating a more peaceful and relaxed attitude towards life stressors.
Drs. Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale have integrated the tools of cognitive therapy with the practice and clinical application of mindfulness meditation. This treatment modality is an innovative, empirically validated treatment specifically designed to prevent relapse in people who have recovered from unipolar depression and has shown promise in the treatment of mood disorders more generally. Self-knowledge grounded in sustained meditative awareness is its central tenet.