“I Need to Start Listening to What my Body Is Telling Me.”: Does Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Help People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was lightly adapted for participants diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The aim of the study was to explore participants’ experiences of the MBCT course, with a particular focus on how they applied MBCT to living with and coping with the symptoms of CFS. Nine participants with CFS who completed the MBCT course were interviewed using semi-structured interview methods. Inductive thematic analysis, a methodology designed to generate themes from the “bottom up,” was used. Four superordinate themes were generated from the data: (1) awareness of unhelpful behavioral patterns associated with CFS, (2) benefits of group solidarity, (3) use of mindfulness tools to facilitate shifts in behavioral patterns, and (4) a sense of change and agency. Participants became aware of three specific transformative changes that contributed to a more skillful way of living with CFS: development of acceptance, improved self-care and self-compassion, and reduction in heightened stress response. MBCT appears to enable people with CFS to actively work with their symptoms, and make transformative changes in their behavioral patterns, resulting in benefits to well-being.