November 18, 2022
In this episode, Wendy speaks with renowned clinical psychologist, researcher, and co-developer of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Zindel Segal. Zindel’s work has brought relief to many who suffer from depression by sharing the tools and skills of mindful awareness. This conversation covers many topics, including:
- his early experiences with meditation and psychology;
- the development of MBCT and its evolution;
- seeing thoughts as thoughts;
- the power of curiosity, kindness, and an attitude of letting be;
- clinical research on MBCT in depression;
- staying with difficult experiences;
- the latest thinking about how antidepressants work;
- a short guided meditation;
- the importance of sense foraging;
- using digital platforms and increasing accessibility to mindfulness skills;
- adapting practices for the challenges young people face today;
- how MBCT can shift the sense of self and identity;
- and how practice has changed him.
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 200 scientific publications, including The Mindful Way Through Depression—a patient guide for achieving mood balance in everyday life—Zindel continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health.
Resources
Faculty website at University of Toronto
- TED Talk (18 min): The mindful way through depression
- ISCS Keynote Lecture (54 min): Mindfulness Therapeutics in the Promotion of Mental Health
- Online Program: Mindful Mood Balance
- Paper on sensory awareness and relapse: Static and treatment-responsive brain biomarkers of depression relapse vulnerability following prophylactic psychotherapy: Evidence from a randomized control trial, NeuroImage Clinical, 2022
- Paper on MBCT efficacy: Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse: An Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis From Randomized Trials. JAMA Psychiatry, 2016
- Paper on MBCT and antidepressants: Antidepressant monotherapy vs sequential pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or placebo, for relapse prophylaxis in recurrent depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2010
- Book: The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress, 2014
- Book: The Mindful Way Through Depression, 2007