Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A New Approach to Preventing Relapse [Hardcover]

Zindel V. Segal PhD (Author), J. Mark G. Williams DPhil (Author), John D. Teasdale (Author), Zindel V. Segal (Author), J. Mark G. Williams (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572307064 | ISBN-13: 978-1572307063 | Publication Date: November 14, 2001 | Edition: 1

This book presents an innovative eight-session program that has been clinically proven to bolster recovery from depression and prevent relapse. Developed by leading scientist-practitioners, and solidly grounded in current psychological research, the approach integrates cognitive therapy principles and practice into a mindfulness framework. Clinicians from any background will find vital tools to help clients maintain gains made by prior treatment and to expand the envelope of care to remission and beyond. Illustrative transcripts and a wealth of reproducible materials, including session summaries and participant forms, enhance the clinical utility of the volume. More than 35 reproducibles are also provided in a large-size format on Guilford's website for bookbuyers to download.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A seminal book....The remarkable synthesis that this book represents holds the promise not only of developing our theories of how cognition and emotion interact, but also of furthering our understanding of the deep inner capacities of human beings for healing."--From the Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School

"A very valuable resource for clinicians and for treatment development researchers. The guidelines for teaching mindfulness are very solid. The transcripts of therapist-client interactions, verbatim instructions to give clients, reproducible handouts and forms, and clinical wisdom on how to teach skillfully are all superb. The only thing the book does not provide is practice itself. A wonderful initiation for the therapist who has not been introduced to mindfulness, and a book that will enhance the skills of the experienced practitioner."--Marsha M. Linehan, PhD

"This book offers an elegant and innovative method for breaking the cycle of recurrent depressive episodes, one that frees patients from the tyranny of relapses. The integration of mindfulness and cognitive therapy should become part of the basic training of every professional who treats people with depression, from psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists to clinical and counseling psychologists. Segal, Williams, and Teasdale offer a promising new response to a major public health problem of the 21st century."--Daniel Goleman, PhD, author of Emotional Intelligence

"Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy offers a provocative, sophisticated combination of Eastern and Western approaches to psychological well-being. In an accessible, easy-to-read manner, the authors, leaders in the field of cognitive therapy, offer an account of the transformation in their thinking that led to the incorporation of a mindfulness-based orientation to psychological distress. The combination of a mindfulness orientation and cognitive approaches to change seems to provide a particularly useful framework for sustaining gains made in therapy. This new direction has promising implications for cognitive therapy of depression."--Aaron T. Beck, MD, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Zindel V. Segal, PhD, is Head of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health and Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, where he is also Head of the Psychotherapy Program. Dr. Segal is a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. His publications include [i]Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression[/i], coauthored with Rick E. Ingram and Jeanne Miranda.

J. Mark G. Williams, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he has also served since 1997 as Director of the University's Institute of Medical and Social Care Research. Widely published, he is a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.

John D. Teasdale, PhD, holds a Special Scientific Appointment at the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. He is a fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and a recipient of the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientist Award (Division 12).

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (November 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572307064
• ISBN-13: 978-1572307063
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Compulsive Behavior
  • #52 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Depression

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

186 of 189 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cognitive Therapy meets Mindfulness Meditation, April 5, 2002

By 

David H. Peterzell "Ph.D., Ph.D." (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A New Approach to Preventing Relapse (Hardcover)

If your interests include psychotherapy (especially cognitive therapies), or meditation (especially Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), or if you are interested in research on depression, then I suspect that you will find this book as compelling as I did.

Here is what I found profound about this book, from a cognitive therapy perspective. Cognitive therapists have long known that automatic thoughts are related to various psychopathologies, but they typically theorized that CHANGING those thoughts was the royal road to psychological health. The alternative studied and developed by the authors is that carefully ATTENDING to cognitions fully as they arise and fall is itself healing. Rather than focusing on cognitive restructuring of thoughts and thinking, this cognitive therapy postulates that observing thoughts, feelings, perceptions, bodily sensations, and world events in a compassionate, "non-attached" manner liberates one from the suffering that accompanies them. The authors have begun to collect outcome data consistent with this unusual cognitive theory.

