Johannes Michalak

• Prof. Dr. Dipl.-Psych.
• Professor (Full) at Witten/Herdecke University

The importance of physical inactivity not only for physical but also recently for mental disorders has become a focus of scientific interest. Empirical studies confirm the positive effect of promoting physical activity in people with mental disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 150–300 min of moderate endurance exercise...

Background Refugees are exposed to various risk factors in shared accommodations in Germany where they are housed after their arrival. Due to their often traumatic experiences before, during, and after their flight and socio-structural post-migration stressors, refugees are potentially vulnerable to hazardous substance use. They form a structurally...

Objectives: Persons with a hearing or vision impairment (HI/VI) have an elevated risk of mental health problems. Several studies have examined the efficacy of psychological interventions on the mental health of both populations. However, evidence-based research on the efficacy of psychological interventions for these populations is still in the ear...

Refugees are vulnerable to hazardous substance use. Owing to their experiences of flight, they are at special risk of trauma and may use substances to cope. However, little is known about substance use among refugees. This study analyzed refugees’ living conditions and substance use in shared accommodations in Germany, using an exploratory sequenti...

Meditation and psychotherapy were discussed early on as possible complementary interventions. Over the past 2–3 decades there has been an increasing adoption of approaches from meditative traditions, particularly in cognitive behavioral approaches. This article presents the principles of the integration of meditative approaches into psychotherapy....

Background Research has consistently shown that the motor system and emotional processes are interrelated in non-clinical as well as in clinical populations. Therefore, the body might be a promising target for the treatment of depression. Based on these notions, we developed Body, Breath and Mind (BBM) a minimally monitored online intervention comb...

Objective Self-compassion as an outcome and potential mediator in mindfulness-based interventions has gained increased attention in the last years. However, most mediation studies had several methodological shortcomings which precluded robust conclusions regarding its mediating role. This randomized controlled study aimed to address these issues by...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Gemäß der Zeitdiagnose des Soziologen Hartmut Rosa ist die Zeitstruktur moderner Gesellschaften durch Beschleunigung und Entfremdung charakterisiert. Für Rosa besteht ein Gegenentwurf hierzu im Aufbau resonanter Weltbeziehungen. Aus Sicht der Autoren lassen sich interessante Bezüge zwischen Resonanz und Achtsamkeit hers...

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) often suffer from psychopathological symptoms and are rarely treated psychotherapeutically. Concurrently, there is a lack of studies summarizing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for adults with ID and co-morbid psychopathological symptoms. A literature search identified CBT-trials fo...

Achtsamkeitsübungen spielen eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle für die Verhaltenstherapie: Verschiedene Ansätze wie die Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), die Dialektisch-Behaviorale Therapie (DBT) und die Akzeptanz- und Commitment-Therapie (ACT) integrieren Achtsamkeitsübungen in verhaltenstherapeutische Behandlungsstrategien. Der Beitrag stel...

Background Repetitive negative thinking has been identified as an important predictor of suicide ideation and suicidal behavior. Yet, only few studies have investigated the effect of suicide-specific rumination, i.e., repetitive thinking about death and/or suicide on suicide attempt history. On this background, the present study investigated, wheth...

b> Hintergrund: Ziel der Studie war es, den Einfluss einer achtsamkeitsbasierten Depressionsbehandlung in einer Tagesklinik auf arbeitsbezogene Bewältigungsmuster bei Patientinnen und Patienten mit einer akuten depressiven Episode und berufsbezogenen Konflikten zu untersuchen. Methode: In einer Pilotstudie wurden 81 Patientinnen und Patienten mit e...

Background Emotions play a central role in mental disorder and especially in depression. They are sensed in the body, and it has recently been shown in healthy participants that these sensations can be differentiated between emotions. The aim of the current study was to assess bodily sensations for basic emotions induced by emotion eliciting pictur...

Introduction: Research on body aspects in depression primarily focuses on somatic complaints, while phenomenologists emphasize the pre-reflective bodily experience of depression as relevant for the psychopathology of it. Despite this increasing acknowledgement of the subjective body's impact on depression, empirically, it remains rarely studied....

Introduction: A disturbed sense of self is frequently discussed as an etiological factor for delusion symptoms in psychosis. Phenomenological approaches to psychopathology posit that lacking the sense that the self is localized within one's bodily boundaries (disembodiment) is one of the core features of the disturbed self in psychosis. The presen...

Soon to be published! Our book about spirituality and meaning discussed in pastoral care and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.

