What sparked my interest originally about this article was the aggressive approach toward finding a link between formal and informal Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). I found good evidence that supports what I expect to learn more about in regard to MBCT, but I wouldn’t describe the information contained therein as groundbreaking. I may check it out again later if I need to show evidence supporting my claims in the research article, but it’s not likely. I have a handful of other sources I’d probably look to first. There didn’t appear to be any link in the network of authors/researchers compared to previous studies I’ve found. I don’t think this means they aren’t authorities, however. Probably the most valuable thing I could have gleaned from this assignment was further practice in researching. For that reason I still believe this was good time spent. 

For this week’s blog post, we take a look at a research article published in the Wiley Online Library called MINDFULNESS AND EMOTION REGULATION IN DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY: COMMON AND DISTINCT MECHANISMS OF ACTION. I’m not certain why it needed to be in all caps, but aside from that and a very technical (not-so-user-friendly) appearance, this article appears to be very current, relevant, authoritative, and accurate. Probably the most difficult piece of handling this information is the technical “jargon” that reads more like legislature than it does an article. That being said, there is some real merit to having this article in my toolbox for the upcoming research assignment. The article actually explains the mechanisms of Mindfulness and what exactly makes it so powerful. For background, Mindfulness is becoming widely accepted and almost buzzword-like in the sphere of psychology, but no one (until now) has really tried to grapple with what makes it tick. I’m glad these authors took on the challenge – there is some really interesting information here!

For Week 3 of this class I was fortunate enough to find the eBook titled Therapist's Guide to Evidence-based Relapse Prevention. I was only able to find this book after reading the text and understanding the instructions of the assignment to efficiently find books using the Library search terms and limiting my search results only to what I need. I knew there would be evidence (clinical trials in particular) that speak to my research question, but this is the first publication I’ve found that contains a wealth of said information. I’m relieved in a way to have found it, and what’s more is the entire eBook is available through Chapman’s library. I was able to read part of the text by having this access and it is there I found clinical trials that speak positively about the usefulness of MBCT (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy) in a modern therapy setting. If time were to allow, I could even go so far as to read enough of the book to understand the impact of MBCT on topics not pertaining to Depression, which, I’d imagine would give me a better understanding of the mechanics (neuroplasticity, cognitive therapeutic retraining, etc.) thereof. I was also pleased to have found that this eBook “scored well” against the CRAAP criteria used to research topics. I saved this title and plan to refer to it in the future as this section of the trimester comes to a close.

I could not have found this title without the Badke readings and instruction set forth by the professor, Mr. Clutter. Fortunately, and for that reason, I had little trouble finding the title and examining its contents for pertinence to my research question. I’m quite certain that this title will come in to good use later on.