BACKGROUND: Brief mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are shorter and less intensive than standard 8-week courses and could provide health and well-being benefits to participants while requiring fewer resources to implement at scale. However, brief MBIs are typically developed ad hoc and lack a clear rationale for the components they include. Our aim was to develop a brief person-centred MBI...
OBJECTIVES: Visual hallucinations (visions) in people with psychosis are common and often distressing. Cognitive theory emphasises a central role of appraisals in determining distress. We explored how people made sense of their visions to inform the development of targeted cognitive treatments for visions. DESIGN: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants with psychosis...
Hearing voices is often experienced as being controlling, powerful, threatening or critical. This study aimed to examine the lived experiences of autonomy among people who hear voices. Employing a qualitative design, this study sought to examine the personal narratives and meaning-making processes of voice hearers and gain deeper insights into the nuanced ways autonomy is experienced,...
Abstract: Objectives: In recent decades, research has increasingly highlighted the devastating effects of childhood trauma and relational processes that violate human development. However, the unique dynamics of such early‐life deprivations in adults who practice meditation, a context where the complexity of such wounding (and healing) may become apparent, remains underexplored. The objectives...
This paper aims to build on a recent theoretical and empirical review of CFT for psychosis by outlining a more detailed account of how voice-hearing perceptions may be generated and triggered, and the implications for clinical practice. It also aims to provide a detailed and practical illustration of how CFT for voice-hearing is applied in therapy. This paper summarises the evolution-informed...
One in three people with psychosis experience visions. However, little is known about what people see, and current treatments have limited benefits. To improve the understanding and treatment of visions, this study explored the phenomenology of visions in people with psychosis. Twelve people with psychosis participated in semi-structured interviews. Reflective thematic analysis was used. Three...
BACKGROUND: Policy changes in Australia mean that psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is now available to consumers outside of clinical trials. Yet, the regulatory frameworks guiding the practice of PAT are underdeveloped, and the evidence base for guiding clinical practice is diverse and emerging, resulting in anticipated challenges in translation to community practice. Mental health clinicians...
PURPOSE & METHOD: Mindfulness for psychosis research has grown exponentially over the last 15 years. In this paper, a brief overview of mindfulness for psychosis is provided followed by a summary of the findings from a systematic search of meta-analyses dated up to February 2023. Current issues in the field are discussed and a future research agenda is presented. RESULTS: Ten meta-analyses...
Objectives: At least one in four persons with bipolar disorder (BD) are estimated to have experienced auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) or heard voices at some point. Yet few studies have investigated AVH in detail in this population. This preliminary study examined the phenomenology of AVH in BD to identify commonalities and differences relative to other psychiatric disorders where AVH are...
OBJECTIVES: There is growing recognition of the value of researching anomalous experiences in the general population to aid our understanding of the psychosis continuum. There are key differences in aims, foci and epistemologies of existing measures, with varying utility for specific research designs. This study addresses gaps in the literature by developing a measure of anomalous experiences...
Objectives: Little is known about the factors that can maintain the distress related to voice-hearing experiences in youth. Building upon understandings developed with adults, this study aimed to explore the associations between negative relating between hearer and voices, persecutory beliefs about voices and voice-related distress in a clinical sample of adolescents. The study also aimed to...
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an 8-week relapse-prevention intervention designed for people who have experienced multiple episodes of depression and remain vulnerable to relapse. Previous qualitative explorations of the effects of MBCT for people in remission from depression have suggested a number of themes regarding changes arising from participating in MBCT ranging from...
OBJECTIVE The mindfulness and self-compassion (MSC) protocol has shown efficacy in reducing mental illness symptoms and increasing well-being. However, little is known on how the positive outcomes are produced. This study explores how reductions in experiential avoidance following MSC training may explain changes in the participants' levels of anxiety, depression, and well-being. METHODS The...
The tendency to experience shame or guilt is associated differentially with anxiety and depression, with shame being associated with greater psychopathology. Correlational studies have shown self-compassion to be related to lower shame and rumination, and mindfulness-based interventions increase self-compassion. Therefore, mindfulness-based interventions may decrease shame. This pilot study...
OBJECTIVES: Major depressive disorder is a significant mental illness that is highly likely to recur, particularly after three or more previous episodes. Increased mindfulness and decreased rumination have both been associated with decreased depressive relapse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether rumination mediates the relationship between mindfulness and depressive relapse....
Mindfulness meditation practices have become increasingly popular in clinical therapies, changing patterns of depressogenic thinking for individuals who experience consecutive episodes of depression. We were interested in finding out how mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) worked for programme participants by focussing on how meditative practices changed their relationships with their...
Does mindfulness offer more to psychology than a useful therapeutic technique? This paper argues that it can also establish a state of presence which is understood in relation to the practice of phenomenology. Mindfulness is then both linked to a Western intellectual tradition and offers that tradition a systematic method. This is an opening for psychological investigation of the non-conceptual...
In mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), it is proposed that training in mindfulness should reduce the tendency of formerly depressed patients to enter into ruminative thinking, thus reducing their risk of depressive relapse. However, data showing that rumination is associated with depressive relapse are lacking. In an uncontrolled study with 24 formerly depressed patients, rumination was...
Objectives: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was originally developed to prevent relapse in recurrent depression. More recently it has been applied to individuals at high risk of suicide or currently suffering with anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to consider the feasibility of MBCT for individuals with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Design: The...
OBJECTIVES: To analyse the experiences of participants with Parkinson's disease (PD), who participated in an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) course. DESIGN AND METHOD: Interpretative phenomenological analysis guided the design and method used in this study. A total of twelve participants (seven men and five women) with PD were recruited prior to and following participation in...
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a new group-based intervention for prevention of relapse in recurrent depression which has not been scientifically evaluated regarding its clinical effectiveness for ameliorating residual depressive symptoms following a depressive episode. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of MBCT in reducing residual depressive symptoms in...
This study is of a grounded theory analysis of the transcripts of young men talking about their experience of psychosis. Six young men were interviewed twice during the critical period of 3-5 years following their first psychotic episode. The young men were asked to reflect on themselves and their lives before, during, and after having psychotic experiences. The transcripts were considered to...