What is MBCT?

Also see Information for people thinking about booking on the course

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) uses mindfulness meditation combined with exercises derived from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and is usually delivered as an 8 week course in a group setting of 8 to 16 people.

It was developed to prevent depression relapse and was derived from Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society which is part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. MBSR has been in use there since the 1980's and has been successfully used to treat, manage and alleviate a wide range of physical and mental conditions including chronic pain, anxiety and stress, and skin diseases. A full account of this work can be found in Jon Kabat-Zinn's book "Full Catastrophe Living".

MBCT for prevention of depression relapse is included in the NICE Clinical Guideline CG23, 6 December 2004.

In the UK further mindfulness research, and training of MBCT instructors, is being carried out by the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (CRMP) at the the University of Wales, Bangor.

MBCT Instructors at the Brighton Buddhist Centre have received training at the CRMP and are continuing with further training and supervision from CRMP.

Meditation for Coping with Depression and Stress Course
(Information for people thinking about booking on the course)

This course is suitable for anyone who has suffered depression, although not for people who are currently clinically depressed. It is a course to help people develop practical skills that can help them stay well and be part of their strategy to prevent future relapse. The course is not ‘therapy’. Meditation specialists and not medical professionals run it. So, it will not provide ongoing general or professional support and should not be related to as an alternative to seeking professional medical help or advice.

The following notes are designed to help you get a sense of the approach that the course will take. Please read them carefully if you are intending to book on it. Please note there is a special orientation session one week before the course date at which you will be able to ask for further information, ask questions or raise concerns.

Depression
Depression is a very common problem - 20% of adults become severely depressed at some point in their lives. It involves both biological changes in the way the brain works and psychological changes - the way we think and feel. Because of this, it is often useful to combine medical treatments for treating depression (which act on the brain) with psychological approaches (which teach new ways to deal with thoughts and feelings).

Treatment of Depression
When you have been depressed in the past your doctor may have prescribed antidepressants. These work through their effects on the chemical messengers in your brain. In depression these chemical messengers have often become run down, lowering mood and energy levels, disturbing sleep and appetite. Correcting these brain chemicals may have taken time, but most people experience improvements in 6-8 weeks.

Although antidepressants generally work well in reducing depression, they are not a permanent cure - their effects continue only so long as you keep taking the pills. Your doctor could continue to prescribe antidepressants for months or even years, since this is now the recommended way to use antidepressants if further depression is to be prevented by this means. However, many people prefer to use other ways to prevent further depression. This is the purpose of the course you are inquiring about.

Prevention of More Depression
Whatever caused your depression in the first place, the experience of depression itself has a number of after-effects. One of these is the likelihood that you will become depressed again. The purpose of the course is to improve your chance of preventing further depression. On the 8 course nights, you will learn skills to help you handle your thoughts and feelings differently.

You will learn these skills in a class with others who have also been depressed, and perhaps treated with antidepressants (there will be a team of two facilitators, with several other helpers). In eight, 2hr sessions, the classes will meet to learn new ways of dealing with what goes on in our minds, and to share and review experiences with other class members. After the eight weekly sessions are over the group will meet again for a follow-up morning or afternoon to see how things are progressing.

Homepractice: the Importance of Practice
Together we will be working to change patterns of mind that often have been around for a long time. These patterns may have become a habit. We can only expect to succeed in making changes if we put time and effort into learning and practising skills.

This approach depends entirely on your willingness to do home-practice between class meetings. This home-practice will take 40 – 50 mins a day, six days a week for eight weeks, and involves tasks such as listening to CDs, performing brief exercises, and so on. We appreciate that it is often very difficult to carve out that amount of time for something new in lives that may be already very busy and crowded. However, the commitment to spend time on home-practice is an essential part of the class; if you do not feel able to make that commitment, it would be best not to start the course.

Facing Difficulties
The classes and the home-practice assignments can teach you how to be more fully aware and present in each moment of life. The good news is that this makes life more interesting, vivid and fulfilling. On the other hand, this means facing what is present, even when it is unpleasant and difficult. In practice you will find that turning to face and acknowledge difficulties is the most effective way, in the long run, to reduce unhappiness. It is also central to preventing further depression. Seeing unpleasant feelings, thoughts, or experiences clearly, as they arise, means that you will be in much better shape to ‘nip them in the bud’, before they progress to more intense or persistent depressions. In the classes you will learn gentle ways to face difficulties, and will be supported by the facilitators and other class members.

Patience and Persistence
Because we will be working to change well established habits of mind, you will be putting in a lot of time and effort. The effects of this effort may only become apparent later. In many ways, it is like gardening - we have to prepare the ground, plant the seeds, ensure that they are adequately watered and nourished, and then wait patiently for results.

You may be familiar with this pattern from your treatment with antidepressants. Often, there is little beneficial effect until you have been taking medication for some time. Yet improvement in your depression depended on your continuing to take the antidepressant even when you felt no immediate benefit.

In the same way, we ask you to approach the classes in this course and the home-practice with a spirit of patience and persistence, committing yourself to putting in time and effort into what will be asked of you, while accepting that the fruits of your efforts may not show straight away.

What to do next:
• If you are interested in joining the course please send full payment, (if possible), to the Centre along with a contact e-mail, phone number, and your address.
• Please include with your booking any relevant details that you may wish us to know about (all correspondence is strictly confidential to the two facilitators running the course).
• If you would like to talk to one of the facilitators about the course please let us know. One of them will then contact you. So, please include a contact phone number and good times to ring.
• Come along to the orientation or afternoon.

(Please note the facilitators and team are meditation specialists and not therapists. You may wish to talk through the idea of doing this course with medical or social work professionals with whom you are in contact with already…if in any doubt we recommend that you talk it through with your GP)

return to top