In search of a method to treat her clients\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 depression, Elizabeth Hale-Rose has reached back some 2,500 years.<\/p>\n
Sitting in a circle with five of her clients, the licensed clinical social worker takes a page from the teachings of the Buddha.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Close your eyes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says softly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Place your hands in your lap or on your legs … make sure your head, neck and back are aligned … that your posture embodies dignity, stability, wakefulness and willingness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
She tells her clients to begin by attending to the sounds they hear. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do anything,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are simply here and receptive to it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hale-Rose practices at the Center for Psychotherapy Inc., which has offices in Old Lyme, Essex and Guilford.<\/p>\n
The technique she is using, known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, is a cutting-edge approach to treating people with anxiety and depression. Only a handful of therapists are doing it.<\/p>\n
Developed in the late 1990s by a team of researchers led by Zindel Segal, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto, the technique has been shown to be highly effective in staving off repeated bouts of depression.<\/p>\n