Psychotherapy with Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Clients

Have a look at this video clip with Dr Christine Padesky doing CBT with a client:

PsychotherapyDvds.com

This is a preview from a new DVD training pack available at Psychotherapydvds.com – part 2 of the series “Psychotherapy with Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Clients”:

Psychotherapy with Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Clients vol 2

This training pack “Individual Assessment and Psychotherapy” explores with you the effectiveness of cognitive therapy with this population, implications of internalized homophobia and the importance of hypothesis testing in therapy, assessment of presenting problems and stages of identity development for GLB clients and much more.

The training therapy sessions by Dr Padesky within this DVD are award winning as an outstanding training demonstration for both students and experienced psychotherapists.

This DVD is a part of a 7 DVD Training Set: Psychotherapy with Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Clients set , which is currently offered to you at a promotional price, with £40 off.

If you prefer to buy individual DVDs in the series – they are on offer in our VIP zone: Special Prices for Registered Customers

Just log in and save on individual titles.


Wishing you a lovely Bank Holiday weekend!

CBT and Brain waves

A recent study into the effects of psychotherapy on Social Anxiety Disorder found some very interesting results!

A group of adults with Social Anxiety Disorder attended 12 weekly sessions of CBT together. Before, half-way through and after the 12 sessions the participant's were given an EEG brainscan.

What was discovered was highly encouraging.

Before therapy, the group's tests were similar to those of the high-anxiety control but by the end of the 12 sessions, the group's tests resembled those of the low-anxiety control group. Showing a dramatic change in brain function over the 12 weeks. Although it can't be concluded that the CBT is changing the brain function directly, as some of the patients were taking medication the author acknowledged that it was an important step towards understanding the biology of anxiety and developing better treatments.

If you're interested in improving your own CBT skills or CBT within your organisation, have a look at our website: SDS CBT Course - and sign up today!

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V. Miskovic, D. A. Moscovitch, D. L. Santesso, R. E. McCabe, M. M. Antony, L. A. Schmidt. Changes in EEG Cross-Frequency Coupling During Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder. Psychological Science, 2011; DOI: 10.1177/0956797611400914

Cognitive-Bias Modification

Cognitive-Bias Modification has been in the news recently - but what is it?

CBM is a relatively new style of psychological treatment that works by the client simply sitting in front of their PC. CBM is a form of therapy that works on Attentional Biases. If you take as an example, people suffering anxiety disorder: they may have an attentional bias towards threat. This means they are drawn towards stimuli that they perceive to be dangerous. This attentional bias then affects memory and the recall of an event. As the anxiety sufferer has a bias towards 'threat' stimuli, these are the elements that are remembered when trying to recall a memory. Likewise, drug users have demonstrated an attentional bias towards drug related cues.

The aim of CBM is to change these biases.

The most common method used to re-train attention is the 'dot-probe task.' Two stimuli are briefly presented on a screen: One is emotionally relevant (i.e. designed to draw the attention due to the attentional bias) and the other is neutral. The stimuli is displayed for half a second then one is replaced by a task that the client must respond to. The attentional bias is indicated by the difference in reaction time to the task after it replaces an emotionally relevant stimuli compared to neutral stimuli.

Gradually the task replaces the neutral stimuli increasingly until it replaces the neutral stimuli 100% of the time. The client learns an implicit 'if-then' rule, namely: If both stimuli are present, then attend to the neutral stimuli. Often, repeating the procedure a number of times over an extended time period will change the client's tendency to focus on the emotionally relevant stimuli. That change is then carried over into the world.

The effectiveness for this method is still to be decided, with conflicting evidence at the moment, although it still tends towards being effective.

One of the major advantages of this style of therapy style, assuming it works, is that the client need only sit in front of their pc and run the program. They will no longer need to attend therapy sessions anymore. But only if CBM really is the panacea it hopes to be.

Post Stroke: Functional Capabilities and Depression

After a stroke a third of people become clinical depressed but testing and treating of depression post-strok can help improve functioning.

Research has found that individuals who remain depressed three months after a stroke are more likely to have decreased functional capabilities (e.g. dressing self and eating) than those whose depression was successfully treated!

According to a study by Arlene A. Schmid, “The relationship between post-stroke depression and recovery of function after a stroke has not been well understood. Previous researchers have looked at both depression and function after stroke but they did not investigate whether identifying and managing depression improved ability to accomplish tasks of daily living and other function related issues.”

This new research reports that successful depression management led to better functionality that might enable the individual to return to work or more thoroughly enjoy leisure functions while decreasing the caregiver burden.

In addition to improving the well being of Stroke patients, management of depression would lower health care costs associated with functional impairment and other post-stroke treatment issues.

"This study is one of the first to show not just the link between depression and worse function post-stroke, but that successfully treating depression symptoms actually improves post-stroke outcomes,” noted the researchers.

Luckily the Skills Development Service has already been delivering a course on Psychological Coping Strategies Post Stroke for some time, and has provided training to a number of Cardiac and Stroke Networks around the country! The course is available to be delivered in-house but seminars are also being run around the country throughout 2011 and BPS Learning Centre approved.

More information can be found on our website: Psychological Coping Strategies Post Stroke

(The study mentioned above is published in the March 15, 2011 issue of the journal Neurology.)