For nearly two decades, Dr. Stuart Eisendrath has been researching and teaching the therapeutic effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with people experiencing clinical depression. By helping them recognize that they can find relief by changing how they relate to their thoughts, Eisendrath has seen dramatic improvements in people’s quality of life, as well as actual, measurable brain changes. Easily practiced breath exercises, meditations, and innovative visualizations release readers from what can often feel like the tyranny of their thoughts. Freedom of thought, feeling, and action is the life-altering result.

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Stuart J. Eisendrath, MD, is a senior clinician and research psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. The founding director of the UCSF Depression Center, he lives in San Francisco.

“Stuart Eisendrath was the first to bring mindfulness to people with treatment-resistant depression and show that it can be of major benefit. The key point is that through regular practice, you can transform your relationship with your thoughts and emotions and with unwanted and painful experiences rather than forcing them to go away, which they will not. This realization, when enacted, is life-changing in little ways that aren’t so little. Indeed, it can be profoundly liberating.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and author of Falling Awake and The Healing Power of Mindfulness

“This authoritative guide from a world-class expert is warm, supportive, and chock-full of practical help. With many simple exercises and lots of down-to-earth suggestions, it’s also grounded in cutting-edge brain science. If you struggle with depression or know someone who does, this is a phenomenal resource.”
— Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

“This book is a gift to people with depression who are looking for ways to ease their pain. By combining the wisdom of mindfulness and self-compassion practice with more standard therapeutic approaches, this book offers an empirically supported pathway out of depression that works and that has the power to change your life.”
— Kristin Neff, PhD, author of Self-Compassion and associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas, Austin

“Our mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy. In this deeply humane and compassionate book based on his lifelong professional experience, Stuart Eisendrath distills the most insightful ways to approach depression, regain freedom from the fetters of our own mind, and learn to appreciate every moment of life. This book is a precious tool for all those who struggle to achieve a healthy mind.”
— Matthieu Ricard, author of Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World

“This inspiring book makes the best case yet for mindfulness as a treatment of depression. With wisdom and compassion, Dr. Eisendrath shows the reader precisely how nonjudgmental awareness goes to the roots of depression and transforms it for the better. The author has dedicated his career to researching and treating depression. His message is realistic and crystal clear, offering new hope to anyone who suffers from this all-too-common condition.”
— Christopher Germer, PhD, lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and codeveloper of mindful self-compassion (MSC)

“Based on pioneering neuroscience and solid clinical research, Stuart Eisendrath’s When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough provides a wealth of practical exercises that help shift our relationship to our thoughts. They can bring about changes in the experience of depression that are immediate and long-lasting. This is a significant contribution to the wise understanding of treatment and recovery from seemingly intractable depression. A gift.”
— Linda Graham, MFT, author of Bouncing Back and Resilience

“When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough is a must read for anyone with mood or anxiety issues — and their loved ones too. Dr. Eisendrath will teach you how to change your relationship to depression and lift yourself out of negative or anxious moods.”
— Louann Brizendine, MD, neuropsychiatrist and author of The Female Brain and The Male Brain

“Living well with depression may sound like an oxymoron, but it is the heart and soul of Professor Stuart Eisendrath’s new book, When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough. With encouragement and compassion, Dr. Eisendrath guides the reader through the process of developing a mindfulness practice that shapes and nurtures a new relationship with the thoughts that fuel depression — a relationship filled with self-acceptance, self-compassion, and peaceful coexistence with our minds.”
— Michael A. Tompkins, PhD, ABPP, codirector of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy, assistant clinical professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Anxiety and Avoidance: A Universal Treatment for Anxiety, Panic, and Fear

“The title of this book is very apt. As a faculty member at the UCSF Depression Center, I have seen patients in my clinical and teaching practices respond beautifully to Dr. Eisendrath’s mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression, even those who did not respond to or could not tolerate antidepressant medication. I have become a staunch believer, and I am so glad that this book will bring Dr. Eisendrath’s techniques and approaches to a much larger audience of clinicians and patients alike.”
— Owen Wolkowitz, MD, professor of psychiatry and codirector of the UCSF Depression Center, University of California, San Francisco
“Provides not only hope for people suffering depression, but also practical tools.”
— Greater Good Magazine