Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Psychotherapy: A Case Study

Mental health is all about emotions, psychological and social well-being. It can affect an individual to think,feel and act. Mental health helps to determine how we handle stress, communicate with other people and make decisions.

Mindfulness training teaches the teen with a mood disorder, how to use their own natural ability to consciously bring balance to their emotions. It gives them a choice, by teaching them to pause and process the emotion, and it gives them back sense of control. Evidence supports that mindfulness is an effective tool in treating mood disorder symptoms. Professor Filip Raes conducted one of the first studies to examine mindfulness in a large sample in a school-based setting. The study included 400 students ages 13-20, using a randomized controlled design. The results suggest that mindfulness decreased symptoms in students and possible protects against recurrence of symptoms later (Reas, Griffith, Gucht, & Williams, 2013). A similar study was done by Luis Carlos Delgado Pastor at the University of Granada. The study established that mindfulness training is effective in improving rates of anxiety, depression, complaints about health and emotional regulation (2009). According to Dr. William R Marchand, extensive reviews are showing convincing evidence that mindfulness-based practices combined with conventional interventions are effective in treatment in psychiatric symptoms and states that MBSR and MBCT have "broad-spectrum" effects against depression and anxiety (2012).

It was developed by John Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindel Segal. MBCT is a hybrid of traditional cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness, and is built on the idea that people who are depressed tend to have automatic negative thoughts and attach negative judgments to their experiences. The mindfulness aspect of treatment helps individuals become more aware of their automatic thoughts, and to simply observe them as transient events, rather than holding onto them. As individuals become more aware of their automatic thoughts, they develop the capacity to move from a perspective of reaction to reflection. MBCT is in part based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and echoes much of the theory put forth in Kabat-Zinn’s program. The creators of MBCT developed it with the intention of helping people who have suffered from repeated bouts of depression. The MBCT program is taught over the course of an eight-week program, where participants are encouraged to use guided meditations to help them cultivate a more mindful way of

Relapse prevention therapy involves employing cognitive behavioral techniques to reduce the recurrence of relapse. One approach to relapse prevention is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), which was designed to reduce rates of relapse based on systematic training in mindfulness meditation combined with cognitive behavioral therapy methods. MBCT is an 8-week group therapy intervention that consists of 8 to 15 patients per group and sessions typically lasted 2 hours over 8 consecutive weeks with four follow-up sessions in the following year. MBCT for depression also teaches people to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings contributing to recurring depressive episodes.

Of the non-pharmacological interventions of depression, CBT is the most effective as indicated by research. Enhanced CBT focuses on the processes that maintain the disorder while specific interventions while psychodynamic psychotherapy looks into the roots of the problematic manifestations to see how the factors affect current relationships and behavior. CBT is fast evolving and when integrated with mindfulness and constructivist as well as narrative approaches to therapy, it produces the effective results. Although different patients respond differently to different models of treating depression the integrative care model, when combined with other methods, such as antidepressants seem to alleviate the disorder without further recurrences. The mindfulness-based therapy combined with yoga, meditation, and other health-improving behaviors in addition to and drugs have been proven as effective in preventing subsequent relapses.

Research in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has had recent success in effectively making CBT one of the most—if not the most—empirically supported psychotherapy (Spiegler, 2010). The more research in CBT, the more effective and understood the therapies are. Without a thorough understanding of how and why therapies work, it can be difficult to know which therapy would be most effective with a given patient. Additionally, the success of new innovations in third generation psychotherapies, such as acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and mindfulness-based interventions, is greatly attributed to research in CBT. Also, there is a growing amount of research of various minimally supported treatments within CBT

251).” Clients are taught to practice mindful exercises in which they are focus on the present moment with acceptance. This means that the client does not run away from their current reality, the look at the present moment without negative emotions such as judgment and criticism. A new approach within behavior therapy that uses mindfulness is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). In this therapy is a combination of psychotherapy and behavior therapy, in which the goal is to alleviate the client from emotion pain (Corey, 2013). DBT is helpful with survivors of sexual abuse because it teaches them how to allow themselves to relive the traumatic experience in a manner that is not harmful. If an a traumatic memory or feeling suddenly presents itself the client through mindfulness exercises the client is thought to not run away from it but to explore it (Decker & Naugle,

