Background
Objectives and hypotheses
Methods/design
Study design
Participants and recruitment
Training sessions
Preliminary study: selection of exercises
Name of the exercise | Brief description of the exercise | CBT/MindfulnessMe (IQR) | On-site/RemoteMe (IQR) | Suitable/Not suitableMe (IQR) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. Body scan | The main idea of the exercise is (sequentially and non-judgmentally) bringing detailed awareness to each part of the body. Participants learn to keep their attention focused over a sustained period of time, which helps them develop concentration, calmness and flexibility of attention [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.75) | 1.50 (1.00) |
2. Mindful eating | The exercise involves a non-judgmental awareness of physical and emotional sensations while eating [54] or, in other words, a mindful (i.e., fully aware) approach to eating [55]. As eating is normally an “automatic act”, this exercise is a good illustration of the level to which we are often unaware of what is going on and an example of the changes that can occur if we slowdown and focus on simple acts [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (1.50) | 1.00 (0.75) |
3. Sitting meditation with focus on breathing | During the exercise, participants focus their attention(primarily) on their breathing, but also sounds in the environment, body sensations, and their stream of thoughts and emotions [30, 56]. The exercise helps participants to let go of the past and the future and to pay attention to the simple as opposed to analyzing the complex [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.75) | 1.00 (0.00) |
4. Paying attention during routine activities | The exercise encourages participants to choose one routine activity and make a deliberate effort to bring moment-to-moment awareness to the activity (e.g., brushing one’s teeth, taking a shower, taking out the garbage). By performing the exercise, participants start to realize that they can practice mindfulness by being present in all waking moments, no matter how ordinary and thus bring themselves back into the moment at any time [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (1.50) | 1.00 (0.00) |
5. Three-step breathing space | Participants learn how to become fully aware of their thoughts or feelings (Step 1: acknowledging what is going on), then, having acknowledged them, to move their attention to their breathing (Step 2: bringing attention to the breath), before expanding attention to the body (Step 3: expanding attention [30]). This form of mini-meditation helps participants gather a scattered mind and relate more skillfully to difficult emotions as they arise [55]. | 5.00 (0.75) | 2.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.00) |
6. Mindfulness in everyday life | This is actually a compilation of a wide array of everyday informal mindfulness exercises, such as 1)focusing attention on breathing right after waking up, before leaving the bed, 2) using everyday sounds(e.g., birds singing) as a reminder of mindfulness, 3)being aware of bodily sensations when waiting in the line, … Such activities help an individual remember to be mindful in everyday life [55]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (1.50) | 1.00 (0.00) |
7. Mindful walking | The exercise takes the everyday activity of walking and uses it as a mindfulness practice. During the exercise, participants walk, knowing that they are walking and feeling the walking. It is a form of a meditation in motion and the focus is on maintaining moment-to-moment awareness of the sensations accompanying our movements, letting go of any thoughts or feeling about the sensations themselves. The exercise can be useful, because it enables people to feel more grounded, using the body as an anchor to the present moment [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 2.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
8. Mindful movement | Mindful movement is based on yoga and falls under the category of body-based mindfulness exercises. During this exercise, participants are asked to perform movements such as stretching, raising up the arms, … The task is to pay attention to bodily sensations and notice which sensations are associated with each phase of the prescribed movements. This often enables participants to learn more about their bodies and to distinguish sensations in different parts of the body [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 2.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
9. Breathing space: Adding the action step | This exercise is an upgraded version of the three-step breathing space exercise described above. It involves a fourth step –choosing what to do next in terms of activity. Activities that are pleasurable or give a sense of mastery may be particularly helpful. Whatever action is taken, the idea is to act mindfully. Deciding to act can help participants to regulate their mood and can be an important step toward improving health and well-being [30]. | 5.00 (0.75) | 3.00 (1.50) | 1.00 (0.75) |
10. Staying present | This is a more general exercise that encourages participants to use their body as a way to awareness by, for example, staying mindful of their posture, paying attention to the sensations in their body at the moment, and being in their body as they move when they reach for something. The main idea is that patiently practicing feeling of what is there (and the body is always there) will help participants expand their awareness from times of formal meditation to living mindfully in the world [30]. | 5.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (1.50) | 1.50 (1.00) |
Name of the exercise | Brief description of the exercise | CBT/MindfulnessMe (IQR) | On-site/RemoteMe (IQR) | Suitable/NotsuitableMe (IQR) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. Fact or opinion | The activity involves defining facts and opinions as well facilitating the differentiation between them. This is a critical skill in CBT, as it helps participants understand that their thought processes are not facts about the world, but their opinions or assumptions. The activity is a useful starting point when one wants to challenge the validity of negative thoughts [57]. | 1.00 (0.75) | 3.00 (0.75) | Me (IQR) 1.00 (0.75) |
2. ABC belief monitoring | ABC belief monitoring, originally developed by Ellis [58], is a type of functional analysis and thus explores the links between stimuli and responses. During the exercise, participants explore the antecedents or activating events (A), beliefs (B) and consequences (C). The exercise helps participants identify thoughts or beliefs which occur in a particular situation and identify the consequences of holding those beliefs. It is one the key exercises as it introduces the cognitive model. | 1.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.75) | 1.00 (0.00) |
3. Rumination diary | The rumination diary, similarly to other kinds of diaries used in CBT (e.g., worry diary), encourages participants to record (repetitive) thoughts and images. Participants are asked to record the triggers for the rumination as well as accompanying emotions, their ruminative content and the consequences of ruminations. They are also encouraged to think about what stopped the rumination [59]. | 2.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
4. Thought record | This exercise is one of the essential exercises in CBT. During the exercise, participants are encouraged to identify negative automatic thoughts, deepen their understanding of the relationship between thoughts and emotions, examine the evidence for and against a selected negative automatic thought, challenge a negative automatic thought and generate more realistic alternatives to a negative automatic thought. As such, the exercise helps participants evaluate their negative automatic thoughts for accuracy and bias [57, 60]. | 1.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.75) | 1.00 (0.00) |
5. Thought distortion monitoring record | This activity is an expanded version of the thought record exercise described above. It is administered to help participants identify negative automatic thoughts, notice associations between events and cognitions, help clients understand the links between thoughts, emotions and body sensations, and, most importantly, begin to identify cognitive distortions in their thinking (e.g., jumping to conclusions, “should” statements, …). It is designed to increase participants’ awareness of biases or distortions in their thinking [57, 61]. | 1.00 (0.75) | 3.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.00) |
6. Decatastrophizing | The exercise is a cognitive restructuring technique, normally used to reduce or challenge catastrophic thinking (also known as magnification). Participants are first asked to identify the catastrophe that they are worried about and to rate how awful they believe the catastrophe would be. They are then encouraged to rationally think about how likely it is that the catastrophe would actually happen, how awful it would be if it did happen and, supposing the worst would happen, what would they do to cope. They are also encouraged to fill out what positive and reassuring things they want to say to themselves about the catastrophe now. The exercise promotes cognitive restructuring and the elaboration of balanced responses [62, 63]. | 1.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
7. Modifying rules and assumptions | The exercise can be used to explore participants’ assumptions (a stage of cognition between core beliefs and automatic thoughts), which can be dysfunctional. During the exercise, participants explore the origins, advantages and disadvantages of a rule or assumption. The participants are then encouraged to make adjustments and generate a more flexible alternative rule [64]. | 1.00 (0.00) | 2.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
8. Belief driven formulation | This exercise is a core belief-driven cognitive behavioral case conceptualization. Such formulations can help to illustrate the critical role of underlying beliefs (i.e., how do their core beliefs influence their thoughts, feelings and behaviors in specific situations). As a result, participants gain an insight into how beliefs can bias their perception of situations, which, in turn, motivates and informs schema change (e.g., [65, 66]). | 1.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.75) | 1.00 (0.00) |
9. Positive belief record | This exercise is generally used as a schema change technique. During the exercise, participants identify unhelpful core beliefs and formulate a more positive alternative. They are then asked to write down specific examples which support the new belief. This helps individuals to reduce the impact of negative core beliefs while strengthening positive ones [60, 67]. | 1.00 (0.75) | 2.50 (1.00) | 1.00 (0.75) |
10. Alternative action formulation | This exercise represents a specific version of functional analysis. Participants are encouraged to describe a particular situation and then write down their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in that situation. In the next step, they are asked to think about alternative responses to the situation: what else could they think in response to the situation, what would they feel if they had these thoughts instead of the actual ones, and what would their behavior be in this case. The exercise helps participants develop more functional responses in terms of thoughts, emotions and behaviors and choose more appropriate coping strategies (adapted from [65, 66, 68]). | 1.00 (0.00) | 3.00 (0.00) | 1.00 (0.00) |