Zindel Segal, PhD is Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He pioneered the use of mindfulness meditation for promoting wellness in the area of mood disorders. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Douglas Utting Research Prize and the Mood Disorder Association of Ontario’s Hope Award and has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the past 15 years. Segal’s program of research has helped to characterize psychological markers of relapse vulnerability in affective disorder, especially the link between affective and self-devaluation components of dysphoria. This work has, in turn, provided an empirical rationale for offering training in mindfulness meditation to recurrently depressed patients in recovery.
An author of ten books and more than 200 scientific publications, including The Mindful Way Through Depression—a patient guide for achieving mood balance in everyday life—he continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health. His recent book, Better in Every Sense, describes the surprising role of sensation in mental health.
