If you’re a fan of the hit TV show Shrinking, which is set in a “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Centre” and stars 83-year-old actor Harrison Ford as Dr. Paul Rhoades, you’ve been exposed to techniques real-life therapists use to help patients with mental health issues. In the show, Ford’s character teaches sound cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness skills like worst-case scenario planning (showing patients their catastrophic thinking is often unrealistic) and challenging negative beliefs, giving patients a more balanced perspective. 

Cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness in pop culture always seem like such a slog – it takes a few hours a week of formal instruction, then double that in practice. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Dr. Jill Bailey teaches mindfulness and CBT – including a truncated version that’s done in just an hour a week. Dr. Bailey is a family physician who specializes in mental health and addictions and teaches mental health and psychotherapy skills to family medicine residents at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

She developed a course – Mindfulness Skills for Busy People – based on the popular eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) courses, which she’s taught for years. These programs offer people who suffer from mental illnesses – or just those who need a hand getting stress under control – tools and skills to help manage negative thinking, hard emotions and cognitive distortions. And it’s super helpful for people (read: most of us) who simply don’t have the time or bandwidth to add another thing into our busy days.

“There are usually barriers people face when it comes to taking these kinds of classes, and one of the big ones is lack of availability and time for a course that’s a few hours a week,” she says. “I get it – I also identify as a busy person, and if I was told the class ran for eight weeks and I’d need to commit to two-and-a-half hours weekly, with a mandatory hour of homework every day, I’d feel more burnt out and overwhelmed than when I started,” she says with a laugh. With that in mind, Dr. Bailey decided to divide the full MBSR curriculum into smaller, more easily digestible chunks. She cuts down the length of some of the mindfulness practices and doesn’t make them mandatory on a daily basis. “I instruct participants to do what they can do. If that’s a three-minute breathing exercise a day, that’s better than nothing.” 

What’s Involved

The group session is an hour a week for 12 weeks and is made up of virtual class time with a group of 10 or 12, as well as home practice, when possible. Skills taught include focusing on the breath as an anchor during stressful and uncomfortable moments; noticing body sensations; how to be present with negative thoughts; learning how to notice and enjoy pleasant events; the way stress affects our mind and body; how to bring a fresh perspective to issues; how to have better interpersonal communication; and ways to cultivate more kindness toward ourselves when we’re affected by life’s stressors. You don’t have to practice every single day, seven days a week, notes Dr. Bailey. It’s just not practical. “And if you can’t, the alternative shouldn’t be not joining the group at all, not practicing at all or feeling like a failure,” says Dr. Bailey. “This isn’t about all-or-nothing thinking – it’s about doing what we can in the time we have. Any practice can help.” 

Is It Worth a Try?

Definitely. If you have mental health issues or deal with major stress (caused by work, an illness, being a parent or caregiver or something else that’s causing burnout), you can learn something from mindfulness, CBT and even shorter programs like this one. “Everyone can benefit. We all have a mind and body, and we all have stress. You don’t have to have clinical depression or debilitating anxiety – these skills can really help anyone and can be used during difficult moments or situations we all face at one time or another,” she says. “Being in a group is also helpful – it gives people the sense and understanding that they’re not alone. It’s a relief to know you’re not the only one overwhelmed and stressed – there’s camaraderie there. Plus, it gives you an hour a week that you don’t have to schedule, you don’t have to do – you can just be. That’s a skill in itself.”  

Zoomer Rx

Shorter courses are a great starting point. Research mindfulness and CBT classes to find a class in your province or territory. You’ll find some are covered by provincial health insurance while others are run through private clinics and are paid. “Maybe you’ll sign up for an hour and then decide it was so beneficial to you that you’d like to make the time to do a more intensive course. Wearing my physician hat, I can definitely say there’s lots of great evidence for these types of courses and great tools – like problem-solving skills, thought records, grounding techniques and noticing cognitive distortions – you can learn that will help when things are tough,” she says.