Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with contemplative wisdom practices. It results in greater compassion in relationship with self, enhanced capacity not to react to unwanted internal experiences, and thereby reduces relapse of mood disorders. It also reduces current symptoms of depression and of diagnoses often comorbid with it across a lifetime. Those with conditions such as PTSD, GAD, OCD, Social Anxiety, Panic and other conditions that benefit from exposure therapy are also served by skills learned in MBCT. Indeed, mindfulness and related practices (e.g., equanimity, attunement to pleasant events, broadening the attentional field) support active exposure to unwanted and unpleasant internal experiences while building resources that enhance resilience and other indices of health in mind, body & behaviors.
In MBCT one develops and strengthens the capacity to respond assertively (i.e., intentionally affiliative and direct) to intrusive and recurrent mental phenomena, the sensations of fear in the body that accompany them, and the impulses such sensations often drive in the form of reactive behaviors. The second half of MBCT may be conceptualized as mindful and integrative exposure therapy that facilitates emotional processing and corrective experiences while building resilience and offering protection from relapse.
In this training, professionals with previous training in mindfulness or related wisdom tradition practices are invited to take the role of a "participant-observer" and directly experience the second half (sessions 5 - 8) of the MBCT treatment protocol while observing a teacher and teacher trainer fully qualified to implement MBCT and to train clinicians to develop implementation competence.
This synchronous virtual workshop is followed by optional and ongoing virtual monthly meetings where continuing professional education and development is offered during the Mindful Monday and / or the Wisdom Wednesday hour offered each month for CE credits through PBTA. "Teach back" opportunities with past professional graduates of MBCT and related trainings are also available to enhance implementation competence in individual psychotherapy sessions.
Required reading for the MBCT teacher development training sequence.
Suggested Reading
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Second Edition 2nd Edition
Mindfulness-Based Interventions - Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI-TAC) (free download)
Baer, R., Crane, C., Miller, E., & Kuyken, W. (2019). Doing no harm in mindfulness-based programs: conceptual issues and empirical findings. Clinical psychology review, 71, 101-114.
Crane, R. S., Eames, C., Kuyken, W., Hastings, R. P., Williams, J. M. G., Bartley, T., ... & Surawy, C. (2013). Development and validation of the mindfulness-based interventions–teaching assessment criteria (MBI: TAC). Assessment, 20(6), 681-688.
Dimidjian, S., & Segal, Z. V. (2015). Prospects for a clinical science of mindfulness-based intervention. American Psychologist, 70(7), 593.
Goldfried, M. R. (2019). Obtaining consensus in psychotherapy: What holds us back?. American Psychologist, 74(4), 484.
Kramer, G. (2007). Insight dialogue: The interpersonal path to freedom. Shambhala Publications.
Levy, J., Dimidjian, S., & Segal, Z. V. (2026). A Critical Review and 10-Year Update on Prospects for a Clinical Science of Mindfulness-Based Intervention. Mindfulness, 1-15.
Molnar, C. (September, 2017). Playing in the ocean of awareness: Innovations in mindfulness training. The Pennsylvania Psychologist Quarterly, pages 16-17.
Molnar, C. (June, 2014). Peer groups as a reflecting pool for enhancing wisdom. The Pennsylvania Psychologist Quarterly, pages 9-10.
Speed, B. C., Goldstein, B. L., & Goldfried, M. R. (2018). Assertiveness training: A forgotten evidence‐based treatment. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 25(1), e12216.
CE Learning Objectives
Following this presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the structural elements of two formal mindfulness practices that adhere to Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) designed to teach participants to deconstruct emotion (pleasant or unpleasant) into the mind, body, and behavior elements.
2. Describe two examples of covert (mental) or overt (observable) behaviors that reflect the “doing mode of mind” that arises when there is a discrepancy between one’s desired verses actual internal state.
3. Describe one specific way that an unpleasant emotion state can contribute to the risk of recurrence of transdiagnostic emotional disorders.
4. Describe the concept of ruminative brooding and how it worsens mood and predicts onset, maintenance, and recurrence of transdiagnostic emotional disorders.
5. Describe two examples of the difference between conceptual and non-conceptual information (& associated) emotional processing and how each mode of mind can reduce or increase risk of relapse.
6. Describe the difference between an avoidance / aversion and an approach mode of relating with experience and how each can influence risk of relapse.
