Clinical Research on Meditation & Mental Health: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and the preven­tion of relapse in recurrent depression

Clinical Research on Meditation & Mental Health: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and the preven­tion of relapse in recurrent depression

Overview

The advent of effective treatments for mood disorders has provided relief for many depressed patients, yet staying well and preventing relapse are enduring challenges. The clinical application of mindfulness in this group acquaints patients with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously inviting them to develop a new relationship to these modes. Thoughts come to be seen as events in the mind, independent of their content and emotional charge. They need not be disputed, fixed or changed but can be held in a more spacious awareness. The growing empirical base for this approach suggests a 50% increase in relapse prophylaxis for previously depressed patients.

  • Dialogue 13
    16 sessions
  • November 9, 2005
    Dar Constitution Hall, Washington, DC
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Speakers

Zindel Segal

Zindel V. Segal is the Morgan Firestone Chair in Psychotherapy in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is Head of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Toronto. He received his undergraduate training in Psychology at McGill University and completed his graduate work at Queen's University. Dr. Segal's research focuses on cognitive mechanisms of relapse vulnerability in affective disorder, especially the way in which transient dysphoria can (re)evoke depressive knowledge structures in semantic memory.