Meeting Mental Breakdown Mindfully introduces the Comprehend, Cope and Connect (CCC) approach, developed and evaluated within mental health services, to a wider audience who need to understand mental health issues, whether for themselves or to support others. The book deconstructs and normalizes mental breakdown, starting from the individual’s inner experience, leading to practical ways of helping people out of distress and impaired functioning, towards the realization of their whole potential. It is based on an understanding of connections in the brain founded in cognitive science, which explains how human functioning can easily go astray. CCC provides a compelling rationale for putting mindfulness at the heart of the solution, along with other ways of coping with emotions and changing behaviour. The approach is brought to life through three illustrative case histories, giving a representative and realistic insight into both the experience of the individual and the workings of the system. Meeting Mental Breakdown Mindfully will help mental health professionals and those in related fields identify more accurately what people in their organization or under their care are going through.

Critiquing the Psychiatric Model is the first Volume of the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series. Understanding the current systems of psychology and psychiatry is profoundly important. So is exploring alternatives. The Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series presents solicited chapters from international experts on a wide variety of underexplored subjects. This is a series for mental health researchers, teachers, and practitioners, for parents and interested lay readers, and for anyone trying to make sense of anxiety, depression, and other emotional difficulties. Critiquing the Psychiatric Model sets out to present a clear picture of the current “mental disorder paradigm,” one that claims an ability to “diagnose and treat mental disorders” and that provides “medication” as its primary treatment. Critiquing the Psychiatric Model traces the history of the psychiatric model and its “diagnostic manual” and identifies its flaws and problem areas by presenting more than twenty solicited chapters from experts worldwide.

This book explores how Schema Therapy and its underlying theory might be used in work with clients who suffer from psychosis, bipolarity and related symptoms. The first part of the book presents in-depth qualitative research featuring first-person testimonies that describe the self-states or ‘modes’ of a person with psychosis or bipolarity. These self-states involve a range of features, such as emotions, thoughts, motivations and behaviours, which manifest as patterns. The second part proposes the adaptation and application of Schema Therapy, a transdiagnostic approach working with emotion and interpersonal functioning for clinical work with these two groups. Offering unique insights, this text will appeal to a range of practicing clinicians, such as psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists and those with a special interest in psychosis or bipolarity.

Third Wave CBT Integration for Individuals and Teams: Comprehend, Cope and Connect introduces a therapy that starts from the perspective of the immediate experience of the individual. Developed by the authors, this new, transdiagnostic approach to mental health difficulties brings together the impact of past trauma and adversity on present coping (comprehend), and utilizes the latest in mindfulness and compassion-focused approaches to manage change (cope and connect).Already adopted in a variety of settings, the book demonstrates the approach’s practicality and adaptability of the therapy. The text explores the cognitive science-based theory behind the approach and its place within the range of ‘third wave’. It also includes a full manual of the linked individual and group therapy approach piloted in primary care IAPT, including case examples. The application of the approach to psychosis, its adoption in a variety of settings and the evidence base to date are also discussed. Third Wave CBT Integration for Individuals and Teams will be warmly welcomed by IAPT practicitioners looking to adopt a new, third wave CBT approach, as well as other CBT practitioners and clinical psychologists.

Living Mindfully Across the Lifespan: An Intergenerational Guide provides user-friendly, empirically supported information about and answers to some of the most frequently encountered questions and dilemmas of human living, interactions, and emotions. With a mix of empirical data, humor, and personal insight, each chapter introduces the reader to a significant topic or question, including self-worth, anxiety, depression, relationships, personal development, loss, and death. Along with exercises that clients and therapists can use in daily practice, chapters feature personal stories and case studies, interwoven throughout with the authors’ unique intergenerational perspectives. Compassionate, engaging writing is balanced with a straightforward presentation of research data and practical strategies to help address issues via psychological, behavioral, contemplative, and movement-oriented exercises. Readers will learn how to look deeply at themselves and society, and to apply what has been learned over decades of research and clinical experience to enrich their lives and the lives of others.

The Power Threat Meaning Framework is a new perspective on why people sometimes experience a whole range of forms of distress, confusion, fear, despair, and troubled or troubling behaviour. It is an alternative to the more traditional models based on psychiatric diagnosis. It was co-produced with service users and applies not just to people who have been in contact with the mental health or criminal justice systems, but to all of us. The Framework summarises and integrates a great deal of evidence about the role of various kinds of power in people's lives; the kinds of threat that misuses of power pose to us; and the ways we have learned as human beings to respond to threat. In traditional mental health practice, these threat responses are sometimes called 'symptoms'. The Framework also looks at how we make sense of these difficult experiences, and how messages from wider society can increase our feelings of shame, self-blame, isolation, fear and guilt. The main aspects of the Framework are summarised in these questions, which can apply to individuals, families or social groups: 'What has happened to you?' (How is Power operating in your life?) 'How did it affect you?' (What kind of Threats does this pose?) 'What sense did you make of it?' (What is the Meaning of these situations and experiences to you?) 'What did you have to do to survive?' (What kinds of Threat Response are you using?) In addition, the two questions below help us to think about what skills and resources people might have, and how we might pull all these ideas and responses together into a personal narrative or story: 'What are your strengths?' (What access to Power resources do you have?) 'What is your story?' (How does all this fit together?)

Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom. Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life-virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom--are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.