Mindfulness helps increase awareness of habitual patterns that increase vulnerability to downward spirals and getting stuck. The core of the work is creating increased awareness of the modes of mind that characterize negative mood states while ultimately learning to relate to them in ways that are more helpful than hurtful. MBCT uses mindfulness to help participants understand their depression and anxiety. It integrates ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices toward the cultivation of mindfulness. MBCT was designed to help individuals who experience repeated bouts of depressed mood and chronic unhappiness. Persons with current or past psychotic features have received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the past six-months are actively abusing substances have current suicidality or who are unable to function appropriately in a group setting.

Participants are most likely to benefit from the program if they are functioning well in their daily lives and have the energy and motivation to engage in assigned home practices consistently.

Participants must have a diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety.

Commitment to 40-50 minutes of daily home practice during the program (audio files will be provided to facilitate home practice).

Commitment to attending eight weeks of two-and-a-half-hour group sessions and one day-long retreat.

One initial individual evaluation for screening and orientation.

Participants use mindfulness to develop a new way of relating to their experiences using acceptance, compassion, and curiosity. The treatment combines elements of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness.

MBCT was developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. The treatment has also been shown to be helpful for individuals with anxiety. MBCT is an empirically-supported group-based intervention that was designed to facilitate recovery from depression and prevent future depressive relapses. The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center offers a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy ( MBCT) program.

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