Willem Kuyken is a British/Dutch scientist, teacher and author. He is the Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Director of the University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre. [1]
Willem Kuyken is a British/Dutch scientist, teacher and author. He is the Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Director of the University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre. [1]
Kuyken was born in Neath, Wales on the 6th May 1968, the youngest of three children, to Dutch parents. His father was raised in Indonesia where, during World War II, he was interned in a Japanese concentration camp. Kuyken's uncle and namesake died in the camp aged four. His mother was raised in Venlo in the South of Holland, where she lived under Nazi occupation. He spent his childhood until age 9 in Nigeria where his father was working as an engineer.
Kuyken was educated at Winchester College, University College London (BSc Psychology, 1989) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London (PhD, 1992), before training as a clinical psychologist at the Salomons Clinical Psychology Training Centre (Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, 1997).
Kuyken is widely recognized for his research on preventing depression, promoting mental health, and flourishing across the lifespan. He has published more than 150 journal articles and was named by Web of Science as in the top 1% of the most cited scientists in his field in the world in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. [2]
Before taking up his post in Oxford in 2014 he was Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter. He headed the research group (2001–2010), co-founded (with Ed Watkins and Eugene Mullan) the Wellcome Mood Disorders Centre (2004) and (with Alison Evans) the Masters in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapies (2008) and Mindfulness Network. (2012). He also directed the clinical psychology training programme (2001–2004).
He worked in two Postdoctoral Fellowships: a research fellowship at the World Health Organization project managing the development of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL; 1992–1994) [3] and a clinical research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania/Beck Institute working with Aaron T. Beck (1998–1999).[ citation needed ]
He was the recipient of the British Psychological Society May Davidson award in 2006. [4] He was a faculty member of the 2014 Mind and Life Summer Research Science Institute and a grandfathered Diplomate and Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
At the University of Oxford Kuyken co-led (with Mark Williams, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Tim Dalgleish) a programme of research on mindfulness in education – the MYRIAD project (2014–2022), [5] and is Principal Investigator of the University of Oxford Mindfulness Research Centre. [6]
Kuyken authored Mindfulness for Life, a practical guide to making mindfulness part of everyday life, described by Christina Feldman as "not just about inner change; it is about how we live our lives. Dr. Kuyken provides tools for making a critical shift from judgment, blame, and aversion to curiosity and kindness. His skillful guidance allows us to make—and commit to—small shifts that can help us become the flourishing, engaged, and responsive people we long to be.”. [7]
Kuyken has co-authored three further books. (1) With Christina Feldman, Mindfulness - Ancient Wisdom Meetings Modern Psychology, described by Jon Kabat-Zinn as "A tour de force. This book elaborates in exquisite detail--yet with utter accessibility and clarity--what mindfulness is and where it comes from, as well as its profound ethical foundation, clinical applications, growing evidence base, and potential for healing. The depth of the case studies alone exemplifies the elemental wisdom inherent to the practice of mindfulness, and how it can be applied in trying and challenging life situations to beneficial effect.." [8] in 2009 he published with Christine Padesky and Rob Dudley, Collaborative Case Conceptualisation, described by Aaron T Beck as setting "a gold standard for how to develop individualized case conceptualizations with our clients." [9] With John Orley he published an edited book Quality of Life Assessment: International Perspectives. Kuyken's work includes over 150 peer-reviewed publications, [10] including publications in Lancet, [11] the British Medical Journal, [12] and JAMA Psychiatry. [13] This has included extensive public engagement work, including being featured on CBS, Maccleans, New Statesman, Le Monde, der Zeit, The Telegraph, [14] The Guardian, [15] and the BBC [16] and in documentaries such as My Year of Living Mindfully [17] and Trust Me I'm a Doctor. [18]
Kuyken has two daughters, Zoe Kuyken, a barrister [19] and Ava Kuyken a professional footballer. He was married for 30 years to Halley Cohen, a writer and communications specialist. [20] [ citation needed ]
Kuyken lives in West London. He has practised mindfulness meditation since his early twenties, studying with teachers such as Christina Feldman and Jon Kabat-Zinn. He has spoken openly about his own experiences of recurrent depression and the ways in which mindfulness and antidepressants have been key to his mental health.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most effective means of treatment for substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions and their associated behaviors to improve emotional regulation and develop personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. Though it was originally designed to treat depression, its uses have been expanded to include many issues and the treatment of many mental health and other conditions, including anxiety, substance use disorders, marital problems, ADHD, and eating disorders. CBT includes a number of cognitive or behavioral psychotherapies that treat defined psychopathologies using evidence-based techniques and strategies.
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), and has become widely used since.
Mindfulness is the cognitive skill, usually developed through meditation, of sustaining meta-attention of the contents of one's own mind in the present moment. Mindfulness derives from sati, a significant element of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques. Though definitions and techniques of mindfulness are wide-ranging, Buddhist traditions describe what constitutes mindfulness, such as how perceptions of the past, present and future arise and cease as momentary sense-impressions and mental phenomena. Individuals who have contributed to the popularity of mindfulness in the modern Western context include Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Herbert Benson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Richard J. Davidson.
Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, epigenetics and physiology to investigate the biological bases of behavior and psychopathology. Biopsychiatry is the branch of medicine which deals with the study of the biological function of the nervous system in mental disorders.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an approach to psychotherapy that uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) methods in conjunction with mindfulness meditative practices and similar psychological strategies. The origins to its conception and creation can be traced back to the traditional approaches from East Asian formative and functional medicine, philosophy and spirituality, birthed from the basic underlying tenets from classical Taoist, Buddhist and Traditional Chinese medical texts, doctrine and teachings.
David D. Burns is an American psychiatrist and adjunct professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the author of bestselling books such as Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, The Feeling Good Handbook and Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety.
Zindel V. Segal is a cognitive psychologist, a specialist on depression and one of the founders of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
J. Mark G. Williams, is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry. He held previous posts at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge and the University of Wales Bangor, where he founded the Institute for Medical and Social Care Research and the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy. He was educated at Stockton Grammar School, Stockton-on-Tees, and at St Peter's College, Oxford. He received an honorary doctorate from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven on May 8, 2023, in Leuven, Belgium.
In applied psychology, interventions are actions performed to bring about change in people. A wide range of intervention strategies exist and they are directed towards various types of issues. Most generally, it means any activities used to modify behavior, emotional state, or feelings. Psychological interventions have many different applications and the most common use is for the treatment of mental disorders, most commonly using psychotherapy. The ultimate goal behind these interventions is not only to alleviate symptoms but also to target the root cause of mental disorders.
Buddhism includes an analysis of human psychology, emotion, cognition, behavior and motivation along with therapeutic practices. Buddhist psychology is embedded within the greater Buddhist ethical and philosophical system, and its psychological terminology is colored by ethical overtones. Buddhist psychology has two therapeutic goals: the healthy and virtuous life of a householder and the ultimate goal of nirvana, the total cessation of dissatisfaction and suffering (dukkha).
In psychology, self-compassion is extending compassion to one's self in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, or general suffering. American psychologist Kristin Neff has defined self-compassion as being composed of three main elements – self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an eight-week evidence-based program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to assist people with stress, anxiety, depression and pain. Developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBSR uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, yoga and exploration of patterns of behavior, thinking, feeling and action. Mindfulness can be understood as the non-judgmental acceptance and investigation of present experience, including body sensations, internal mental states, thoughts, emotions, impulses and memories, in order to reduce suffering or distress and to increase well-being. Mindfulness meditation is a method by which attention skills are cultivated, emotional regulation is developed, and rumination and worry are significantly reduced. During the past decades, mindfulness meditation has been the subject of more controlled clinical research, which suggests its potential beneficial effects for mental health, athletic performance, as well as physical health. While MBSR has its roots in wisdom teachings of Zen Buddhism, Hatha Yoga, Vipassana and Advaita Vedanta, the program itself is secular. The MBSR program is described in detail in Kabat-Zinn's 1990 book Full Catastrophe Living.
Glyn Lewis is a British professor of psychiatric epidemiology and the current head of the Division of Psychiatry at University College London
Occupational therapy is used to manage the issues caused by seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Occupational therapists assist with the management of SAD through the incorporation of a variety of healthcare disciplines into therapeutic practice. Potential patients with SAD are assessed, treated, and evaluated primarily using treatments such as drug therapies, light therapies, and psychological therapies. Therapists are often involved in designing an individualised treatment plan that most effectively meets the client's goals and needs around their responsiveness to a variety of treatments.
Relapse prevention (RP) is a cognitive-behavioral approach to relapse with the goal of identifying and preventing high-risk situations such as unhealthy substance use, obsessive-compulsive behavior, sexual offending, obesity, and depression. It is an important component in the treatment process for alcohol use disorder, or alcohol dependence. This model founding is attributed to Terence Gorski's 1986 book Staying Sober.
Giovanni Andrea Fava is an Italian psychiatrist and former professor of clinical psychology at the University of Bologna. He is also a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Stefan G. Hofmann is a German-born clinical psychologist. He is the Alexander von Humboldt Professor and recipient of the LOEWE Spitzenprofessur for Translational Clinical Psychology at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, examining Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, especially for anxiety disorders.
Steven D. Hollon is an American psychologist, academic and researcher. He is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University.
Keith Stephen Dobson is a Canadian psychologist, academic, and researcher. With a long career at the University of Calgary in Canada, he now holds the title of Professor Emeritus, having served as a tenured Professor, Head of the Psychology Department, and Director of the Clinical Psychology program at the university.
Claudi Bockting is a Dutch clinical psychologist and Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdams Faculty of Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Her research program focuses on identifying etiological factors of common mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse, and developing evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions.