Mindfulness - A Brief Introduction

Derived from the teachings of Eastern philosophies mindfulness has seen a surge of interest in recent years. Initially due to the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, who demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness in treating stress and founded the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR). A program which has successfully treated thousands of patients since its development at the University of Massachusetts in the late 1970s.

In the 1990s Professor Mark Williams of Oxford University, John Teasdale at Cambridge University and Zindel Segal of the University of Toronto developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which draws heavily on MBSR and incorporates methods from cognitive behavioral therapy. Intended to help people who suffer from repeated and serious depression, it has proved to be at least as effective as antidepressants and is now a recommended treatment for people suffering depression.