Mindfulness-based eating awareness

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Jean Kristeller · 1999

What it is

Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) is a manualised group programme developed by Jean Kristeller. It started with BED and was later extended to overeating, emotional eating and obesity. It combines mindfulness meditation, borrowed from Kabat-Zinn's MBSR, with guided eating…

Format

• Format
• Closed group with a fixed curriculum. Ten weekly sessions of 2.5 hours, then sessions 11 and 12 as monthly boosters of 2 hours each.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Group size was not reported in that trial. A bariatric adaptation ran groups of up to 10–12 with two co-facilitators: a psychologist or psychometrist plus a registered dietitian.
• Other versions exist. A popular summary describes a 10-week plan, and Sharma (2011), summarising the 2011 paper, describes a 10-session BED programme. The bariatric adaptation used 8 weekly 2-hour sessions plus an information session. The current training teaches a "12-week group program".
• Current training version order (lesson titles from the course outline; content was locked). Mindful eating and mindfulness meditation; mini-meditation; hunger awareness and emotional eating; taste satisfaction and self-compassion; fullness and hunger awareness; integrated eating meditation. A recurring theme called "Keep in Balance" also appears. Its content was not seen. The current version adds loving-kindness and…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Rule-making creeping back in.
• Inquiry drifting into advice-giving.
• Members who find warmth towards themselves aversive. Start with others or a pet.
• Obsessive tracking or restriction. Scale tracking down if it feeds preoccupation.
• Pain or injury. Offer alternatives and remind members to work within their limits.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.