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5th international 'breaking convention' psychedelic conference: 1st morning - microdosing and group retreats & ceremonies

'Breaking Convention' - the fifth biennial international conference on psychedelics - took place at Greenwich University in London from 16th-18th August.  There were apparently 1,200 or so attendees for the 6 concurrent programmes - academic, workshop, performance, cinema, entertainment & installations - as well as an art exhibition.  I went primarily because it allowed me to hear pretty much all the relevant research groups in the UK present on their current findings.  As you can see from the other quite extensive writing about psychedelics on this website, I'm very interested in the encouraging emerging research highlighting potential therapeutic value of psychedelics.  Although I focussed on the academic programme, there was much too much even here to manage an ove

Chronotherapy: rapid treatment of depression by altering sleep & light

         

           The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.   Eden Phillpotts

At the recent World Congress of Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies in Berlin, David Veale from King's College & the Maudsley reported on a randomised controlled trial of 'triple chronotherapy' for depression.

David pointed out that depression can come in all kinds of shapes & sizes, and this treatment probably works best in the subtype where circadian rhythms have become desynchronised.

CBT World Congress: 2nd conference day - sp/sr, imagery rescripting, personal practice, effective therapists, & compassion

Well this was a fascinating day ... I went to my friend James Bennett-Levy's fine symposium on "Self-practice/self-reflection (SP-SR) at 18: an experiential training strategy maturing into adulthood", then on to an interesting & helpful symposium discussing broader applications of Arnoud Arntz's imagery approaches - "Efficacy of imagery rescripting as a transdiagnostic intervention".  And to complete the morning's cornucopia I was back listening to James delivering a barn-storming plenary on "Personal practice: why therapists should walk the talk."  I sat with Judy, James's wife, and we considered standing to applaud at the end but decided this might be a bit over-the-top, even if richly deserved.

CBT World Congress: 1st conference day - chronotherapy, sleep, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and emotions

I wrote yesterday about a pre-conference workshop I attended on "Reimagining CBT for depressionwith Keith Dobson.  Today is the first of the three full days of the '9th World Congress of Behavioural & Cognitive Therapiesconference proper.  They aren't taking any prisoners ... each day runs from 8.30am to 6.00pm.  My Airbnb is about a 40 minute walk from the CityCube conference centre, so the day pretty much runs from 7.30am to 7.00pm ... not a holiday!

CBT World Congress: 'Reimagining CBT for major depression', Keith Dobson workshop

I'm at the '9th World Congress of Behavioural & Cognitive Therapiesin Berlin.  As is routine with these kinds of events, the day before is taken up with pre-conference workshops.  There are 31 of them!  18 are full-day and the rest half-day.  A lot of choice.  I've gone for "Reimagining CBT for major depression" with Keith Dobson.  The full title includes " ... : using a contextual framework to conceptualize and treat depression."

Strength training exercises improve both physical & psychological health

Poor muscle strength predicts increased vulnerability to both physical & psychological health problems and earlier death, in addition to the contribution of poor aerobic, heart-lung fitness.  This is true for both men & women and for all assessed age ranges.  Mechanisms underlying these effects are probably multifactorial, including metabolic/biochemical, neurological & psychological factors.  Research studies have assessed overall muscular strength in a variety of ways including grip strength, push-ups, chair-stands, and squat weight-lifts.  Happily, muscle strengthening interventions can yield major benefits across multiple health domains.  Here are a dozen interesting papers addressing these areas published in the last few years: