Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness meditation training reduces symptoms in medical and mental health disorders by engaging core cognitive processes that decrease ruminative and elaborative thinking, which perpetuate stress reactivity. The chapter defines mindfulness, reviews its theoretical basis, and outlines mindfulness-based interventions' structure and impact on stress and psychological health indices. It describes the mindfulness stress-buffering account (MSBA) as the dominant theoretical model explaining mindfulness's effects on stress-related disorders, highlighting how this framework can guide intervention science.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Over the past two decades, investigations of mindfulness meditation have demonstrated considerable efficacy in reducing the symptom burden associated with a variety of medical and mental health disorders (Baer, 2003). This chapter reviews the theoretical basis for offering training in mindfulness meditation to these populations, and it outlines the structure of mindfulness-based interventions, as well as their impact on stress and psychological indices of mental and physical health. We first define mindfulness in terms of the core cognitive processes that are engaged through this practice and then review how mindfulness reduces ruminative and elaborative processing, factors known to perpetuate stress reactivity. From there, we describe the dominant theoretical model of mindfulness’s impact on stress-related disorders—the mindfulness stress-buffering account (MSBA; Creswell & Lindsay, 2014)—and highlight how using this framework can inform intervention science in the area of stress reactivity.