Grounded in extensive research and clinical experience, this book describes how to adapt mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for participants who struggle with recurrent suicidal thoughts and impulses.

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Grounded in extensive research and clinical experience, this book describes how to adapt mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for participants who struggle with recurrent suicidal thoughts and impulses. Clinicians and mindfulness teachers are presented with a comprehensive framework for understanding suicidality and its underlying vulnerabilities. The preliminary intake interview and each of the eight group mindfulness sessions of MBCT are discussed in detail, highlighting issues that need to be taken into account with highly vulnerable people. Assessment guidelines are provided and strategies for safely teaching core mindfulness practices are illustrated with extensive case examples. The book also discusses how to develop the required mindfulness teacher skills and competencies. Purchasers get access to a companion website featuring downloadable audio recordings of the guided mindfulness practices, narrated by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale. (Published in hardcover as Mindfulness and the Transformation of Despair: Working with People at Risk of Suicide.)

• 1. Introduction
• I. Theoretical and Research Background
• 2. The Origins of Despair: An Evolutionary Perspective
• 3. Why the Idea of Suicide Won't Let Go
• 4. How Could Mindfulness Help?: Doing and Being
• II. MBCT for Those at Risk of Suicide
• 5. Assessing Vulnerability to Depression and Suicidality
• 6. Developing the Preclass Interview: Encouraging Vulnerable Participants to Engage in and Persist with Mindfulness Meditation
• 7. Session 1: Awareness and Automatic Pilot
• 8. Session 2: Living in Our Heads
• 9. Session 3: Gathering the Scattered Mind
• 10. Session 4: Recognizing Aversion
• 11. Session 5: Allowing/Letting Be
• 12. Session 6: Thoughts Are Not Facts
• 13. Session 7: How Can I Best Take Care of Myself?
• 14. Session 8: Maintaining and Extending New Learning
• 15. How Does MBCT Enable Transformation?: Jane's Story
• III. Training Teachers and Defining Competence
• 16. MBCT Teaching Integrity: Assessing Mindfulness-Based Teaching Skills
• 17. The Experience of Being an MBCT Teacher
• IV. MBCT—The Results
• 18. Mindfulness on Trial: Does MBCT Help People at Risk of Suicide?
• Further Reading and Resources
• References