Susann Herrmann, Dipl. Psych. (MA)
Co-Founder of London Meditation
The focus of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy is teaching clients how to make
a simple yet radical shift in their relationship to the thoughts, feelings, and
bodily sensations.
Developed by leading scientist-practitioners, and solidly grounded in current psychological
research, the approach integrate cognitive therapy principles and practice into
a mindfulness framework.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD
MBCT
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
MBCT is part of our Meditative Therapy Programme.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness practice helps us to see more clearly the patterns of the mind and teaches us to stay in the present moment, rather than reliving the past or pre-living the future. You learn in the first place just to be conscious and accept whatever is there. Acceptance means seeing things as they actually are in the present. We cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is! And by this acceptance you will see that changing happen by itself.
What is MBCT?
It combines a form of Eastern meditation with elements of Cognitive Therapy in a eight session programme.
It was developed by Prof. Mark Williams (Oxford), John Teasdale (Oxford/Cambridge) and Zindel Segal (Toronto) for people who have been repeatedly depressed to help them stay well.
It is closely based on Jon Kabat Zinn’s Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction programme (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre, which has been found to produce significant change in participants’ ability to deal with chronic pain, anxiety and stress.
Content of the MBCT eight session programme
- Automatic pilot
- Dealing with barriers
- Mindfulness of the breath
- Staying present
- Allowing/Letting be
- Thoughts are not facts
- How can I best take care of myself?
- Using what has been learned to deal with future moods
How does MBCT work?
By practising in one2one sessions, and by listening to guided meditations at home during the week, you learn the practice of mindfulness meditation.
Practices such as the Body Scan, Breathing meditation, and simple yoga allow you to come in touch with moment-to-moment changes in the mind and the body and foster a new, ’decentered’ perspective to your thoughts and feelings.
The sessions also include basic education about mental health issues, and several exercises from cognitive therapy that show the links between thinking and feeling and how you can look after yourself.
What do you learn?
- to become familiar with the workings of your mind
- to notice the times when you are at risk of getting caught in old habits of mind that re-activate downward mood spirals
- to explore ways of releasing yourself from those old habits and, if you choose, enter a different way of being
- to put you in touch with a different way of knowing yourself and the world
- to notice small beauties and pleasures in the world around you instead of living in your head
- to be kind to yourself instead of wishing things were different all the time, or driving yourself to meet impossible goals
- to find a way so you don’t have to battle with yourself all the time
- to accept yourself as you are, rather than judging yourself all the time
Please don’t hesitate to contact Susann to get an appointment for a none-obligate consultation to let you make up your mind.
If you have any questions please call 020 7449 2129 or send an email.
