Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Effects on Depression, Anxiety and Internalized Stigma Compared With Treatment-As-Usual Among Head and Neck Cancer Patients

MBSR will be conducted as group sessions, with each session lasts for 2.5 hours, once a week for 8 weeks with another 45 minutes of home practice on daily basis. The MBSR sessions will be based on therapy format developed by Kabat-Zinn. All the sessions focus on mindfulness practices, sharing of experiences with others, and didactic teaching on stress. Mindfulness practices which will be discussed include body scan exercise, and mindful breathing meditation techniques, three-minute breathing exercises, five-minute seeing or hearing exercises, bodily mindfulness in movement and mindful stretching, yoga and sitting meditation. The therapists will review feedbacks for each session, acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, and senses, examine how participants practice mindfulness, and give assignments to encourage participants to continually practice mindfulness at home. Each participant will receive a CD detailing on meditation practices and a workbook on the mindfulness practices.