Hintergrund: Menschen mit intellektueller Beeinträchtigung (IB) sind häufig von psychischen Störungen betroffen. Gleichzeitig ist die psychotherapeutische Versorgung in diesem Bereich bisher unzureichend, und die Evidenz bezüglich der Wirksamkeit verhaltenstherapeutischer Interventionen bei Erwachsenen mit IB ist unklar. Ziele: Eine systematische L...

Mindfulness-based and mindfulness-informed programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), or dialectic behavior therapy (DBT) have gained widespread attention over the past few decades. One way of bringing mindfulness programs into clinical practice is via a planned implementation process whe...

Objectives Recent preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness-based programmes may be beneficial in the treatment of patients suffering from current depression. Due to the heterogeneity of patients with this diagnosis, a specialisation in treatment concepts for subgroups of patients may be beneficial. Methods This randomised controlled pilot st...

In a recent study, Gebauer et al. addressed a fundamental question regarding the effects of mind-body practices (MBPs) on the self. Does the practice of MBPs in accordance with traditional contemplative traditions quiet the ego or is the practice of MBPs associated with increased self-centrality, which breeds self-enhancement bias? Both hypotheses...

Objectives Interpersonal problems were examined as moderators of depression outcomes between mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) in patients with chronic depression. Methods Patients received treatment‐as‐usual and, in addition, were randomized to 8‐weeks of MBCT (n = 34) or...

Dieses Kapitel stellt die Bedeutung von Selbstmitgefühl und liebevoller Güte im Rahmen von Achtsamkeit in der Psychotherapie vor. Dafür wird nach einer kurzen Begriffseinführung und einer Einordnung von Achtsamkeit in die aktuelle Psychotherapie zunächst das Begriffsverständnis von Mitgefühl und Selbstmitgefühl differenziert. Anschließend werden ak...

Ein zentrales Kennzeichen der meisten Achtsamkeitsübungen, die in klinischen Programmen wie Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) oder Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) eingesetzt werden, ist ihr starker Körperbezug. Das Kapitel geht der Frage nach, warum Achtsamkeitsübungen diesen Körperbezug haben. In dem grundlagenorientierten Forsc...

Background: Mindfulness training (MT) for parents of adolescents has been shown to improve mental health and stress-related outcomes in individuals and their families. Studies of MT among young people are mainly delivered in educational or clinical settings, and there is a need for controlled studies on both parent-directed and adolescent-directed...

The original version of this article was revised twice due to the following changes.

The article “Principles for a Responsible Integration of Mindfulness in Individual Therapy”.

Objectives: Recent preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness-based programmes may be beneficial in the treatment of patients suffering from current depression. Due to the heterogeneity of patients with this diagnosis, a specialisation in treatment concepts for subgroups of patients may be beneficial. Methods: This randomised controlled pilot s...

Objectives Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) teach mindfulness in a group-based format. Empirical research has shown that many therapists working in individual therapy integrate mindfulness practices (e.g., body scan, sitting meditation) into their tr...

Prevalence rates for mental health problems are higher when an individual's socioeconomic status (SES) is low, but the underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. We investigated associations between education as indicator for SES and depressive symptoms as well as positive mental health (PMH). Moreover, we hypothesized that low education is...

In den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten haben sich neue Ansätze in der Verhaltenstherapie entwickelt, die verstärkt Prinzipien wie Achtsamkeit und Akzeptanz in die Behandlung integrieren. Achtsamkeit bedeutet, die eigene Aufmerksamkeit absichtsvoll und nicht wertend auf das bewusste Erleben des gegenwärtigen Moments, des Hier-und-Jetzt, zu richten. Das Ü...

Background/aims: Basic research on embodiment has demonstrated that manipulating the motoric system has broad effects on cognitive and emotional processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an embodiment manipulation on the affective memory bias and specificity of autobiographic memories of depressed individuals. Meth...

Dieses Kapitel erläutert die Bedeutung von Würde und Akzeptanz in der Psychotherapie. Dafür werden zunächst die historischen Hintergründe der beiden Konzepte erläutert und das Begriffsverständnis verschiedener Disziplinen berichtet. Anschließend werden aktuelle Entwicklungen bezüglich Würde und Akzeptanz in der Psychotherapie (und angrenzenden Disz...

During the past decades, there has been a rapidly growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Although a number of clinical trials on MBIs have been conducted, the evidence base for MBIs is still limited. Nevertheless, a rapid dissemination of MBIs has taken place and it can be argued that, in the case of MBIs, dissemination came be...

