Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is amongst the most popular mindfulness courses today, especially in clinical and therapy settings.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy grew out of MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) which was developed by the founder of modern secular mindfulness, Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn.
MBCT is the only mindfulness course recommended in the NHS NICE guidelines.
MBCT was specifically designed to address issues of depressive relapse for people suffering with recurrent depression. It is also highly effective in treating anxiety, worry, stress and low mood. It differs from MBSR in that it introduces “turning toward” low mood and negative thought earlier in the course, with the intention that participants gain experience in recognising habitual negative thought patterns before they “take hold” and trigger a relapse.
“Mindfulness shows us what is happening in our bodies, our emotions, our minds and in the world.
Through mindfulness we avoid harming ourselves and others”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
The MBCT course
The course is held over 8 weeks, with one group meeting a week of around 2 hours each. View upcoming courses here.
These weekly meetings provide an opportunity to work alongside fellow participants in a safe, friendly and confidential environment.
Alongside the meetings, there are also daily meditations and other home exercises that support your personal understanding of the theory and practical techniques of MBCT – all in an easy, careful, straightforward and step-by-step way.
Included in the course is a Mindful retreat day (around week 6).
The retreat day is the day that we integrate all of the meditation practices that we have been learning. A deeply experiential and nurturing day. Personally, one that I always look forward to.
Over these 8 weeks, participants will learn how mindfulness can help us recognise when we become entangled in streams of worries, self-criticism and ruminative thinking, and learn tools to interrupt this process and make wise choices in the face of emotional challenge. At the end of the 8-week course, participants will feel better equipped to face life’s difficulties with self-compassion instead of self-criticism, using the tools and skills they have learned.
“Mindful awareness actually involves more than just simply being aware: It involves being aware of aspects of the mind itself. Instead of being on automatic and mindless, mindfulness helps us awaken, and by reflecting on the mind we are enabled to make choices and thus change becomes possible.
- Daniel J. Siegel
MBCT is a gentle and effective way of training our mind to pay attention to what is actually happening in the here and now. It helps us to understand and recognise our thought and feeling patterns. With the view of creating new and more skilful patterns to deal with difficult challenges. In the course, you will be guided through mindfulness techniques such as meditation, gentle movement and breathing exercises along with elements from cognitive behaviour therapy.
“No one can listen to your body for you... To grow and heal, you have to take responsibility for listening to it yourself.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
What you will learn:
To actively and fully engage to take charge of mental wellbeing.
To build on existing inner resources to re-learn and grow into your full potential for wholeness.
To learn that challenges are not just to be endured and got through, but our lives are the ingredients for waking up.
To discover that we already have the inner resources to move forward and better handle our situation.
To equip you with ways of responding to stress that allows us to step out of our mental reactions, which often worsen the stress and interfere with effective problem solving
That mindfulness offers us clear-sightedness and a greater sense of manageability