I found the authors' review of the depression literature quite informative, and the evidence in support of MBCT is described clearly. At the same time, I couldn't help noting that the MBCT approach is specifically designed to target recovering depressives, with an eye toward preventing relapse. So although MBCT is "for depression, " it is not currently intended to treat depression per se, and it is intended as an adjunct to other treatments (e.g., medication, individual psychotherapy, etc.). So, the authors focus, at least for now, on a narrowly defined population. This is not a criticism of the book or MBCT. But for now, MBCT is quite limited in scope by its infancy. I expect that someone eventually will attempt to systematize a form of MBCT for depression in general, for individuals, or for other clinical populations.

I'm always tempted to buy another book on meditation and psychotherapy. I have to be careful here. There is a glut of excellent, relevant books (e.g., books by Mark Epstein, Daniel Goleman, Ken Wilber). Buying or reading yet another book is the easy, habitual behavior when books are your drug of choice, and your cluttered house is screaming at you with volumes of printed matter. Practicing mindfulness continuously, noticing a habitual tendency, and attending fully to the present moment, presents itself as the mindful, non-habitual alternative choice. Did I really need yet another book?

Well, I'm glad I read yet another book on this topic. This book shares many elements with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an influential meditative approach that has considerable empirical support and is finding its way into many medical and psychological settings (seeJon Kabat-Zinn's "Full Catastrophe Living"). Initially the authors attempted to bolt MBSR approaches onto previously existing variants of Cognitive Therapy. But as their methods and awareness evolved, MBCT increasingly came to resemble Kabat-Zinn's MBSR. Their current MBCT approach is an 8-week group program that strongly resembles the UMASS MBSR program, with some elements of traditional cognitive therapy added. I think that the MBCT variant of MBSR will be valuable in that it provides additional tools and strategies for running Mindfulness-based groups in a clinical setting. Additionally, I think MBCT nicely integrates empirically-validated components of CT with empirically-validated components of MBSR. It is worth noting that the MBCT approach is specifically psycho-educational, and takes place in a group setting. This could be the beginning of a beautiful psychotherapy.

80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Suprisingly Readable and Useful Book, December 28, 2001

By 

Clark Freshman (Miami beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A New Approach to Preventing Relapse (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book for a variety of audiences: (1) practicing psychologists and therapists who want to learn about a useful -- and empirically supported -- skill for treating depression; (2) people who think may suffer from sad moods -- even if not full-blown depression -- and who want a medicine-free and therapy-free way to feel better; (3) academic researchers who want to know more about varieties of meditation and how to adapt meditation programs to more specific goals; (4) people interested in mindfulness meditation who want to see a psychological angle on why it works so well; (5) academic researchers who want to know more about some theories about why cognitive-behavioral therapy works so well.

Whew! So many good things to say:

The book actually reads very well -- not just by the minimal standards of academic writing, but by popular standards as well. It's clear, unpretentious and has a surprising amount of drama to it.

Many people now try to adapt some kind of mindfulness a la John Kabat-Zinn to a variety of needs for people to overcome this or that disorder, pain, etc. Nearly all assume that one can just take the whole Kabat-Zinn plan and just throw anyone into it. As someone who has taken a class based on the Kabat-Zinn program, and someone who has tried to adapt it to teaching law students and others about negotiation, I can tell you this does not work too well. Among other things, few people really manage to meditate 45 minutes a day.

The book explains how the researchers tried to adapt the program to a more specific need: preventing people from getting depressed again after they've been treated. They explain how they changed their thinking about meditation and how to teach it.

One of the most beautiful parts of the book is how frankly the authors admit how their first attempts fell short. They also frankly explain how they needed to meditate themselves before they could teach it.

Highly recommended!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good presentation of a treatment and its develpment, May 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A New Approach to Preventing Relapse (Hardcover)

A very well-written, comprehensive, clinician-friendly account of a treatment that appears to capture much of the essence of mindfulness and its benefits. Straight forward enough so that clinicians from all theoretical orientations should be able to appreciate the nature of the approach. It is very nice to see, in the past 15 years or so, psychologists finally trying to take a serious scientific stab at traditionally Eastern approaches like mindfulness and acceptance. The only drawback of the book, for me, was the relative lack of a serious scientific technical analysis of the approach, as the description of how the treatment theoretically works is largely discussed in metaphorical and somewhat lay-language. This may simply be because the book is aimed primarily at practicing clinicians, rather than academic psychologists and other researchers. Readers intrigued by this approach should also read Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (1999), by Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson.