Based on an 8-week Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy programme, this guide addresses the increasing need for adapted mindfulness in the management of ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, Long Covid, and other chronic fatigue conditions. Using current understanding and theoretical approaches to Long Covid and ME/ CFS, this book allows practitioners to understand how they can adapt their teaching to accommodate patients with specific needs and challenges, including adaptations for brain fog, approaches to rest, movement, daily activity and accompanying difficult thoughts and emotions. Contributions from people who manage ME, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue through mindfulness are included alongside practical guidance and detailed week-by-week session plans whether thats in-person or online. Filled with helpful diagrams and illustrations, practitioners can use this guide to greatly widen the scope of who they can reach and gently empower clients living with often isolating conditions on how to apply this approach in the long-term to their everyday lives.
Fiona McKechnie is a senior Occupational Therapist in the Bristol ME/CFS service. She has worked in the field of ME since 1999 before moving to Bristol in 2007. She has particular interests in employment concerns and ME/CFS as well as Mindfulness-based approaches. Fiona has run workshops at national conferences about mindfulness and employment and trains other professionals in approaches to support people with ME/CFS and chronic pain. She has personally used Mindfulness since 1992 and has a Masters degree in Mindfulness Based Approaches and a Diploma in Teaching Mindfulness from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. She has also taught mindfulness for people with cancer at the National Centre for Integrative Medicine and is a qualified yoga teacher and coach. She published (as Fiona Wright) a chapter on Sleep and ME/CFS in Sleep: an Occupational Therapists Guide by Green and Brown 2015, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Acknowledgements Foreword Professor Rebecca Crane Chapter 1 Introduction Part 1: Fatigue and the principles of a mindfulness based approach to self-management Chapter 2 Fatigue based health conditions: ME/CFS. Fibromyalgia and Long Covid Chapter 3 Pragmatic transdiagnostic understanding of ME/CFS/FMS/LC Chapter 4 Supported self-management Chapter 5 What is a mindfulness-based approach? Chapter 6 Mindfulness based approach to self -management Chapter 7 Managing cognitive challenges : brain fog and mindfulness Chapter 8 Underlying processes in mindfulness Chapter 9 Resourcing and regulating: a trauma-informed approach Part 2: Mindfulness practices and teaching considerations: adaptation and nuance Chapter 10 The structure of mindfulness practices in the fatigue programme Chapter 11 Developing awareness though enquiry. Chapter 12 Mindful movement - how does it feel when I move? With Sarah Nearney Chapter 13 Mindfulness of thoughts - particular features and specific contents of thoughts Part 3: Applying a mindfulness-based approach to life Chapter 14 Mindfulness-based activity management Chapter 15 Rest - what is it and how do we do it? Part 4: The mindfulness-based course Chapter 16 Practical considerations: zoom or room and initial interviews and follow up Chapter 17 Weekly session outlines with rationale Chapter 18 Living with fatigue: From doing to Being by Rhonda Knight Chapter 19 Training and Supervision Chapter 20 Summary and Resources References Author and contributor information
A guide to adapting Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for chronic fatigue
•Includes the current model and theory of pain used within NHS services
•Includes chapters written by clients with chronic illness and extensive mindfulness experience
•Excellent for mindfulness teacher training courses
•Current need for therapies that address Long Covid and ME/CFS as diagnoses continue to increase
