Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, usually abbreviated MBCT, is a form of psychotherapy that combines mindfulness techniques with cognitive behavioral therapy to help people who have recovered from depression avoid relapsing. It was developed by Philip Barnard, John Teasdale, and Zindel Segal, building on the mindfulness-based stress reduction approach that Jon Kabat-Zinn had already established. The therapy rests on the idea that a relapse into depression can be triggered when a person who has been depressed becomes distressed and slips back into automatic patterns of thinking, so MBCT teaches participants to notice those automatic patterns as they arise and to observe their thoughts and feelings without judging or reacting to them, a stance often described as decentering, so that they can disengage from self-criticism, rumination, and the low moods that negative thinking patterns can otherwise trigger.