My teacher, Nick Diggins, has very kindly taken time out to answer James's question in full. A big thanks to Nick who can be contacted via his website:
http://mindfulnessforwellbeing.co.ukHere's Nick's carefully considered response:
What is the difference between MBCT and MBSR?
Mindfulness-based Stress reduction and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy are two very similar 8-week mindfulness courses and many people ask what the difference. Broadly speaking they are roughly 80% to 90% the same (depending on who teaches them and how they teach) and for most people either course will provide the same benefit.
What MBCT and MBSR have in Common
The mindfulness component of the course, which constitutes at least 80% of the course, is identical. Both have the same meditation practices and both are aimed at learning to use mindfulness so as to ‘wake up’ to the beauty in life that is so easily missed. Both courses also look in detail at the way in which difficult mental states (like stress or anxiety) arise in relation to life challenges, and teach ways of using mindfulness to learn how to ‘be with’ and manage difficult experiences, both big and small so that we don’t make them worse than they need to be. In particular there is an emphasis on learning to ‘nip in the bud’ any tendency to ‘make a drama out of a crisis’.
Mindfulness itself is the ‘active ingredient’ of both courses. However, this is not something we need to ‘add’ to ourselves. Mindfulness is a natural ability, that we all have, to be positively absorbed in what is happening right here right now. Some people experience this while doing sport, or a favourite hobby such as gardening or something creative. Some people experience it when positively engaged in a work task, or out in nature, or while talking with a good friend. However, this sense of natural absorption is so easily hidden or eclipsed by ‘over-thinking’ – being caught up in plans, worries, ‘the past’ – or the pressure of getting through our ‘to do’ list. We can, and often do, also ‘over-think’ about things that are happening right now.
While thinking and planning are essential, they can easily ‘take over’ so that we spend hardly any time in the ‘present moment’ and instead just experience a running commentary in our heads that never stops. For some people this can take the form of extremely negative thinking, while for others it is just annoying and frustrating- and it gets in the way of enjoying life.
Both MBCT and MBSR address this common habit we can all fall into of ‘over thinking’ and how to use mindfulness to ‘tap into’ our natural inner stability and resourcefulness.
What is different about MBCT and MBSR?
MBCT and MBSR have ‘pure’ forms – the original clinical versions, and more ‘generic’ forms where the original syllabus has been adapted to make it relevant for anyone.
MBSR and MBCT were both originally designed to help with specific conditions- MBSR was designed to help with the stress of illness, and MBCT was designed to help avoid relapse into depression. In fact MBCT was a combination of most of the MBSR syllabus with some specific cognitive therapy exercises which look at specific patterns of negative thinking which depressed people are vulnerable to. In these original programs there is an emphasis in MBSR on understanding the mechanisms underlying stress and there is an emphasis in MBCT on clarifying the mechanisms underlying depression.
However, both courses have now been ‘generalised’ so as to make them relevant for anyone. So as well as being used in hospitals and clinics for their originally intended client groups, both MBCT and MBSR are now being used, in a more ‘generic’ form to help anyone manage day to day stress and life challenges. Teachers, like myself, who offer these more ‘generic’ versions of the original programs, usually mix in a bit more of each program into the other. When I teach MBCT I also include an exploration of how stress functions and how mindfulness can intervene. When I teach MBSR, like many other teachers, I include much from the MBCT program (especially about negative thinking) because MBCT did bring some very good ‘innovations’ to the original MBSR format.
Moreover, the exercises and components of the course that are specific to each program (MBCT and MBSR) actually make up a very small proportion of the class time, and in some respects could be said to point to the same general principles, i.e., of how to extricate ourselves from the ‘over thinking’ and ‘negative interpretation’ that reduce our enjoyment of life.
Should I do MBCT or MBSR?
For most people I generally advise doing whichever course is most easily available and suits your schedule. For most people either course will provide a thorough grounding on how to use mindfulness to wake up more to life’s beauty and to come to understand the unique unhelpful mental we each have that lead us to miss that natural sense of ease and contentment. However, for people who have a history of recurrent depression, and for whom that is the main reason for doing the course, I would generally advise doing the MBCT course because the cognitive therapy exercises in that course are specifically designed to demonstrate how depression works.
