Effects of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) on Symptom Change, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Rumination in Clients With Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

Objectives: Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in exploring self-compassion as a related and complementary construct to mindfulness. Increases in self-compassion may predict clinical outcomes after MBCT and cultivation of compassion toward self and others is central to CFT. This pilot study compared the impact of MBCT applying implicit self-compassion instructions and CFT employing explicit self-compassion instructions on symptom change, mindfulness, self-compassion, and rumination.Method: This non-randomized wait-list controlled study (N = 58) with two intervention arms (MBCT N = 20, CFT N = 18, Control N = 20) assessed the outcomes of clients with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms from before to after the interventions and at one month follow up (MBCT N = 17, CFT N = 13, Control N = 13).Results: Both treatments resulted in significant increases in mindfulness and self-compassion and decreases in rumination, depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, MBCT enhanced mindfulness for people who were initially high in rumination, whereas CFT enhanced mindfulness across the board.Conclusion: The findings suggest that both MBCT and CFT, and hence implicit or explicit self-compassion instructions, produce similar clinical outcomes with CFT enhancing mindfulness regardless of client's rumination level

Psychophysiology of Meditation

Psychophysiological research on meditation examines modulations in brain and body physiology resulting from, or associated with, meditation. This chapter considers the available evidence regarding the effects of meditation on psychophysiological markers, including frontal electroencephalography (EEG) alpha asymmetry, event-related brain potentials (ERPs), heart-rate variability (HRV) and its derivative indexes, and galvanic skin response (GSR). The emerging mosaic of findings suggests an inconclusive mixed pattern of evidence regarding changes in frontal EEG alpha asymmetry with meditation. The evidence base on ERP changes resulting from meditation is more consistent, particularly pointing to improvements in attention control. However, ERP evidence on modulations in emotion processing, language processing, and existential awareness (such as decentering) with meditation is very limited, not allowing for conclusive answers. Overall, the current evidence on psychophysiological changes with meditation underscores the potential of these methods in providing novel insights into the effects and mechanisms of meditation. More rigorous studies with long-term follow-up, comprehensive systemic assessments, and explorations of convergent/divergent patterns of findings across psychophysiological indexes are needed

Mindfulness Training Encourages Self-Transcendent States via Decentering

Self-transcendence is theorized to be a core, mechanism of mindfulness. Yet, no known empirical study has investigated the process by which self-transcendent experiences emerge in novice practitioners. To address this gap, this study explored whether changes in decentering in response to mindfulness training translated into increases in self-transcendence over the course of five mindfulness training sessions. Participants (N=26) were randomly allocated to either a mindfulness training condition or an active listening condition. Results indicated that mindfulness training increased both decentering (p=.023) and self-transcendence (p=.001) relative to the active listening condition. Furthermore, greater decentering at the mid-point of training predicted greater self-transcendence at the training’s end, suggesting that those participants that become better able to non-reactively observe their thoughts, feelings and physical sensations while meditating were also more likely to experience self-transcendence. This study provides the first empirical evidence that mindfulness training can cultivate self- transcendent experiences through the process of decentering from internal phenomena

Impact of a mindfulness-based school curriculum on emotion processing in Vietnamese pre-adolescents : An event-related potentials study

The neurocognitive mechanisms associated with mindfulness training in children are not well understood. This randomised controlled study with active and passive control groups examined the impact of an 18-week mindfulness curriculum delivered by schoolteachers on emotion processing in Vietnamese 7- to 11-year-olds. Event-related potential markers indexed emotion processing while children were completing emotional Go/No-Go tasks before and after mindfulness training, and at 6-month follow-up. In an oddball Go/No-Go task with Caucasian faces no changes in P3b and LPP components were detected, but in a Go/No-Go task with Caucasian and Japanese faces changes were observed in P3b latencies and LPP mean amplitudes. Specifically, the P3b in response to angry non-targets for Japanese faces peaked later in the mindfulness training group (TG) at 6-months follow-up in comparison to the non-intervention control group (NCG). The LPP mean amplitudes for averaged Caucasian and Japanese angry non-targets were also attenuated in the TG at 6-month follow-up. In contrast, no changes in the LPP mean amplitudes were observed for the NCG over time. Together, these findings may indicate that mindfulness training in pre-adolescents enhances emotional non-reactivity to negative distractors. A fluctuating pattern of LPP mean amplitude modulations for angry targets was observed in the active control group (ACG) receiving social-emotional learning (SEL) training. Overall, findings from this study suggest that mindfulness training in pre-adolescents enhances emotional non-reactivity to negative distractors and some of the effects are culturally sensitive

Mindfulness Versus Cognitive Reappraisal: the Impact of Mindfulness‑Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on the Early and Late Brain Potential Markers of Emotion Regulation

Objectives A positive association between trait mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal has previously been found. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated the impact of an 8-week MBSR course on early and late stages of emotion regulation using mindfulness and reappraisal. Methods Participants were allocated into an 8-week MBSR training group (n = 14 for task reports and self-reports; n = 10 for ERPs) or a wait-list control group (n = 15 for task reports and self-reports; n = 11 for ERPs). Pre and post the 8-week training, participants completed an affective picture viewing task and were instructed to regulate their responses to negative and neutral images using mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Results At post-test, only the training group showed significant improvements in self-reported trait mindfulness and trait cognitive reappraisal, together with improvements in the self-reported ability to employ mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal during the task. The training group showed decreased 200–280 ms positivity across all three strategies at post-test. The LPP did not change over time but overall showed more positive mean amplitudes to cognitive appraisal. Conclusions These findings suggest that MBSR may adaptively modulate early attention deployment to emotional stimuli, but modulations of later stages of emotion processing may require more extensive mindfulness training. In addition, conscious employment of mindfulness may require less cognitive effort than cognitive reappraisal

Effects of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) on Symptom Change, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Rumination in Clients With Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

Objectives: Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in exploring self-compassion as a related and complementary construct to mindfulness. Increases in self-compassion may predict clinical outcomes after MBCT and cultivation of compassion toward self and others is central to CFT. This pilot study compared the impact of MBCT applying implicit self-compassion instructions and CFT employing explicit self-compassion instructions on symptom change, mindfulness, self-compassion, and rumination. Method: This non-randomized wait-list controlled study (N = 58) with two intervention arms (MBCT N = 20, CFT N = 18, Control N = 20) assessed the outcomes of clients with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms from before to after the interventions and at one month follow up (MBCT N = 17, CFT N = 13, Control N = 13). Results: Both treatments resulted in significant increases in mindfulness and self-compassion and decreases in rumination, depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, MBCT enhanced mindfulness for people who were initially high in rumination, whereas CFT enhanced mindfulness across the board. Conclusion: The findings suggest that both MBCT and CFT, and hence implicit or explicit self-compassion instructions, produce similar clinical outcomes with CFT enhancing mindfulness regardless of client's rumination level

Relating Dispositional Mindfulness and Long-Term Mindfulness Training with Executive Functioning, Emotion Regulation, and Well-Being in Pre-adolescents

The present study examined whether both dispositional mindfulness without mindfulness training and mindfulness resulting from longer-term mindfulness training are positively associated with pre-adolescents’ well-being, via enhanced executive functioning (EF) and emotion regulation. EF was assessed in a GoNoGo task via behavioral performance and event-related potentials. Study 1 (N = 62) investigated associations of dispositional mindfulness without mindfulness training with EF, well-being and emotion regulation; longitudinal Study 2 with an active control group compared the effects of long-term mindfulness training (N = 28) with a positive psychology intervention (N = 15). Dispositional mindfulness without training was associated with lower EF, unrelated to emotion regulation and the relationship with well-being was mixed. Long-term mindfulness training was positively related to EF and well-being (reduced negative affect), but was uncorrelated with emotion regulation and mindfulness scores. Taken together, long-term mindfulness training was found to have mixed effects. Further research is required in this area

Impact of Mindfulness-Based Teacher Training on MBSR Participant Well-Being Outcomes and Course Satisfaction

Growing interest in mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) has resulted in increased demand for MBP teachers, raising questions around safeguarding teaching standards. Training literature emphasises the need for appropriate training and meditation experience, yet studies into impact of such variables on participant outcomes are scarce, requiring further investigation. This feasibility pilot study hypothesised that participant outcomes would relate to teachers' mindfulness-based teacher training levels and mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Teachers (n = 9) with different MBP training levels delivering mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses to the general public were recruited together with their course participants (n = 31). A teacher survey collected data on their mindfulness-based teacher training, other professional training and relevant experience. Longitudinal evaluations using online questionnaires measured participant mindfulness and well-being before and after MBSR and participant course satisfaction. Course attendees' gains after the MBSR courses were correlated with teacher training and experience. Gains in well-being and reductions in perceived stress were significantly larger for the participant cohort taught by teachers who had completed an additional year of mindfulness-based teacher training and assessment. No correlation was found between course participants' outcomes and their teacher's mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Our results support the hypothesis that higher mindfulness-based teacher training levels are possibly linked to more positive participant outcomes, with implications for training in MBPs. These initial findings highlight the need for further research on mindfulness-based teacher training and course participant outcomes with larger participant samples

The Mindfulness Map : A Practical Classification Framework of Mindfulness Practices, Associated Intentions, and Experiential Understandings

When considering the numerous mindfulness-based and mindfulness-informed programs that have flourished in the past decades it is not always clear that they all refer to the same “mindfulness. ” To facilitate more clarity and precision in describing, researching and teaching mindfulness in the secular settings, we propose a classification framework of mindfulness practices, intentions behind them and the experiential understandings the practices may aim to develop. Accordingly, the proposed framework, called the Mindfulness Map, has two axes. The first axis outlines mindfulness practices (and associated instructions) classified into four groups (MGs), e.g. the MG1 focuses on cultivating attention to the present moment somatic and sensory experience while the MG4 focuses on cultivating the ability to recognize and deconstruct perceptual, cognitive and emotional experiences and biases. The second axis outlines possible intentions (INTs) to cultivate particular experiential understanding (EU) via teaching and practicing the MGs, e.g., the INT1 designates the intention to gain EU of how our relationship to experience contributes to wellbeing, the INT2 refers to the intention to gain EU of the changing nature of body, mind and external phenomenon. We suggest that the same MG can lead to different EUs outcomes based on the specific INTs applied in their teaching or practice. The range of INTs and EUs included here is not exhaustive, there are further types the Map could be expanded toward. Aside from encouraging more fine-grained distinctions of mindfulness practices, the proposed Map aims to open discussions about interactions between MGs, INTs, EUs and practice outcomes. The Map may facilitate more nuanced and precise approaches to researching the range of outcomes cultivated by mindfulness practices, help bridge contradictory findings, and catalyze further debate and research into ethical aspects of mindfulness. The Map also highlights the need for further teaching development and research on longer-term trajectories of mindfulness practice. While the proposed Mindfulness Map organises the mindfulness practice territory along two axes, it is aimed as a starting point for further discussion and can be further revised and/or expanded by other axes