7. Describe the components of the responsive three-step "breathing space" practice and how when combined with "re-entry doors" it can support the application of mindfulness skills in everyday life & compassionate responding in stressful situations, including exposure therapy.
8. Describe how formal practice can be considered a micro-laboratory that supports exposure therapy and awareness of sensations, habitual mental phenomena, impulses for behaviors, and one’s intra-personal relationship to the emotion states composed of these elements.
9. Describe the implementation of the informal practice of logging nourishing and depleting events and how this supports identification of factors associated with relapse prevention and self-kindness intra-personally.
10. Describe the physiological outcome of fighting or attempting to eliminate unwanted internal experiences and how it contrasts with allowing one’s unwanted experiences and relating with kindness to the self.
11. List three ways MBCT is integrative as described in Goldfried (2019).
12. Explain what is meant by having an assertive relationship intra-personally to reduce relapse risk during states of depletion and when unwanted internal experiences occur.
About Presenters
Chris Molnar, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and clinical investigator, founded Mindful Exposure Therapy for Anxiety and Psychological Wellness Center (META Center) in 2007. She completed post-doctoral fellowship training in traumatic stress, neuroscience, and psycho-physiology and is an expert in the assessment and treatment of anxiety, OCD, PTSD, emotional, and stress-related conditions using evidence-based practices. She teaches both Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and has also developed adaptations for highly distressed clients, using Relational Mindfulness Practices (RBPs), to meet the needs of people in both individual and group therapy settings. At META Center, she offers integrative interventions grounded in findings about the brain, emotion, and learning to facilitate mental and behavioral habit change, even in the face of severe distress. Before founding META Center, she served as a clinical investigator and therapist supported by grants from the National Institute of Health and other agencies. She is also on the editorial board of Behavior Therapy and serves the public in many ways, through professional presentations, workshops, publications, and affiliations.
“Chris Molnar, Ph.D. offers a high quality MBCT training that adheres to the principles of participant experiential learning and treatment fidelity” ~ Zindel Segal, Ph.D., co-creator of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Alissa S. Yamasaki, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and the founder of Ayama Psychotherapy, located in Lemont, PA. Her practice has gained a positive local reputation for its mindful and collaborative business practices, psychotherapists who are especially effective in the area of health and mind-body conditions, and wellness events for health and wellness providers.
Dr. Yamasaki's clinical expertise focuses on the treatment of chronic and complex anxiety, as well as insomnia. Her earliest study of the mind-body connection was as an undergraduate in an exercise psychophysiology lab investigating the effects of physical activity on how people feel and think. Dr. Yamasaki earned her Ph.D. from Penn State University in 2006 and completed her internship at Albany Medical Consortium. Her current practices reflect her belief in the importance of being fully present while drawing from empirically-driven interventions. She utilizes a blend of CBT and relational approaches, including mindfulness-based interventions. Dr. Yamasaki attended the 5-day Mindfulness-Based teacher training retreat with Chris Molnar, Ph.D., in 2022, which sparked both the deepening of her mindfulness practices and greater effectiveness in the therapy room.
Target Audience
This presentation is intended for licensed mental health professionals and advanced graduate student trainees seeking licensure. The instructional level of this presentation is INTERMEDIATE.
Note: This workshop requires attendees to have completed at least 3 weeks of daily formal mindfulness practice or a related wisdom tradition practice as a prerequisite to participate. This may be in the form of a previous Mindfulness-Based Program (MBP), regular use of an app for a few weeks, or one of the many brief adapted versions of an MBP. If any questions please contact chris@molnarpsychology.com
Continuing Education
- Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
- Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association is also approved by the NY State Education Department to offer psychology continuing education
- This program provides twelve (12) CE credits.
- PBTA is also an authorized provider of CE credits for Professional Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Clinical Social Workers licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. Non-Psychologist Licensees outside of PA & practitioners outside of the USA please confirm eligibility with your specific licensing board.
- APA guidelines do not permit PBTA to issue partial CE credits.
- There is opportunity for making-up of 2 missed synchronous meetings - please notify Dr. Molnar in advance if you will miss up to 2 of the 6 meeting dates to arrange to attend make-ups that are also synchronous. PBTA does not offer asynchronous CE but with advanced planning can arrange for registrants to make-up a maximum of 4 of the 12 CE hours to receive the full 12 CE credits for this training.
