Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) combines principles of cognitive behavioral therapy with classical mindfulness techniques to help interrupt patterns of negative thinking and increase body based present focused awareness in a way that can foster the ability to consider life events with greater focus, clarity, curiosity, empathy, and insight.
MBCT practices include learning to build attention span, moment-to-moment awareness of your body, feelings and thoughts as well as your core strengths and helpful connection to others.
MBCT draws on traditional Buddhist meditation practices and its underlying psychology applied in a secular mental health context. The core ingredients of these practices are the capacity to recruit and sustain attention, to redirect attention away from mental distractions, to recognize the impermanence or plasticity of our mental experiences (nothing is fixed), as well as the basic harmony and ground of compassion that is the mind’s natural state.