01
In sessions
A short practice, then the thought that showed up. Name it, let it pass, choose a step. Daily, not a Sunday class.
Mindfulness-based CBT for teens
Attention as a skill. The teen learns to notice a spiral without becoming it — then choose the next move.
- 30–90 days
- Ages 12–17
- 24/7
What this is
Notice the spiral. Do not become it. Then take a step.
MBCT is CBT with a first move: attention. A thought is watched, not wrestled, then tested. Built for rumination, a depression that keeps coming back, a mind that treats every feeling as a fact. It is not a meditation app. It is a clinical hour, then a skill at 2 a.m.
When this is the right tool
- 01
A mind that will not clock out
Replaying, forecasting, a loop at midnight. Wrestling the thought makes it louder.
- 02
Depression that returns
A stay helped. The spiral came back. Relapse work is attention plus a next step — not a pep talk.
- 03
Anxiety that lives in the future
What-if as a full-time job. Noticing the thought is the first exit. Testing it is the second.
- 04
A teen who is “in their head”
Disconnected from the body, from the room. Mindfulness here is a way back in — not an escape.
- 05
CBT that stalled
They can name the thought. They cannot put it down. Attention is the missing first move.
- 06
A body that is still scanning
Breath, grounding, then the thought. We do not skip the nervous system to get to the worksheet.
In the week
How it shows up here
Sessions, the family table, and the house itself — the same skill, practiced in three places.
02
With family
Parents learn not to jump into the spiral with them. A quieter house is part of the method.
03
In the house
Morning breath, a pause before a meal, a skill at lights out. The practice lives in the day — not only on a cushion.
The work
How we use it
Chosen for this teen — not a stack of every method we know. This piece is in the mix for a reason. It is not the whole plan.
- Core of the plan
Attention as a first move
Watch the thought. Do not argue it. The spiral loses a little heat before CBT starts.
Then the CBT
Name, test, a next step. Same loop as our CBT page — with a nervous system that can stay in the room.
Relapse work
Depression that returns often starts as a thought they fuse with. MBCT is built for that chapter.
Tied to yoga and breath
The body hour and the therapy hour speak. We do not run two mindfulness programs that ignore each other.
- When needed
Psychiatry, when needed
A depression that will not lift sometimes needs a partner. We consult. Attention still leads the hour.
Your part
You are not the silence they borrow
MBCT rearranges how the house answers a spiral. Treatment here includes you — not as a visitor, as the person who has to stop jumping in.
Talk them out of the thought.
Let the thought pass, then ask
Debate feeds rumination. We teach a quieter first move, then a question that opens CBT.
Hand them over and wait.
Sit in the sessions
Family work uses the same pause. You are not waiting in the parking lot.
Figure out Sunday later.
The first weekend home
A written practice for Saturday morning. We run it before discharge — not after a cliff.
Length of stay
30
days in residence, by progress
Most stays land between one and three months. We do not pick a discharge date before the work is ready.
90
This work sits inside the stay
MBCT sits inside the stay — a daily practice, then CBT. Thirty to ninety days is enough to make the pause automatic. Aftercare is a next clinician who will not skip the first move.
- The first two weeks are for a practice that holds — not a forced breakthrough.
- Most teens finish in one to three months. Some stay longer. We do not pick a discharge date before the work is ready.
- Aftercare is part of the stay: a written plan, a next team, and check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days home.
When to call
Do not wait for a cliff.
If rumination is running the night — or a depression keeps coming back — call. We will be honest if this house is too much, or not enough.
Often arrives with