Training In CBT & Other Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies
Introduction
Recent treatment approaches for anxiety and depressive disorders stress the importance of addressing transdiagnostic factors such as rumination, worry, and impulsivity as part of comprehensive intervention. Mindfulness meditation, as incorporated in structured evidence-based interventions has shown the ability to disengage neural networks supporting rumination and worry, along with enhancing clinical outcomes through increased tolerance of negative affective states. Mindfulness holds out the possibility that clients can learn these skills through direct experience, rather than solely relying on concepts and ideas.
The event will be equivalent to 2.3/4 hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will be an interactive learning experience combining didactic instruction with experiential exercises to teach the key aspects of mindfulness meditation and its use in psychotherapy. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy will be used as an example to illustrate how features of mindfulness training can be incorporated into routine clinical settings. We will examine misconceptions about mindfulness meditation that can be barriers to clients engaging in the practice, for example, it is about relaxing or emptying the mind. The complicated question of having an outcome orientation versus allowing and letting ourselves be with experience will also be discussed.
Learning Objectives
• Review the evidence base for mindfulness meditation in the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders.
• Understand how to integrate and appropriately sequence formal/informal mindfulness practices into the psychotherapeutic treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.
• Engage in experiential practice of the 3 Minute Breathing Space and understand how brief changes in attentional focus can be used to address negative automatic processing cycles.
• Learn why mindfulness is about more than relaxation.
• Review the role of sensory processing as an opponent process to cognitive elaboration.
• Consider language choice and pacing when guiding mindfulness practices.
Training Modalities
In order to understand mindfulness from the ‘inside out’, this workshop will combine didactic content and Q&A with live self-practice of the three-minute breathing space and sitting meditation. These methods along with sharing in the chat will help us approach the material in a way that prioritizes integrating its conceptual and experiential foundations.
Key References
Williams et al. (2024). The Mindful Way Through Depression (2024). New York: Guilford Press.
Teasdale et al. (2024). The Mindful Way Workbook. New York Guilford Press.
Farb & Segal (2024). Better in Every Sense. New York: Little Brown Spark.
Farb NA, et al. (2007). Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. Dec;2(4):313-22.
Kuyken W, et al. (2016). Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse: An Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis From Randomized Trials. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016 Jun 1;73(6):565-74.
About the presenter
Zindel Segal, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto Scarborough. An award-winning clinical psychologist and continuously funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, his program of research characterized psychological markers of relapse vulnerability in affective disorder which, in turn, provided an empirical rationale for offering training in mindfulness meditation to recurrently depressed patients in recovery. An author of over 10 books and 190 scientific publications, including The Mindful Way Through Depression and Better in Every Sense – guides for achieving mood balance in everyday life – Dr. Segal continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health.
Who should attend
This webinar can be helpful to clinicians at all levels of training.