ABSTRACT
Following on from the themes of the last two chapters, this chapter suggests that, in contrast to the way ‘effortful thinking’ can play a role in psychopathology, ‘effortless attention’ often plays a crucial role in mental balance and recovery. Effortless attention can be cultivated and systematically developed via mindfulness training. The chapter describes how mindfulness came into cognitive therapy after research on depressive relapse suggested that techniques developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in his approach to Mindfulness-based stress reduction could also be adapted to a Mindfulness-based cognitive cognitive programme, designed to reduce relapse in depression.
