2-Day Advanced Emotion-Focused CBT: The Unified Protocol for Treatment of Comorbid Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, and More

CPD

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Speaker

Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD Related seminars and products

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Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD, is co-developer of the Unified Protocol and the founding director of the Unified Protocol Institute at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. She has provided training and consultation in the Unified Protocol to clinicians all over the world. In addition to over 15 years' experience as a clinical psychologist providing evidence-based treatments, Dr. Sauer-Zavala maintains a prolific research career focused on exploring emotion-focused mechanisms that maintain psychological symptoms (particularly high-risk symptoms such as suicidal thoughts and behaviors) and using this information to develop more targeted, easily disseminated intervention strategies. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky (UK) and is the founding director of Clinical Services at the UK Clinic for Emotional Health. Dr. Sauer-Zavala completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from UK, her predoctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University. Her research has been supported by NIMH, NIAAA, Templeton Foundation, the Center for Implementation and Improvement Sciences, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Dr. Sauer-Zavala has co-authored over 100 scholarly publications and three books, including workbook and therapist guides on the Unified Protocol for Oxford's Treatments That Work Series, as well as Neuroticism: A New Framework for Emotional Disorders and Their Treatment, with David Barlow.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala has employment relationships with the University of Kentucky and Boston University. She receives grants from NIMH and The John Templeton Foundation. Dr. Sauer-Zavala receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala a member of the North American Society for the Study of Personality Disorders, the Association for Psychological Science, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and the APA Division 12.

Objectives

1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the current method of classifying mental disorders.
2. Construct a transdiagnostic case conceptualization for clients presenting with comorbid disorders.
3. Formulate a rationale for approaching rather than avoiding emotions for purposes of client psychoeducation.
4. Categorize clients’ emotional experiences into the components of thoughts, physical sensations, and urges/behaviours.
5. Utilize mindfulness-based interventions to increase clients’ awareness and experience of emotions.
6. Apply cognitive restructuring techniques targeting overestimation and catastrophizing.
7. Apply advanced cognitive techniques to identify and shift core beliefs.
8. Analyze the short- and long-term consequences of emotional avoidance.
9. Distinguish three forms of emotional avoidance.
10. Plan behavioural experiments to promote clients’ ability to engage in intentional action.
11. Utilize situational, imaginal, and interoceptive exposures to improve clients’ tolerance of strong emotions.
12. Plan for ongoing practice of client skills post-traumatic to prevent relapse.

Outline

• History of mental health disorders classification
• Categorical approach: the problem of phenotypic overlap
• Comorbidity – when only the content of worries distinguishes diagnosis
• Ill-fitting diagnostic boxes: unspecified and subthreshold presentations

• Conventional approaches: the burden of diagnosis-specific treatments
• Personality/temperamental factors supporting a transdiagnostic approach
• Neurobiological evidence for going deeper than symptom level

• Experiencing strong emotions and having strong negative reactions to intense emotions
• Transdiagnostic case conceptualization – when avoidance backfires
• Unified Protocol: core strategies to increase clients’ willingness to experience strong emotions
• Large group exercise: Group case conceptualization

• Conducting assessments and getting clients on board with UP treatment
• Harnessing and maintaining motivation
• Small group exercise: Goal setting and decisional balance
• Case study

• Teaching clients the adaptive function of their uncomfortable feelings
• “Just relax” - understanding the interacting components of thoughts, physical sensations, and emotions
• Break out of the vacuum – recognizing the ARC (antecedents, response, consequence)
• Large group exercise: Cultivating mindful attention and Mindful mood induction
• Small group exercise: Anchoring in the present practice
• Case study

• Dismantling thinking traps: the role of automatic, habitual cognitive appraisals
• Targeting specific types of cognitive inflexibility: overestimation and catastrophizing
• What to do when cognitive work falls flat with your clients
• Large group exercise: Ambiguous picture
• Small group exercise: Cognitive restructuring

• The five categories of emotional behaviours that reinforce symptoms
• Deciding on alternative action experiments
• Large group exercise: Paradox of suppression
• Small group exercise: Identifying alternative actions
• Case study

• Shaking clients’ conviction that they cannot handle situations and emotions
• Interoceptive exposures – de-triggering your clients’ physical experience
• Playground metaphor and generating exposure ideas

• Situational, imaginal, interoceptive!
• Creating strong emotion to show clients they can cope
• Exposure preparation and debriefing
• Small group exercise: Create a hierarchy
• Case study

• Treatment consolidation and relapse prevention
• Tips for teaching clients to be their own therapist
• Distinguish symptom relief goals from wellbeing goals
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychotherapists
• Case Managers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Other Mental Health Professionals