The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which therapeutic processes – working alliance and depth of experiencing – contributed to outcome.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is recommended for treating anxiety and depression, demonstrating good efficacy and moderate rates of engagement. To further improve outcomes and access to evidence‐based treatments, researchers have sought to enhance CBT protocols with mindfulness‐based approaches, such as yoga. This study aimed to examine whether yoga is an acceptable and complementary adjunct to

To explore in‐depth the views on Internet‐based psychological therapies and their implementation from the perspective of National Health Service (NHS) commissioners and managers.

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) emphasizes generalization of skills to the patient’s real‐world context as a primary mechanism of change in treatment. To promote generalization, DBT includes weekly skills‐focused homework assignments and as‐needed phone coaching. Despite this central function of generalization in DBT, research on these treatment components is limited. The current study addresses

Most existing research on the family context of psychosis focuses on the ‘burden’ of caring for people experiencing psychosis. This research is the first to ask young people experiencing early psychosis to ‘map’ and describe their experiences and understandings of their family relationships, and how they have related to their psychosis and recovery.

Although impulsiveness has been recognized as a risk factor for suicide, few studies have explored how to protect offenders with impulsiveness from the risk of suicide. This study aims to examine the relationships among impulsiveness, suicide risk, regulatory emotional self‐efficacy (RESE), and flourishing, focusing on the moderating effects of RESE and flourishing in the relationship between impulsiveness

Recovery from anorexia nervosa (AN) is difficult to define, and efforts to establish recovery criteria have led to several versions being proposed. Using the perspectives of people with histories of AN and therapists working in the field, we sought to explore the face validity of Khalsa et al (2017) as one of the most recent examples of proposed systematic recovery criteria.

Resilience, the ability to bounce back from a stressful situation, is a valuable asset for aiding adults with serious mental illness (SMI) in navigating the recovery process. People with SMI experience stress, including traumatic experiences at disproportionate rates. The purposes of this study were to examine the factor structure, internal reliability, and construct validity of the Brief Resilience

Personal recovery is increasingly recognized as important outcome for people with bipolar disorder (BD), but research addressing associated factors of personal recovery in this group remains scarce. This study aimed to explore the association of sociodemographic variables, social participation, psychopathology, and positive emotion regulation with personal recovery in BD.

To assess progress towards improving the administering of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in England since an audit covering 2011, 2013, and 2015. The same information was gathered, for 2019, on usage, demographics, consent, and adherence to national guidelines and the Mental Health Act.

Self‐compassion represents a way of interacting with the self involving kindness and a balanced approach to negative self‐related stimuli that has shown to contribute to reduced depression, anxiety and stress, and increased psychological well‐being. Due to the potential barriers towards self‐compassion for people with depressive symptoms, the objective of the present study what to investigate whether

Service users with complex mental health difficulties are more difficult to engage in treatment and drop‐out rates are higher, resulting in poorer clinical outcomes. Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is widely applied to service users with complex needs and shows promise in terms of engagement and outcomes. The aim of the present study was to examine the ‘lived experience’ of service users who have

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a compassion‐focused therapy (CFT) group in improving patient outcomes compared to those receiving treatment as usual (TAU) with a trans‐diagnostic population who are inpatients within an acute psychiatric ward.

To present a treatment protocol for delivering Talking With Voices, a novel intervention for people with psychosis that involves dialogical engagement with auditory hallucinations.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a widespread adoption of videoconferencing as a communication medium in mental health service delivery. This review considers the empirical literature to date on using videoconferencing to deliver psychological therapy to adults presenting with mental health problems.

Existing reviews of trauma and psychosis have identified associations between childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and psychosis. However, conceptual issues relating to assessment of CEA limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the literature. The aim of this review was to identify and evaluate studies reporting an association between childhood experiences of caregiver antipathy (i.e. criticism, hostility

In the field of psychotherapy, verbal creativity has been suggested as an important aspect in psychotherapists’ training. In the present study, the effects of a mindfulness and compassion‐based intervention (MCBI) on verbal creativity are analysed in students of clinical and health psychology (N = 90).

The moderate association between therapeutic alliance (TA) and psychological therapy outcome is well established. Historically, the field has not focused on people with a severe mental illness. This is the first review to conduct a meta‐analysis of associations between TA and therapeutic engagement as well as outcome in psychological therapy for psychosis.

Managing the alliance is considered to be a core competency and central therapeutic change process during cognitive analytic therapy (CAT). This study examined latent trajectories of change in the alliance and their relationship to depression treatment outcomes.

To conduct a feasibility study on a new, tablet‐delivered treatment for unusual sensory experiences in service‐users with an At Risk Mental States for psychosis.

