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Clara Strauss

41 papers in the library · 143 citations · publishing 2014-2026

Papers

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Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression (ATTEND): study protocol for a parallel randomised controlled superiority trial of Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC) for depression among young people aged 15 to 18 years old with an embedded economic evaluation

Trials October 23, 2026 Tamsin Ford, Rachel Childs, Rachel Hayes et al.

Abstract: Background: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group intervention recommended by NICE for adults who have experienced recurrent depression but is untested for adolescents. MBCT aims to teach people to recognise early indicators of depression, to avoid repetitive thinking patterns that make relapse more likely, and to respond to stressors in ways that protect mental...

Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression (ATTEND): Study Protocol for a parallel randomized controlled superiority trial of Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC) for depression among young people aged 15 to 18 years old with an embedded economic evaluation

Research Portal October 13, 2026 Tamsin Ford, Rachel Childs, Rachel Hayes et al.

Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression (ATTEND): Study Protocol for a parallel randomized controlled superiority trial of Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC) for depression among young people aged 15 to 18 years old in the UK with an embedded economic evaluation.

Mechanisms of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in difficult-to-treat depression: moderation and mediation analyses from the RESPOND trial.

Psychological Medicine July 13, 2026 Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed for relapse prevention in people with remitted depression but is increasingly used for those with difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). A key question regarding this broader application is whether ongoing depressive symptoms constrain therapeutic responsiveness or disrupt MBCT's proposed mechanism, decentering. We explored whether baseline...

Efficacy and Moderators of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Difficult-to-Treat Depression: A Systematic Review and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics June 12, 2026 Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al. 1 citation

INTRODUCTION: Around a third of patients with major depressive disorder experience persistent symptoms despite usual treatments. Identifying scalable, psychological treatment options is critical to reduce the burden associated with difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). We examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) compared with treatment as usual (TAU) and other active...

Efficacy and moderators of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in 'Difficult to Treat' depression: protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

BMJ Open December 8, 2025 Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al.

Introduction: About 30% of depressed patients suffer from a protracted course in which the disorder continues to cause significant burden despite treatment efforts. While originally developed for relapse prevention, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has increasingly been investigated in depressed patients with such 'difficult-to-treat' courses. This is a protocol for an individual...

A qualitative exploration of NHS-staff social identification with mindfulness in-groups and engagement with mindful practices.

PLoS One October 23, 2025 Daniel Cullen, Kate Cavanagh, Clara Strauss

BACKGROUND/ OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness practice has been widely adopted by healthcare staff, being grounded in evidence and supported by national guidelines. However, certain fundamental factors are not well understood, including attitudes towards mindfulness in-groups. The aim of this project was to explore the nature of social identification with mindfulness in-groups in relation to engagement...

Participants' Perspective on the Competence of Mindfulness-Based Interventions Teaching: Development and Validation of the Mindfulness-Based Interventions-Participants' Assessment of Teaching (MBI:PAT) Questionnaire.

Mindfulness September 3, 2025 Jesus Montero-Marin, Eleanor-Rose Farley, Shannon Maloney et al.

Objectives: No participant-rated tool exists for assessing MBI teaching competence. This study aimed to develop and validate the MBI:PAT to address this limitation. The primary objective was to develop a new measure, the Mindfulness-based Interventions: Participants' Assessment of Teaching" (MBI:PAT), and to evaluate its psychometric properties across several studies using independent samples....

DOI: 10.1007/s12671-025-02668-8 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Questionnaire Mindfulness-based Teaching competence Mbi

Efficacy and Moderators of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in ‘Difficult to Treat’ Depression: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

medRxiv June 9, 2025 Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al. preprint

ABSTRACT: Introduction: About 30% of depressed patients suffer from a protracted course in which the disorder continues to cause significant burden despite treatment efforts. While originally developed for relapse prevention, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has increasingly been investigated in depressed patients with such ‘difficult-to-treat’ courses. This is a protocol for an...

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy versus treatment as usual after non-remission with NHS Talking Therapies high-intensity psychological therapy for depression: a UK-based clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness randomised, controlled, superiority trial.