Background Mindfulness‐based interventions (MBIs) are effective in treating major depression. Because mindfulness involves monitoring and accepting current experiences, it may lead people resolve incongruencies between emotional responses that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Mindfulness may thus foster congruence between implicit and explicit emo...

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions are effective in treating major depression. Because mindfulness involves monitoring and accepting current experiences, it may lead people resolve incongruencies between emotional responses that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Mindfulness may thus foster congruence between implicit and explicit emotions....

Fear of pain plays an important role in the maintenance of chronic pain. It may be reduced through exposure therapy. This 2-arm parallel samples randomized controlled trial aimed to investigate whether interoceptive exposure (IE) therapy enhances reductions in fear of pain (primary outcome), pain (pain intensity, pain-related disability, and school...

Background: Persistent depressive disorder is prevalent, disabling, and often difficult to treat. The cognitive-behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) is the only psychotherapy specifically developed for its treatment. However, we do not know which of CBASP, antidepressant pharmacotherapy, or their combination is the most efficacious...

Im vorliegenden Kapitel wird das aus östlichen Meditationstraditionen stammende Achtsamkeitsprinzip vorgestellt, das im Rahmen von achtsamkeitsbasierten Verfahren besonders in den vergangenen Jahren großes Interesse erfuhr und verstärkt auch in das verhaltenstherapeutische Vorgehen integriert wurde. Ausgehend von einer Definition werden verschieden...

Background Although not part of the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5, body image disturbance seems to be a relevant feature of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as well as of other eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN) or Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Hence, the aim of the present pilot study was to assess the changeability of body image disturbance in...

Jon Kabat-Zinn developed „mindfulness-based stress reduction“ (MBSR) in the second half of the 1970s. Based on this approach, Segal, Williams and Teasdale (2002) developed „mindfulness-based cognitive therapy“ (MBCT) to prevent depressive relapse. MBCT recently has gained a lot of attention in cognitive-behavioral approaches. This paper presents th...

When making judgments and decisions, people suffering from depression are often faced with opinions and advice from others (e.g., from their therapists) but it is unclear how their psychopathology alters the utilization of such information. This study is the first to examine whether depressed people are more or less susceptible to informational soc...

Der vorliegende Beitrag vermittelt zunächst grundlegende Informationen zu den Begriffen „Ziele“, „Werte“ und „Sinn“. Es wird ein Überblick zur Bedeutung dieser Begriffe in verschiedenen psychotherapeutischen Traditionen gegeben; hierbei werden die existenziellen Ansätze von Yalom und Frankl besonders hervorgehoben. Es erfolgt eine ausführliche Ause...

Background: Many intervention efforts targeting student drinking were developed to address US college students, which usually involves underage drinking. It remains unclear, if research evidence from these interventions is generalizable to university and college students of legal drinking age, e.g., in Europe. Objective: To evaluate the effectivene...

Depression and suicide ideation co-occur regularly. The present study investigated whether religious beliefs, i.e. trust in higher guidance, buffers the association between depression and suicide ideation. A total of 427 participants (n=93 inpatients, n=334 online sample) completed measures of suicide ideation, trust in higher guidance, and depress...

The body is central in many mindfulness-based interventions. Body mindfulness has been defined as observing body experiences and as a consequence appreciating body experiences. Since only a few psychometrically sound questionnaires are available to measure the observing aspect of body mindfulness and no scale specifically addresses the appreciating...

Das Kapitel „Mindfulness-based Therapy: Achtsamkeit vermitteln“ erläutert die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von Achtsamkeit in therapeutischen Kontexten und die Möglichkeit das Therapieziel „Wohlbefinden“ damit zu fördern. Achtsamkeit beschreibt die eigene Aufmerksamkeit absichtsvoll und nicht wertend auf das bewusste Erleben des augenblicklichen Moments...

Das umfassende Lehrbuch vermittelt Psychotherapeuten in Ausbildung, zu Beginn der Berufstätigkeit, aber auch nach langjähriger Berufserfahrung das Handwerkszeug moderner Verhaltenstherapie und ihrer aktuellen Weiterentwicklungen. Es stellt verhaltenstherapeutische Strategien, Techniken und Haltungen mithilfe anschaulicher Fallbeispiele und Therapie...