Paranoia is known to be associated with insecure attachment, with negative self‐esteem as a mediator, but this pathway is insufficient to explain the paranoid individual’s beliefs about malevolent others. Mistrust is a likely additional factor as it is a core feature of paranoid thinking also associated with insecure attachment styles. In this study, we tested whether mistrust – operationalized as

There is an increasing interest in how compassion training, and in particular, the cultivation of self‐compassion may be an important component in the reduction of distress and promotion of well‐being. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) has shown promising results in this area, with positive outcome studies in a wide range of mental health problems. However, following the successful development of short

Self‐compassion and emotional regulation have been identified as constructive attitudes towards the self which can reduce emotional distress. This study is the first to examine the role of a self‐compassionate attitude towards the self in reducing symptoms of social anxiety. The study also explored the role of emotional regulation strategies of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression

To identify whether compassion‐focused therapy (CFT) or compassion‐based interventions are effective in improving self‐esteem.

Psychosis disrupts how persons experience themselves and their lives. Despite knowledge that gender differences have been noted in presentation and course of psychosis symptoms, little is known about differences in how men and women experience these disruptions.

Living during the COVID‐19 pandemic is characterized by the emergence of great uncertainty surrounding multiple aspects of daily life. This study explored the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and depression, as well as the potential mediation effect of COVID‐19‐related fear.

To explore the heterogeneity of the literature on psychological interventions for psychological difficulties in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Recovery and empowerment have evolved into key objectives in the treatment and care of people with severe mental illness (SMI), and interest has grown in the role of social relationships in recovery. This study is the first to explore whether attachment styles are related to levels of empowerment, and secondly, whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are associated with lower empowerment

Relationships with other people are important determinants of the course of psychosis, yet social isolation is common. This study sought to learn about the patient experience of being around other people when hearing derogatory and threatening voices (DTVs).

Digital health has emerged in recent years as a tool to optimize care delivery and promote treatment adherence among individuals with first‐episode psychosis (FEP). Recent mandates for social distancing and sheltering in place due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have catapulted efforts to provide ongoing coordinated specialty care (CSC) on virtual platforms. While prior evidence provides support for the general

Despite the central role of formulation in psychological therapy, there is limited research on how formulations are constructed in clinical practice. In Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), a formulation diagram (or CAT map) is used in transforming the client’s narrative into a psychological understanding of the difficulties. The objective was to build a theoretical model of the processes involved in

The Bipolar at Risk Trial (BART) was a feasibility randomized controlled trial investigating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) compared with treatment as usual (TAU) in young people at high risk of developing bipolar disorder (BD). This qualitative study aimed to investigate participants’ experiences of trial involvement, and the acceptability of CBT for this population.

Since the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic in South Korea in January 2020, many South Korean employees have been experiencing work stressors, threats of job insecurity, and feelings of isolation, which together lead to emotional exhaustion. The present study aimed to compare the emotional exhaustion of South Korean employees before and after the pandemic, as well as to examine how the demographic

As the COVID‐19 pandemic accelerates, one public health response has been for governments to impose quarantine ‘lockdowns’ which require people to socially isolate. In this study, we explored the level of psychological distress that people experienced in social isolation and the factors which might ameliorate or exacerbate it. Two hundred and thirteen participants (69% female) with a mean age of 37

Cognitive analytic therapy has been shown to be an effective psychological treatment for a range of differing presentations but little research to date has focused on the use of Group CAT (GCAT). The aim of this study was to explore the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of GCAT for clients with mood and anxiety disorders in primary care.

It is increasingly acknowledged that understanding of the process and impact of psychotherapy is enhanced by awareness of the experience of service users. Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) was developed as a time‐limited and integrative psychotherapeutic approach. Although reviews have been published on CAT outcome studies, no reviews are currently available on service users’ experience of CAT. This

This paper describes the development and summarizes the content of a competence framework for delivery of cognitive analytic therapy (CAT).

Anhedonia, the loss of interest and pleasure, is a core symptom of depression and is associated with deficits in reward processing. Behavioural Activation for depression may address this symptom due to its focus on identifying and increasing intrinsically rewarding activities.

Previous studies have suggested that dissociation might represent an important mechanism in the maintenance of auditory verbal hallucinations (i.e., voices) in people who have a history of traumatic life experiences. This study investigated whether a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention for psychosis augmented with techniques specifically targeting dissociative symptoms could improve both

To develop more unified, process‐based, and disseminable psychotherapy treatments, it is important to determine whether there is consensus among therapists regarding intervention strategies.

Previous studies have examined the relationship between executive functions and performance on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) tasks, such as cognitive restructuring. However, previous studies have used samples of older adults and only traditional measures of executive functions involving non‐emotional stimuli. This study extends previous research to examine the specific executive function of shifting

This research examined whether people’s causal explanations of depression were associated with acceptability and efficacy‐related treatment perceptions and likelihood to choose cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and antidepressant medication (ADM) as depression treatments.

