Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy - Recovery.com Resource Library

When you’re planning for addiction and mental health recovery, it can be hard to know where to start. There are countless types of therapy, and each of them treats a different issue. But in most programs, one approach stands out: cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT.

This treatment focuses on the idea that our thoughts shape our lives. And negative thoughts can be a normal response to addiction or mental health issues. But you are not your thoughts. And the skills you learn in a rehab with cognitive behavioral therapy can guide you toward a brighter future.

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

CBT teaches you to address issues by reframing your own perspective. You’ll learn practical ways to respond to triggers, thought distortions, and limiting beliefs. And once you break out of those well-worn thought patterns, your emotions will likely become more manageable. This, in turn, empowers you to act in ways that support your goals.

A wealth of data shows that CBT effectively improves patients’ quality of life.¹ That’s easier to measure because it’s a goal-oriented form of psychotherapy. During sessions, you’ll spend most of your time learning and then practicing new skills. And when you do talk about past trauma, you’ll consider it through the lens of how it’s impacting you in the present day.

What to Expect in a Session

In a CBT session, your counselor can meet you right where you are. Therapists use the same techniques in individual therapy, group sessions, and family therapy. CBT is a short-term treatment method. Most patients attend between 5-20 sessions.

In your first meeting, your therapist will get to know you. You’ll also talk about your goals for treatment, and any specific diagnoses you’re healing from.

In future sessions, you’ll learn to identify your triggers and the way they make you feel. And once you understand where your emotions come from, you can begin to regulate them. To reach that goal, your therapist will teach you some practical skills. Depending on your exact treatment goals, you might focus on different techniques. There are numerous CBT skills, but a few are especially common:

Imagery-based exposure:² First, you’ll recall a painful or triggering memory. Then, you’ll dig into the thoughts and feelings you associate with that experience. By revisiting those emotions in a protected environment, you’ll learn new ways to respond. So if you get triggered by the same memory in the future, you’ll already know what to do next.
Thought records:³ You’ll keep a daily written record of your thoughts, feelings, and the events that caused them. This technique is similar to journaling. But instead of freewriting, you’ll fill out a worksheet and answer specific questions. Then you’ll review your progress with your therapist.
Interrupting cognitive distortions:⁴ It’s easy to mistake your thoughts for facts. But CBT teaches you to identify inaccurate thoughts. For example, you might feel lonely even if you have a strong support network. And noticing that distinction can ground you in reality.

Over time, you can learn to use these skills intuitively. That’s a skill, too—and an important one for your long-term recovery.

What Does CBT Treat?

CBT is the “jack of all trades” of treatment. You can access it in most rehab programs, or attend sessions on an outpatient basis. And CBT can help with a wide variety of mental health conditions:⁵

CBT doesn’t only address mental health issues. It can also treat some medical and emotional challenges:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Addiction

CBT is a highly effective treatment for addiction.⁶ In part, that’s because addiction affects more than your thoughts and feelings. It’s also a behavioral pattern. CBT shows you how your emotions influence your actions. And when you understand that link, you can disrupt the thoughts that lead you to drink or take drugs.

Experts at Footprints Beachside Recovery, a rehab center in Florida, view CBT as a key part of long-term recovery.⁷ In their program, some CBT sessions focus on relapse prevention. Patients learn how to recognize warning signs and interrupt old behavioral patterns. If you practice these skills during rehab, you’ll be better prepared for the next phase of healing.

Treating Mental Health With CBT

Unlike some other treatments, this therapy is extremely versatile. In fact, CBT is one of the most popular therapies⁸ for mental health. That might be because it addresses the root cause of each issue, and not just the symptoms. As a result, CBT can help people with a wide variety of diagnoses. But it’s especially popular for a few conditions.

Depression

CBT is a firmly established treatment for depression. And it can have long-lasting effects. Research shows that CBT for depression lowers relapse rates⁹ significantly. It might even be more effective than medication alone.

