Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Single isolated incidents of depression are quite often effectively treated. Due to the nature of depression it is the chronic recurring incidents that are more difficult to treat.
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy integrates cognitive therapy techniques with a mindfulness background.
One of the major aspects of the process is for people to change their relationship with their thoughts emotions and sensations.
One of the key successes of this therapy is that it supports people to build awareness through exercises to their mild depressive episodes and so helps to prevent them from spiralling out of control into deeper episodes of depression. By being more aware of our thoughts we can act more through choice rather than in habitual, 'automatic pilot' mode way of reacting. When we are on 'automatic pilot' we are much more likely to go down the same habits of thinking that do not serve us very well and cause our low moods to get worse and potentially start the spiral into depression.
By acting with present moment awareness we can become less judgemental and experience the moment for the way that it is instead of the way we may want it to be. Judging ourselves can become a habit that we may think will help us to improve our lives when it quite often makes us angry, and depressed as it becomes something that can never be satisfied.
When we are mindful we can experience everything as it is. It focuses directly on present moment experience. This is very different from our minds being far away from the present and direct sensory experience either dwelling on something in the past or worrying about something in the future. This type of ruminative thinking can start the spiral into depression.
Meditation is an integral aspect of mindfulness which helps us greatly to develop awareness to our unhelpful thinking and to develop present moment awareness.
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy integrates cognitive therapy techniques with a mindfulness background.
One of the major aspects of the process is for people to change their relationship with their thoughts emotions and sensations.
One of the key successes of this therapy is that it supports people to build awareness through exercises to their mild depressive episodes and so helps to prevent them from spiralling out of control into deeper episodes of depression. By being more aware of our thoughts we can act more through choice rather than in habitual, 'automatic pilot' mode way of reacting. When we are on 'automatic pilot' we are much more likely to go down the same habits of thinking that do not serve us very well and cause our low moods to get worse and potentially start the spiral into depression.
By acting with present moment awareness we can become less judgemental and experience the moment for the way that it is instead of the way we may want it to be. Judging ourselves can become a habit that we may think will help us to improve our lives when it quite often makes us angry, and depressed as it becomes something that can never be satisfied.
When we are mindful we can experience everything as it is. It focuses directly on present moment experience. This is very different from our minds being far away from the present and direct sensory experience either dwelling on something in the past or worrying about something in the future. This type of ruminative thinking can start the spiral into depression.
Meditation is an integral aspect of mindfulness which helps us greatly to develop awareness to our unhelpful thinking and to develop present moment awareness.
ACBS
ASSOCIATION FOR
CONTEXTUAL BEHAVIOURAL
SCIENCE
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