New Mindfulness Based Self-help Option at THIS WAY UP
Mindfulness based therapies have developed out of the growing body of evidence to support the use of regular mindfulness practice to improve both physical and mental health.
Mindfulness can be described as a mental state in which its practitioners maintain their focus on the present moment in a non-judgemental way. It derives from Buddhist meditation practices and was popularised in the west during the 20th century by proponents such as Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and author and psychologist Jon Kabat-Zinn who created the first formal Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MSBR was originally developed to help people struggling with chronic pain and stress-related disorders.
In the early 21st Century Segal, Teasdale and Williams amongst others established that regular mindfulness practice was effective in preventing recurrences of clinical depression and developed an 8 week training that incorporated the ideas of mindfulness with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). This Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) draws from the ideas of MBSR to help people learn to approach their thoughts and feelings in an accepting and non-judgemental way.
The other place where mindfulness practice has a big role in conventional therapy is in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). DBT was developed by Marsha Linehan and her team in Seattle. It is derived from CBT and is delivered in groups and individually to patients who are too emotionally and behaviourally out of control (eg people who would qualify for borderline personality disorder diagnoses) to tolerate standard therapy. DBT teaches emotional regulation and distress tolerance techniques and mindfulness is one of the important pillars of the program.
A wide variety of benefits are claimed for mindfulness and many claims have evidence to support them. Importantly in this context, a meta-analysis of the studies of the effects of mindfulness practice by Hoffman et al published in the journal of the American Psychological Association in 2011 confirmed that mindfulness based therapies were effective in reducing anxiety and improving mood.
So it is not surprising that someone has finally incorporated mindfulness-based therapy into an online self-help program for anxiety and depression. THIS WAY UP’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness Training Course is based on its Mixed Anxiety and Depression Course but incorporates more training in meditation and mindfulness. You can find out more about ithere. As is usual for THIS WAY UP, it consists of 6 lessons designed to be completed in 14 weeks and costs $59.00.
It may be useful to introduce patients to mindfulness before they get involved in the course and the Smiling Mind app may be a good way to do that. If you don’t know about Smiling Mind go to http://smilingmind.com.au. You could even download the free app to have a go at learning mindfulness yourself. There is literature that shows that doctors who practice mindfulness are better at and more satisfied with their jobs. Your learning mindfulness might do both you and your patients some good!
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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