Stressed To Zest

"With singing and banners": trauma, conflict, resilience and poetry

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:51:48 +0100

It's coming up to the two year anniversary of one of the major potential traumas of my life - see "Walking in Skye & Kintail: mountain rescue, helicopter winches, and avoiding death & PTSD." I felt there was so much to learn from this experience that I try to re-read the description every month to help me remember the precious lessons that were involved.

Emotional intelligence: the potential value (and potential cost) of identifying and naming what we're feeling

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 05:44:27 +0000

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” Rainer Maria Rilke "Letters to a young poet".

Improving therapeutic success rates: how to generate personal practice data to rate oneself using the UK IAPT targets

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:40:39 +0000

I wrote a blog post yesterday about recently published IAPT psychotherapy data and how it provides a fascinating set of targets which one can use to assess the effectiveness of one's own therapeutic practice. When one gets down to the nitty-gritty of what data from one's own practice to collect and how, then it can be a bit tough. Lots of questions to clarify here, but part of the good news is that there is also lots of IAPT guidance on how to do this.

Improving therapeutic success rates: using UK IAPT data to assess how well we're doing therapeutically

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:57:11 +0000

CBT Today: keeping up with the literature - exposure, mindfulness & reappraisal - winter '13/14 (2nd post)

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 05:37:12 +0000

In yesterday's post on "Keeping up with the literature", I wrote about the wealth of updated knowledge that has emerged with publication of the third UK National Survey of of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) and about useful qualitative research on why most health professionals (including psychotherapists) tend to be poor at providing help for sexual difficulties. I would now like to say a little about some new findings in exposure therapy, and some additional insights into mindfulness, relaxation & reappraisal.

CBT Today: keeping up with the literature - UK sex survey - winter '13/14 (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:01:31 +0000

Simple self-help for insomnia: an upgrade to counting sheep

Stressed To Zest — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:29:22 +0000

this blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file

Are dietary supplements a dangerous waste of money?

Stressed To Zest — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 06:38:17 +0000

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple" Oscar Wilde

Recent research: articles from December journals

Stressed To Zest — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:54:39 +0000

Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & treatment for social anxiety: more on avoidance, social skills & compassion (5th post)

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 06:24:45 +0000

What's your "fitness age"? It's a key predictor of how long you're likely to live

Stressed To Zest — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:28:30 +0100

CBT Today: keeping up with the literature (take two)

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:34:34 +0100

I have been asked to write a column on "Keeping up with the literature" for CBT Today "the official magazine of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies". I sent in a first copy a couple of months ago, but unfortunately the editors couldn't get the space to squeeze it in. Today's post is an extension of that first copy, with several additions to the original publications that were initially recommended. As before, I thought it might be helpful to put an online version onto this website so that I can include relevant hyperlinks to the various research articles that I mention.

Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & treatment for social anxiety: avoidance & safety behaviours (4th post)

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 07:24:25 +0100

Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & David Clark's treatment for social anxiety: personal aims (3rd post)

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 05:29:39 +0100

Improving therapeutic success rates: UK IAPT data gives us a clearer set of targets

Stressed To Zest — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:37:51 +0100

Recent research: articles from September journals

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 06:30:34 +0100

Assessment & monitoring questionnaires for CBT treatment of social anxiety disorder

Stressed To Zest — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 07:50:18 +0100

I went to a workshop on the treatment of social anxiety disorder with David Clark in July. It was very helpful. I've listed assessment & monitoring questionnaires that he recommended below:

As a general measure to assess and track changes in social anxiety severity, the freely available Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) is the questionnaire recommended by the England & Wales NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) "outcomes toolkit". Interestingly David seems to prefer the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) probably because it makes a pretty full job of assessing both anxiety and avoidance.

Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & David Clark's treatment for social anxiety: assessment (2nd post)

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 06:15:56 +0100

Yesterday I wrote an introductory post on using self-practice & self-reflection (SP/SR) to improve my understanding of David Clark's treatment for social anxiety. In today's post I want to look at assessment - of social anxiety disorder, of skill with Clark's CBT approach, and at SP/SR initiation.

BABCP Scotland autumn conference: Paul Salkovskis "Master class for health anxiety & unexplained medical symptoms" (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 06:06:56 +0100

Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & David Clark's treatment for social anxiety: introduction (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 05:43:47 +0100