The Lancet Psychiatry June 1, 2025 Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al. 9 citations

Non-remission after psychological therapy for major depressive disorder is common, yet there are no established further-line treatments. In the UK National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies programme, about 50% of patients with depression who come to the end of the stepped care pathway do not show remission of symptoms. We aimed to investigate whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy...

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Life (MBCT-L) Versus Stress Reduction Psychoeducation (SRP) for the Improvement of Mental Well-Being in Health Care and Other Public Sector Staff: Protocol for the Well at Work Randomized Controlled Trial.

JMIR Research Protocols May 26, 2025 Elena Nixon, Shireen Patel, Priya Patel et al.

Mindfulness-based and stress reduction interventions have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines in England and Wales as effective preventive mental well-being interventions for health care and other public sector staff at risk of poor mental health. This trial aims to assess the effectiveness of the increasingly implemented Mindfulness-Based...

DOI: 10.2196/67695 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy Nhs National health service Stress reduction psychoeducation +4

Defining Mindfulness: A Review of Existing Definitions and Suggested Refinements

Mindfulness 2025 Ryad Chems-Maarif, Kate Cavanagh, Ruth A. Baer et al.

Mindfulness research is hampered by the multiplicity of definitions of mindfulness. This heterogeneity, as reflected in the variability of mindfulness scales, limits the ability to generalize findings and hinders attempts to synthesize available studies. This paper explores traditional and contemporary definitions of mindfulness, aiming to extract core components and provide a refined and...

Effects of brief remote high ventilation breathwork with retention on mental health and wellbeing: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Scientific Reports July 23, 2024 Guy W. Fincham, Elissa S Epel, Alessandro Colasanti et al.

High ventilation breathwork with retention (HVBR) has been growing in popularity over the past decade and might be beneficial for mental and physical health. However, little research has explored the potential therapeutic effects of brief, remotely delivered HVBR and the tolerability profile of this technique. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of a fully-automated HVBR protocol, along...

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64254-7 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Humans Breathing exercises Mental health Female +1

Effects of brief remote high ventilation breathwork with retention on mental health and wellbeing: A randomised placebo-controlled trial

Research Square April 22, 2024 Guy W. Fincham, Elissa S Epel, Alessandro Colasanti et al. preprint

Abstract High ventilation breathwork with retention (HVBR) might be beneficial for mental/physical health and has been growing in popularity over the past decade. However, little research has investigated the potential therapeutic effects of brief, remotely delivered HVBR and the tolerability profile of this technique. This study (NCT06064474) was the largest blinded randomised-controlled trial...

Effect of coherent breathing on mental health and wellbeing: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Scientific Reports December 13, 2023 Guy W. Fincham, Clara Strauss, Kate Cavanagh

Breathwork may offer simple tools for stress resilience. We conducted the largest parallel randomised-controlled trial on breathwork to date (NCT05676658) wherein 400 participants on the research platform Prolific were randomised, in blocks of 2 via remote software, to coherent breathing at ~ 5.5 breaths/min or a matched attention-placebo at 12 breaths/min, for ~ 10 min/day over 4 weeks....

Making Mindfulness Meditation a Healthy Habit

Mindfulness December 1, 2023 Eleanor Miles, Faith Matcham, Clara Strauss et al.

Abstract Objectives The benefits of mindfulness meditation can only be achieved if it is practiced, but health behavior research tells us that initiating and maintaining long-term behavior change is difficult. We propose that mindfulness meditation can be usefully viewed as a health behavior and that this perspective generates insights into how individuals can be supported to develop a healthy...

Clinical Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Supported Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Self-help Compared With Supported Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Self-help for Adults Experiencing Depression: The Low-Intensity Guided Help Through Mindfulness (LIGHTMind) Randomized Clinical Trial.

JAMA Psychiatry May 1, 2023 Clara Strauss, Anna-Marie Bibby-Jones, Fergal Jones et al.

Depression is prevalent. Treatment guidelines recommend practitioner-supported cognitive behavioral therapy self-help (CBT-SH) for mild to moderate depression in adults; however, dropout rates are high. Alternative approaches are required. To determine if practitioner-supported mindfulness-based cognitive therapy self-help (MBCT-SH) is superior to practitioner-supported CBT-SH at reducing...

