Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Shows Promise: Study
A new form of therapy called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has shown promise in a small, published study. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy combines some of the techniques of meditation with cognitive therapy. Participants are trained meditative techniques in which they learn to be mindful of the present moment, and to view their emotional states as passing disturbances. This is intended to stop them from tying emotional states to what cognitive therapists call “hot thoughts”, which are habitual thoughts that represent underlying moods like “I’m worthless.” The study examined the patients both at the end of a twelve-week group course and then after a three-month follow up. The patients showed less depression, more ability to control their moods and higher levels of functioning. The study can be found here.
Commentary
I admit that I can be a little nervous about meditation. Some of the premises behind meditation I find too nihilistic, eliminating the self by breaking it down into moments. However, mindfulness does not necessarily imply any sort of nihilism. It instead can simply get us to live more in the present moment and not tie everything into a greater narrative, which in the case of a mood episode, can be a very negative and false one. This study shows that meditation shows promise when tied with cognitive therapy of giving us a way of not taking our moods and the narratives our moods can construct quite as seriously, which can help us to live a more serene and happy life.
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2 Responses to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Shows Promise: Study
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My sister, a psychiatrist, is very enthusiastic about mindfulness therapies. She is working on starting a therapy program based on these ideas at a major Canadian hospital. I was not aware that the approach might be used for treatment of bipolar patients. Very interesting.
Hi Craig,
I didn’t realize your sister was a psychiatrist. I think there’s a lot of promise here to help us weather some of the emotional static that we’re living with, and basically “clearing our heads”. I’d like to hear more about it when you have some time.
Best,
Daniel