Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

About the Companion Website xiii

Introduction 1

Part I Chronic Pain 5

1 Defining Chronic Pain and its Territory 7

2 Psychosocial Chronic Pain Management: Current State of the Theory and Evidence 39

3 The Development of MBCT for Chronic Pain 63

Part II MBCT for Chronic Pain 87

4 Overview of the Eight‐Session Treatment 89

5 Session 1: Stepping Out of Automatic Pain Habits 115

6 Session 2: Facing the Challenge 137

7 Session 3: The Breath as an Anchor 155

8 Session 4: Learning to Stay Present 167

9 Session 5: Active Acceptance 183

10 Session 6: Seeing Thoughts as Just Thoughts 197

11 Session 7: Taking Care of Myself 211

12 Session 8: Harnessing the Power of the Mind for Chronic Pain Management 223

13 Integrating MBCT for Chronic Pain with Existing Treatments 235

Conclusion 249

Index 259

About the Author

Melissa A. Day, PhD, is a NHMRC Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Day completed her MA (Clin) and PhD in clinical health psychology, with a research focus on pain. Currently her research focuses on optimizing mindfulness-based and cognitive-behavioural interventions for chronic pain.