"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked. "


Posts tagged with 'phobias'

Glasgow BABCP conference: Pre-conference workshop - Michelle Craske on 'Exposure therapy in the 21st century' (2nd post)

29th July 2018

I recently wrote a first blog post introducing the excellent workshop that Michelle Craske ran before this year's BABCP annual conference. It's easy to see Michelle's work as only relevant for improving outcomes in exposure therapy of anxiety disorders. However I think these ideas are important much more widely than …

Glasgow BABCP conference: Pre-conference workshop - Michelle Craske on 'Exposure therapy in the 21st century' (1st post)

17th July 2018

This pre-conference workshop with Michelle Craske on "Exposure in the 21st century" was great. A few years ago - in the blog post "Maximising exposure therapy" - I wrote "Michelle Craske & colleagues from the Anxiety Disorders Research Center of UCLA have, for many years, been publishing careful, challenging research …

Maximizing exposure therapy

9th October 2014

Michelle Craske & colleagues from the Anxiety Disorders Research Center of UCLA have, for many years, been publishing careful, challenging research on underlying mechanisms & on ways of boosting the effectiveness of exposure therapies for different forms of anxiety. Craske's list of publications & research presentations runs to 31 pages …

New NICE guidance on common mental disorders: identification and pathways to care

26th May 2011

This month the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published their new evidence-based clinical guideline on "Common mental disorders: identification and pathways to care". The description reads "This clinical guideline offers evidence-based advice on the care and treatment of adults who have common mental health disorders, with a …

Recent research: three psychotherapy papers that get me thinking

30th April 2009

Just as there were research papers on depression that stood out and got me thinking last month, so too there were particular papers on psychotherapy that I found more interesting than others. David Clark and colleagues have developed a very successful CBT treatment programme for social anxiety disorder. When clients …

Recent research: a mixed bag of six papers on anxiety

19th February 2009

Here are half a dozen papers with anxiety relevance. The first couple are about the interaction between genetic vulnerability (or resilience) and childhood experience. The Stevens et al paper is an update on the large body of research looking at psychological genetic vulnerability/resilience in macaque monkeys and how this interacts …

Handouts & questionnaires for increasing access to psychological therapies (IAPT) outcomes toolkit, an upgrade

16th February 2009

Over nearly 35 years of practice as a doctor and psychotherapist I've assembled a collection of 300 to 400 handouts and questionnaires that I use in my work. I'm gradually uploading most of these handouts to this website so people can use any that they'd like to. The collection is …

Recent research: half a dozen studies on cognitive therapy

20th November 2008

Here are half a dozen recent studies involving cognitive therapy (CBT). The first by Craigie et al explores the use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although, as one would expect, MBCT helped GAD sufferers, it was noteworthy that results "fall well short of outcomes …

Handouts & questionnaires for wellbeing and time management

17th November 2008

Here are a selection of assessment sheets and handouts on wellbeing, time management and related topics. A lot of my work involves helping people face fear and anxiety. The "Determination training" and more straightforward monthly "Practice record" are often helpful here. The "Respected figures exercise" is one of the most …

Handouts & questionnaires for “outcomes toolkit” (IAPT)

27th October 2008

The "Improving Access to Psychological Therapies" (IAPT) initiative is very ambitious and exciting. It states its principal aim is to support English Primary Care Trusts in implementing "National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence" (NICE) guidelines for people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. IAPT go on to say that …