In each session, you’ll learn how to challenge negative beliefs about yourself and your life. Your therapist might also assign homework to help you reframe the way you think. For instance, you might reward yourself every time you do something that’s hard for you, like folding laundry. So over time, you’ll start associating those tasks with good feelings.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Recovering from trauma can be overwhelming. CBT teaches you to work with that fact, instead of fighting it. Treatment helps you unpack complex feelings, separating painful memories from your present reality. And over time, this process can bring you a new sense of clarity.

CBT is a very effective way to treat trauma symptoms.¹⁰ Some rehab programs even offer specialized types of this therapy for people healing from trauma:

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) can treat children and teens with a history of trauma. Parents and caregivers often participate in this therapy as well.

Prolonged exposure therapy (PE)¹¹ encourages patients to work through triggering memories in the safe space of a therapist’s office.
Cognitive processing therapy (CPT)¹² teaches you to challenge unhelpful thoughts or beliefs that stem from past trauma.

You can access these types of therapy in many settings, including outpatient treatment. But in residential rehab, you can often find them in programs that offer trauma-informed care.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders commonly stem from a vicious cycle of negative thoughts. For instance, thinking about your weight might lead you to skip a meal. CBT offers a new perspective, which can help you break out of old patterns.

CBT is the leading form of treatment for eating disorders,¹³ especially bulimia. It can be even more effective when patients also engage in eye movement therapy (EMDR).

Forge Your Own Path With CBT Skills

Healing isn’t easy. That’s true for everyone—even if you’re well on your way to recovery. And CBT doesn’t remove the obstacles in your path. Instead, it prepares you to face them. Although this treatment has a limited number of sessions, the skills it teaches you can last a lifetime.

Explore rehabs that offer cognitive behavioral therapy to learn more and reach out to centers directly.

Depression is debilitating, and finding adequate treatment is a deeply personal experience. Because every person’s experience is unique, what works for some may not work for others. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is one promising treatment method that may work for you. This form of therapy takes elements from mindfulness training and cognitive behavioral therapy and combines them to combat depression.

Depression is downright exhausting, and the symptoms can be difficult to manage—especially if they interfere with daily life. You may even decide to attend rehab to help you learn to manage your condition. And fortunately, there are many rehab centers that offer mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to treat your depressive symptoms.

What Is Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy?

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group-based therapy originally developed to prevent depression from recurring. Because it was so effective, therapists now use it to treat active symptoms, too.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness techniques teach people to focus on the present moment. You learn to notice your thoughts, emotions, and experiences without judgment. In addition to being beneficial for overall health and well-being, mindfulness reduces depression.² And practicing mindfulness can help you learn how to take life’s curveballs in stride. As Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, describes it, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”³

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Like mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy is also effective in treating depression.⁴ People with depression usually have automatic negative thought patterns, which can trigger or worsen their symptoms. CBT shows people how to identify and reframe these negative thoughts and behaviors into positive ones. This empowers people to do something about their symptoms, which gives them a sense of control.

Connecting Mindfulness and CBT

MBCT fuses aspects of mindfulness and CBT⁵ to create a hybrid treatment model. Just like in CBT, patients learn to notice and free themselves from negative thought patterns. The therapist teaches patients to instead observe their thoughts and emotions in a compassionate, non-judgmental manner. MBCT incorporates mindfulness techniques, like meditation, alongside CBT.

What to Expect During MBCT Sessions

MBCT usually lasts for 8 weeks,⁶ with weekly sessions of about 2 hours. MBCT is administered in a group setting of 8 to 12 people. During meetings, patients participate in attention training activities for mindfulness. These may include body scan exercises or meditations. The goal is to help you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. Patients learn to recognize negative thought patterns and practice acceptance, and complete homework assignments around these concepts. These activities help alleviate symptoms from depression.

How Does This Therapy Work for Depression?

MBCT can reduce depression and decrease the risk of relapse (meaning, it reduces the likelihood that symptoms will come back after treatment). In fact, evidence shows that in some cases, it works just as well as antidepressant medication. According to one study on the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on depression symptoms,⁷ “There is evidence from at least nine clinical trials… that MBCT reduces the risk of relapse to depression when added to usual care, and demonstrates comparable efficacy to maintenance antidepressant medication.”

There are many reasons why MBCT is so effective at treating depression.⁸ People learn skills that they can use in the real world, and empathize with each other. The following are concepts that MBCT can teach people to set them up for success in life after rehab.

1. Developing Your Sense of Empowerment and Self-Control

MBCT helps people feel more in control of their depression—and their lives. Learning how depression works gives patients a better understanding of their overall experience. And practicing the techniques to counteract their symptoms is empowering. It helps people feel like they have more power over their thoughts and feelings.

Mandy, a patient in an MBCT study on recurrent depression,¹³ said she learned “how the mind works” which gave her a better insight into her depression. She found the MBCT sessions “so liberating” because they gave her the tools to take control of her mental health. This “toolbox” included things like meditation, recognizing depressive symptoms, and reaching out to social contacts.

Other patients in the same study echoed Mandy’s sentiments. Some participants described it as “a shift from being a ‘helpless victim of circumstance’ to having more ‘control of my feelings and my life.’”

2. Building Self-Care Practices

Mindfulness practices are one way to engage in self-care. The techniques that MBCT teaches you serve as important ways of giving back—to yourself. And because people now have this toolbox, they’re more likely to use what they’ve learned to take care of themselves.

Some patients in one study noted that gaining more control over their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors gave them a greater sense of responsibility to manage their overall well-being.¹³ They felt they could actually do something about it. They mentioned that self-care was no longer an option—instead, it became a necessary component of their routine.

3. Connecting With Others Through Shared Experience

Patients can benefit from being around peers in MBCT group therapy They can share experiences and receive advice. And realizing that other people have the same feelings as them can decrease the shame they feel about their condition.

Some people in the MBCT study were ashamed of their depression and antidepressant use.¹³ One participant felt “‘inadequate’ or unable to cope with life compared with other people because of their recurrent depression, treating it as a ‘guilty secret.’” Some patients were too embarrassed to admit to their depression or that they were taking medication.

Participants agreed that meeting other people in the group helped normalize their experiences. One participant said that being around others with depression “confirmed that I am a human, worthwhile person.” And another said, “I don’t feel anymore when I take my pill every morning that there’s something wrong with me.” These interactions with peers helped participants accept their condition—and themselves.

4. Rediscovering Joy Through Meaningful Activities

MBCT sessions teach people the importance of engaging in activities they enjoy. Therapists encourage patients to try new hobbies and pursue old interests. But this isn’t just for fun—it’s backed by science. People with hobbies have overall better mental health⁹ and reduced rates of depression.

Participants in one study said that MBCT reminded them to do what they enjoy¹⁰ and to feel excited about life again. One person said, “I rearranged my life so that the things I do now are things that I enjoy and want to do.” Another reported, “I am now making bigger future plans to make my life better and introducing new ventures.”

5. Recognizing and Preventing Relapse

In mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, patients learn how to recognize the early warning signs of a depressive relapse. And how to employ MBCT strategies to avoid it.

Some MCBT participants mentioned that they felt less panicked when they did experience negative feelings.¹¹ They were able to accept their sad feelings, and not immediately assume it was a relapse. One said they felt better equipped to handle mood fluctuations. Instead of getting upset when they felt negative emotions, they told themselves, “Okay, this is how you’re feeling today.”

Limitations of MBCT

MBCT might not work for everyone. Because MBCT is typically a group therapy, you may find it overwhelming if you have severe social anxiety. And for some people, MBCT works best in combination with antidepressants.¹² MBCT alone might not work well enough for everyone—and that’s perfectly alright. The idea here is to try different methods to find what will work best for you.

Heal Your Depression, Mindfully

You are worthy of care, in whatever way works best for you.

This might look like attending rehab, or just seeking MBCT on your own. It’s up to you to determine what your recovery process will look like. If you decide to go to rehab, this could be your chance to take a step back and give yourself much-needed time to heal.

Explore treatment centers that provide MBCT to contact rehab facilities directly and ask about pricing, insurance, virtual tours, and more.

Tag: Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Offers a New Perspective