Das umfassende Lehrbuch vermittelt Psychotherapeuten in Ausbildung, zu Beginn der Berufstätigkeit, aber auch nach langjähriger Berufserfahrung das Handwerkszeug moderner Verhaltenstherapie und ihrer aktuellen Weiterentwicklungen. Es stellt verhaltenstherapeutische Strategien, Techniken und Haltungen mithilfe anschaulicher Fallbeispiele und Therapie...

Received: January 21, 2016 Accepted: May 23, 2016 Published online: October 15, 2016 Issue release date: October 2016

Whereas in basic research, intuition has become a topic of great interest, clinical research and depression research in specific have not applied to the topic of intuition, yet. This is astonishing because a well-known phenomenon during depression is that patients have difficulties to judge and decide. In contrast to healthy individuals who take mo...

Background: Suicidal ideation (SI) is common in chronic depression, but only limited evidence exists for the assumption that psychological treatments for depression are effective for reducing SI. Methods: In the present study, the effects of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT; group version) plus treatment-as-usual (TAU: individual treatm...

Suicidality is a major health problem worldwide with lifetime prevalence of suicide ideation of up to 33 %. Although a strong relation between suicidality and depression has often been found, research investigating the impact of psychotherapy for depression on suicidal ideation and behavior is limited. Thus, further treatment options are needed. Mi...

Introduction Despite important advances in psychological and pharmacological treatments of persistent depressive disorders in the past decades, their responses remain typically slow and poor, and differential responses among different modalities of treatments or their combinations are not well understood. Cognitive-Behavioural Analysis System of Ps...

Background: Chronic depression is a severe and disabling condition. Compared to an episodic course, chronic depression has been shown to be less responsive to psychopharmacological and psychological treatments. The cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) has been developed as a specific psychotherapy for chronic depression. H...

Intuitions play a central role in every-day life decision-making but little is known regarding this capacity during depression. Thus, in Study 1, N = 39 depressed in-patients completed two well-established tasks, assessing intuitions of visual and semantic coherence. In the semantic coherence task patients judged whether presented words triads were...

Zusammenfassung. Achtsamkeit hat fur die Gesundheitspsychologie eine immer starkere Bedeutung, da achtsamkeitsbasierte Interventionen in der Pravention und Rehabilitation das korperliche Wohlbefinden und die Lebensqualitat steigern konnen. Wie valide lasst sich selbstberichtete Achtsamkeit mit der deutschen Ubersetzung des „Five Facet Mindfulness Q...

Achtsamkeitsübungen spielen seit den 1990er-Jahren eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle für die Verhaltenstherapie: Verschiedene Ansätze wie die Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), die Dialektisch-Behaviorale Therapie (DBT) und die Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) integrieren Achtsamkeitsübungen in verhaltenstherapeutische Behandlungsstrate...

Objective: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has recently been proposed as a treatment option for chronic depression. The cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) is the only approach specifically developed to date for the treatment of chronically depressed patients. The efficacy of MBCT plus treatment-as-usual (TAU),...

Objectives: In daily life, many decisions of minor and major importance have to be made. Thereby, intuitive judgments serve as useful guides and help us to adapt to our environment. People with major depressive disorder (MDD) often have difficulties to come to decisions. Is their intuition impaired? Since this question has not been addressed until...

The assumption that mindfulness facilitates the access to intuitive processes has been theoretically formulated but not investigated yet. Therefore, the present study explored whether the intuitive performance in a judgment of semantic coherence task of N = 94 participants was related to trait mindfulness. In contrast to our hypothesis, self-report...

Due to the high risk of relapse, which is already constituted by the first occurrence of a depressive episode, depression often evolves into a chronic condition of suffering. Therefore, approaches for the prevention of depressive relapses were developed within the past years. The present article presents an eight-week group program designed for pat...

Basic research has shown that the motoric system (i.e., motor actions or stable postures) can strongly affect emotional processes. The present study sought to investigate the effects of sitting posture on the tendency of depressed individuals to recall a higher proportion of negative self-referent material. Thirty currently depressed inpatients eit...

Fragestellung: Der Artikel stellt wesentliche Ansatzpunkte achtsamkeitsbasierter Psychotherapie dar und stellt das Konzept einer „dritten Welle“ der Verhaltenstherapie vor. Inhaltsubersicht: Zentrale Ansatze, die sich der „dritten Welle“ zuordnen lassen (Achtsamkeitsbasierte Stresssreduktion, achtsamkeitsbasierte kognitive Therapie, Acceptance and...