The aim of this study was to explore the subjective experiences of participants who: (1) received a psychosocial intervention as part of an addiction recovery research trial, and (2) responded to treatment through drug reduction, with the intention of eliciting qualitative change processes of recovery.

Young people accessing mental health treatment in Australia frequently engage in dysregulated behaviours, such as substance misuse, deliberate self‐harm (DSH), and binge eating and purging. Rumination has been identified as a correlate of behavioural dysregulation; however, a qualitative examination of the functional relationship between ruminative processes and distress and subsequent engagement in

COVID‐19 research from China suggests health care workers are at risk of distress, have specific concerns, and need support. It remains unknown whether findings are applicable to UK health care staff and whether psychological support based on generic approaches is effective. We administered an online survey at a leading neuroscience hospital in the UK to examine how individual staff characteristics

To examine change in non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI) frequency, quality of life, and functional impairment from admission to discharge in patients enrolled in partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programmes (PHP/IOP) designed to treat NSSI. Demographic, clinical, and treatment‐related predictors of changes were also examined.

This paper outlines the concept of the ‘Compassionate Kitbag’, a novel multi‐sensory‐based means of helping draw together the various elements of compassionate mind training and processes within compassion‐focused therapy (CFT), to help clients cultivate and facilitate their capacities for compassion. Building on the work of Lucre and Corten (2013, Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and

The COVID‐19 pandemic and its management are placing significant new strains on people’s well‐being, particularly those with pre‐existing mental health conditions. Physical activity has been shown to improve mental as well as physical health. Increasing activity levels should be prioritized as a treatment target, especially when the barriers to exercise are greater than ever. Promoting physical activity

Rejection sensitivity is a risk trait that contributes to the relationships between rejection experiences in various domains and non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI). However, research about the association between rejection sensitivity and NSSI has still been understudied. This study sought to examine the mediating role of depressive symptoms and the moderating role of fear of self‐compassion in the association

This paper sought to conduct a meta‐analysis of the effectiveness and durability of cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) and assess the acceptability of CAT in terms of dropout rates.

Experiences of presence, involving the sensory perception or felt presence of the deceased, are common amongst the bereaved (30–60%). Despite them being predominantly comforting and reassuring, a minority (approximately 25%) report ambivalent or distressing experiences. The study’s aim was to explore how psychotherapy is practised with this subset.

A widely used measure of emotion dysregulation, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), may insufficiently cover a number of potentially important aspects of emotional dysregulation. A new measure of emotional dysregulation, the Emotional Dysregulation Questionnaire (EDQ) was therefore developed based upon an eight‐factor model of the construct.

There is mounting evidence that traumatic life events play a role in auditory hallucinations (AH). Theory suggests that some AH are decontextualized trauma memory intrusions. Exposure‐based trauma‐focused therapies that target trauma memory intrusions may therefore be a promising new treatment. We aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a standard protocol trauma‐focused imaginal exposure

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has accrued a growing evidence‐base for a wide variety of psychological difficulties. Given that ACT promotes broad and flexible repertoires of behaviour as well as neutralizing the ubiquitous psychological processes theorized to be responsible for much human suffering, such an approach may hold promise. The use of ACT‐informed parenting interventions offers

A primary methodological weakness of the single‐case experimental design (SCED) outcome studies conducted of the treatment of personality disorder with cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is that they have failed to employ a withdrawal phase or cross‐over design and so are deemed quasi‐experimental. This study sought to implement a withdrawal design, in order to improve the internal validity of the study

This study aimed to explore whether clinical psychologists in the United Kingdom (UK) have a role with their clients’ psychotropic medication by exploring forms of involvement undertaken, and decision‐making behind involvement.

Research into adolescent mental health has tended to focus on primary attachment relationships. However, the effect of secondary attachment relationships and the role of culture remain under‐explored. This study examined the associations between primary attachment, secondary attachment, and coping strategies (task‐focused, emotion‐focused, and avoidant coping) with psychological well‐being and psychological

Brief psychological therapies may be helpful for people who have recently self‐harmed. The current paper reports on a service evaluation of a novel brief therapy service based within an Emergency Department, Hospital Outpatient Psychotherapy Engagement (HOPE) Service. This service combines elements of psychodynamic interpersonal and cognitive analytic therapy to help people who present with self‐harm‐related

Depersonalization–derealization (DEP‐DER) is a dissociative experience which is related to psychopathology and distress. Yet, the aetiological factors leading to DEP‐DER are not sufficiently clear. In this study, we suggest rumination as one possible antecedent. Thus, the goal of the study was to explore the longitudinal relationship between rumination and DEP‐DER.

The concept of potential‐to‐experience is a major component in psychodynamic theory and assumed to be an important component of psychotherapeutic technique. However, as this assumption has never been empirically tested, the relationship between such interventions and treatment outcome is unclear. The aim of this pilot study is to explore the relationship between patient–therapist congruence of pot