A randomised controlled trial to investigate the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for depressed non-responders to Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) high-intensity therapies: study protocol

Trials January 19, 2023 Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al.

Background Major depression represents a pressing challenge for health care. In England, Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services provide evidence-based psychological therapies in a stepped-care approach to patients with depression. While introduction of these services has successfully increased access to therapy, estimates suggest that about 50% of depressed patients who...

Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials.

Scientific Reports January 9, 2023 Guy William Fincham, Clara Strauss, Jesus Montero-Marin et al.

Deliberate control of the breath (breathwork) has recently received an unprecedented surge in public interest and breathing techniques have therapeutic potential to improve mental health. Our meta-analysis primarily aimed to evaluate the efficacy of breathwork through examining whether, and to what extent, breathwork interventions were associated with lower levels of self-reported/subjective...

Can a little bit of mindfulness do you good? A systematic review and meta-analyses of unguided mindfulness-based self-help interventions.

Clinical Psychology Review August 30, 2021 Heather B Taylor, Clara Strauss, Kate Cavanagh

Over the last decade there has been an explosion of interest in mindfulness-based self-help (MBSH) interventions. While widely available and extensively promoted, there is little consensus on their impact in public health or healthcare contexts. We present a systematic review and meta-analyses of 83 randomized controlled trials, comparing unguided MBSH to control conditions on outcomes of...

Reducing stress and promoting well-being in healthcare workers using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for life

International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology February 18, 2021 Clara Strauss, Jenny Gu, Jesus Montero-Marin et al.

Background/Objective Healthcare workers play a critical role in the health of a nation, yet rates of healthcare worker stress are disproportionately high. We evaluated whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for life (MBCT-L), could reduce stress in healthcare workers and target a range of secondary outcomes. Method: This is the first parallel randomised controlled trial of MBCT-L....

Systematic review of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction via group videoconferencing: Feasibility, acceptability, safety, and efficacy.

Journal of psychotherapy integration September 14, 2020 Alesia Moulton-Perkins, D. Moulton, Kate Cavanagh et al.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) are effective in reducing distress among people with physical or mental health problems. However, implementation is limited by variable geographic provision, ability to travel, and the need for remote service delivery during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Integration with Internet-enabled...

Participant perspectives on the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive behaviour therapy approaches for obsessive compulsive disorder.

PLoS One 2020 Tamara Leeuwerik, Kate Cavanagh, Elizabeth Forrester et al.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which includes Exposure and Response (ERP) is a highly effective, gold standard treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Nonetheless, not all patients with OCD significantly benefit from CBT. This has generated interest in the potential benefits of Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs), either integrated with CBT, to enhance engagement with ERP...

Differential sensitivity of mindfulness questionnaires to change with treatment: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Psychological Assessment August 1, 2019 Ruth A. Baer, Jenny Gu, Kate Cavanagh et al.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 31(10) of Psychological Assessment (see record 2019-58643-005). The article should have been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0). Therefore, the article was amended to list the authors as copyright holders, and information about the terms of the CC BY 3.0 was added to the author...

The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in Real-World Healthcare Services

Mindfulness January 12, 2019 Alice Tickell, Susan Ball, Paul Bernard et al.

Depression is common with a high risk of relapse/recurrence. There is evidence from multiple randomised controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrating the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for the prevention of depressive relapse/recurrence, and it is included in several national clinical guidelines for this purpose. However, little is known about whether MBCT is being delivered...

Mindfulness-based exposure and response prevention for obsessive compulsive disorder: Findings from a pilot randomised controlled trial

Journal of Anxiety Disorders April 30, 2018 Clara Strauss, Laura Lea, Mark Hayward et al. 47 citations

BACKGROUND: Only about half of people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) show clinically significant improvement following the recommended therapy, exposure and response prevention (ERP), partly due to poor therapy acceptability. A mindfulness-based approach to ERP (MB-ERP) has the potential to improve acceptability and outcomes. METHODS: This was an internal pilot randomised controlled...