Brief Mindfulness- & Compassion- Based CBT (MC-CBT) 4-session training for Cueing Adaptive Automaticity

NON-PROFESSIONALS CAN REGISTER AND PAY THROUGH PAYPAL: http://www.paypal.me/metacenter

The rate for non-professionals is $250 for the course.

Those with high levels of distress, stress, and / or insecure attachment histories can encounter challenges with the traditional 8-week Mindfulness-Based Programs (MBPs) as a starting point. The longer silent practices and inquiry periods  of MBPs may evoke impatience, disconnection, and self-criticism in some that can interfere with beneficial outcomes. Similar to how MBCT creators anticipated such challenges (i.e., presence of suicidality & ruminative brooding), Molnar (2014, 2018) has integrated parallel adaptations for those with high levels of anxiety, OCD, and trauma-aftermath. 

Mindfulness- and Compassion-based CBT (MC-CBT) integrates tools from several areas of inquiry to adapt longer MBPs to the needs of those with high levels of anxiety, fear, perseverative cognition, physiology that may reach panic attack levels and occur in transdiagnostic conditions. Principles and practices derived from CBT, functional neuroscience, Interpersonal Emotional Processing (IEP), Buddhist and Social Psychology are adapted with traditional but briefer practices of MBCT and MBSR to support health of mind, body, and behaviors in MC-CBT (see EBP article by Molnar & Molnar, 2014: META for GAD).

In MC-CBT participants practice deconstructing unpleasant emotion states into elements consistent with a CBT model of emotion, referred to as the 3 'B's of belief, body, and behavior. These  mental, physical, and action tendency elements serve as cues for covert and overt compassionate responding. Such responding, with practice strategies including Self-controlled desensitization and cued-coping and Mental Contrasting & Implementation Intentions (MCII), can support automatic adaptive responding (Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2017). With practice  such adaptivity or competence is marked by a friendly and assertive relationship with difficult experience (Benjamin, 2018). It can become automatic (i.e., "unconscious competence": Eubanks & Goldfried, 2019).

Relational (i.e., interpersonal) Mindfulness Practices (RMP: Kramer, 2007) supplement behavioral principles in each module of MC-CBT to support an increase in mindfulness and compassion and a decrease in maladaptive symptoms of distress (Molnar, 2014). A transtherapeutic intervention, MC-CBT, enhances emotional processing of corrective information during exposure therapy and other high stress situations to strengthen intentional responding within and between training meetings.

Schedule

Module 1 (5/9): The Body (The First 'B') & Joy.

Module 2 (5/16): Beliefs (The Second 'B') & Friendliness.

Module 3 (5/23): Emotions,  Stress, & Equanimity.

Module 4 (6/6): Behavior (The Third 'B") &  Compassion. 

About the Presenter

Chris Molnar, Ph.D., obtained her Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology from The Pennsylvania State University. Her post-doctoral fellowship training was in traumatic stress and functional neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is President of the Mindful Exposure Therapy for Anxiety and Psychological Wellness Center, Inc. (META Center). At META Center, she integrates Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) with other forms of psychotherapy. Her work is guided by ongoing developments in functional neuroscience, emotion and motivation, and other areas of inquiry into how humans learn optimally to maintain and apply healthy habits during states of threat and challenge. Before founding META Center in 2007, Dr. Molnar worked as a clinical investigator supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies. For a full list of credentials, scientific contributions, popular press articles, and select professional presentations visit www.meta4stress.com Resources tab.

Featured Reading

Molnar, C. (2025). Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): Curriculum, Training, and Clinician Guide. In The Palgrave Handbook of Third-Wave Psychotherapies (pp. 489-512). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. (will be provided to registrants by the author)

Molnar, C. (2014). Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In L. Grossman & S. Walfish (Eds), Translating Research into Practice: A Desk Reference for Practicing Mental Health Professionals. New York: Springer Publishing.