Zindel Segal
Brought mindfulness into cognitive therapy to stop relapse.
Co-developer of MBCT, integrating mindfulness with cognitive therapy to help formerly depressed people relate differently to sadness.
techniques
We needed to help people develop a different relationship to their sadness.
Who they were
Zindel Segal is a Canadian clinical psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is one of three co-founders of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, developed with Mark Williams and John Teasdale to prevent relapse in recurrent depression. His research on the markers of relapse vulnerability has shaped modern treatment of mood disorders.
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Their big idea
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Theory
Depression relapses when low mood reactivates old thought patterns; mindfulness changes that relationship.
The approach they founded
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Blends cognitive therapy with mindfulness so you relate to thoughts and moods differently — and stop the relapse spiral.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Segal — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.