Description
Grounded in extensive research and clinical experience, this book describes how to adapt mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for participants who struggle with recurrent suicidal thoughts and impulses. Clinicians and mindfulness teachers are presented with a comprehensive framework for understanding suicidality and its underlying vulnerabilities. The preliminary intake interview and each of the eight group mindfulness sessions of MBCT are discussed in detail, highlighting issues that need to be taken into account with highly vulnerable people. Assessment guidelines are provided and strategies for safely teaching core mindfulness practices are illustrated with extensive case examples. The book also discusses how to develop the required mindfulness teacher skills and competencies. Purchasers get access to a companion website featuring downloadable audio recordings of the guided mindfulness practices, narrated by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale. (Published in hardcover as Mindfulness and the Transformation of Despair: Working with People at Risk of Suicide.)
See also Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Second Edition, by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale, the authoritative presentation of MBCT.
Chapter
Part I. Theoretical and Research Background
2. The Origins of Despair: An Evolutionary Perspective
3. Why the Idea of Suicide Won’t Let Go
4. How Could Mindfulness Help?: Doing and Being
Part II. MBCT for Those at Risk of Suicide
5. Assessing Vulnerability to Depression and Suicidality
6. Developing the Preclass Interview: Encouraging Vulnerable Participants to Engage in and Persist with Mindfulness Meditation
7. Session 1: Awareness and Automatic Pilot
8. Session 2: Living in Our Heads
9. Session 3: Gathering the Scattered Mind
10. Session 4: Recognizing Aversion
11. Session 5: Allowing/Letting Be
12. Session 6: Thoughts Are Not Facts
13. Session 7: How Can I Best Take Care of Myself?
14. Session 8: Maintaining and Extending New Learning
15. How Does MBCT Enable Transformation?: Jane’s Story
Part III. Training Teachers and Defining Competence
16. MBCT Teaching Integrity: Assessing Mindfulness-Based Teaching Skills
17. The Experience of Being an MBCT Teacher
Part IV. MBCT-The Results
18. Mindfulness on Trial: Does MBCT Help People at Risk of Suicide?
Further Reading and Resources