Although the treatment method may not be the predominant driver of successful helping, it is still of significant importance (Egan, 2014). Given the client presented with self-defeating thoughts, one might assume that cognitive-based interventions such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT; Beck, Emery & Greenberg, 1985) would be the most efficacious as this attempts to deal directly with changing negative cognitions. However, some have likened this cognitive restructuring to thought suppression, associated with subsequent, unsolicited revival of those suppressed thoughts (Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson, 1999). Furthermore, Eifert and Forsyth (2005) assert that this ruminative cycle is maintained through fixating on those thoughts. This is in favour of the concept that mindfulness and acceptance may constitute a more effective way of reducing negative thoughts than cognitive restructuring (Niles et al., 2014). Moreover, research suggests mindfulness-based approaches may be effective in helping clients to improve interpersonal skills (Dekeyser, Raes, Leijssen, Leysen & Dewulf, 2007). Thus, it appears that a mindfulness-based approach such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes et al.,1999) seems applicable given the client’s negative cognitions and perceived lack of social skills. Underlying ACT is the branch of philosophical science termed functional contextualism (Hayes, Pistorello, & Levin, 2012).

This essay is about the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in the treatment of depression. The purpose of this essay is to address the question, how mindfulness works to improve mental health when used as part of psychological treatment? Firstly, a brief overview is given about what depression is and what the symptoms are, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). Secondly, It will discuss mindfulness, as it is defined in mental health treatments. The main body of this essay will cover a description of what MBTC is, where it comes from, how it works, and how this treatment is activated in mindfulness based therapies. The final section will review three studies that have used MBCT in the treatment of depression.

When using Cognitive Therapy all session must be carefully planned and structured to have an impact and efficiency for the client (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2010). During the session the clinician should have formed a positive therapeutic alliance with trust, rapport, and build hope and optimism with the client. Each session of Cognitive Therapy has clear goals with an agenda and should follow a 10 procedure for a session. The 10 procedure for an initial session according to Seligman and Reichenberg (2010) is the

Acceptance and mindfulness are controversial new therapies which are based on Buddhism and calls for respect of experiencing the life situation without judgment or evaluation.

Each participant who was randomly selected for MABT was assigned to one of the four licensed massage therapists who had experience in dealing with mental health issues. The protocol for MABT included asking participants about their emotional and physical well being prior therefore being able to guide the session in the right direction. There was an emphasis on body awareness in relation to experiences with substance abuse and treatment. The massage portion of each session was 45 minutes, which included a fully clothed massaged. Touch was used to teach interoception and self care skills for the body. Participants were assigned inner body awareness homework each week, which was personalized to each

This book goes step by step outlining a set of simple practices that help break the cycle of anxiety stress, unhappiness, and mental exhaustion and promotes happiness in this frantic world. Written by Professor Mark Williams; who co-developed mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy, and Dr Danny Penman a qualified meditation teacher who is also an award winning writer and journalist. Together they made this book an easy read and understandable, packed full of information on mindfulness, along with meditations and habit releasing practices. While the first three chapters are about how we experience things and how we deal with those daily things and what mindfulness is all about. In the fourth chapter is an introduction into the eight week course

Dr. David Burns gave a TED talk explaining the benefit of cognitive therapy on patients who suffer from anxiety and depression. The “black hole” of depression, anxiety, and self-doubt can lead some individuals to contemplate and attempt suicide. Often times, antidepressants have been prescribed to patients as a solution to help alleviate their depression. Unfortunately, antidepressants do not always work and are not the best solution. Dr. Burns changed the way the way he practiced after seeing the benefit of using cognitive therapy and the power of positive thinking. The three basic ideas behind cognitive therapy are our thoughts create all of our moods, when one is depressed or anxious thoughts become distorted and are not realistic,

Terms discussed in paper: CBT: Cognitive-behavioural therapy; HEP: Health enhancement program; TAU: Treatment as usual; TRD: Treatment-resistant depression; Mediators: Measurable changes during a treatment; MBCT: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy;