MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy)
Acronym for Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, adapted from Kabat-Zinn's MBSR.
MBCT is an eight-week clinical program combining mindfulness meditation with elements of cognitive therapy, developed specifically to prevent relapse in people with a history of recurrent depression. It teaches practitioners to relate differently to negative thought patterns rather than trying to eliminate them.
Developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale, MBCT is best supported by evidence for people who have experienced three or more episodes of depression, where large trials have found it reduces relapse risk roughly as well as maintenance antidepressant medication for that group.
MBCT was developed in the late 1990s by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale, combining Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction structure with cognitive therapy techniques, specifically to help people who have recovered from depression avoid relapse. A large 2016 individual patient data meta-analysis by Kuyken and colleagues, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found MBCT reduced relapse risk about as effectively as maintenance antidepressant medication for people with a history of recurrent depression, evidence that led UK NICE guidelines to recommend it.
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Related Terms
MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)
MBSR is an eight-week, secular clinical program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts in 1979, combining mindfulness meditation, body scan practice, and gentle yoga. It was originally designed to help patients manage chronic pain and has since been studied for stress, anxiety, and general wellbeing.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of paying deliberate, non-judgmental attention to present-moment experience, whether the breath, bodily sensations, thoughts, or surroundings. Rooted in Buddhist contemplative practice, it has been adapted into secular clinical programs and is widely used for stress, anxiety, and general wellbeing.