Recorded Mini Workshop #16- Recovery Oriented CBT for Psychosis: When Distressing Voices Are the Obstacle (2023 CONVENTION RECORDING)

Aaron P. Brinen, Psy.D.

Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Lansdale, Tennessee

Lénie Torregrossa, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee

Recorded on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at the 57th Annual ABCT Convention in Seattle, WA

1.5 CE Credits Awarded

$15 Student ABCT Members / $25 ABCT Members / $35 Non-Members

All prices listed in US currency

Abstract:

Helping individuals with auditory hallucinations manage their distressing voice-hearing experiences can be challenging with traditional CBT approaches, particularly when these experiences are severe and the client lacks insight. Improperly delivered CBT aimed at treating the experience as a symptom can have the unintended consequence of alienating the client, leading to further isolation and subsequent worsening of the voices, and ultimately precipitating treatment dropout.

Drawing from principles of empirically-supported cognitive therapy for psychosis (CBTp), recovery-oriented cognitive therapy (CT-R) is a promising intervention that has demonstrated utility in promoting recovery and resiliency in individuals with severe voice hearing and other presentations that pose a challenge for traditional CBTp. This introductory workshop will introduce through lecture, experiential activity, video, and role-play the basic protocol of CT-R, how to start using it to help clients manage the life disruption caused by distressing voices, identify a holistic formulation of voice-hearing, and flexibly integrate traditional CBTp approaches when indicated.

CT-R can be applied across the range of psychotic illness severity. It provides a framework for the clinician and client to understand the voice-hearing experience in a functional manner in terms of how it prevents the individual from pursuing the life of his or her choosing, along with strategies for action to promote life to its fullest. This workshop will review the process of developing a formulation of the voice-hearing experience based on common beliefs about voices and a strategy for long-term resolution of the problems associated with the experience, with or without the client’s eventual acknowledgment of the voice as a product of the mind. The strategy is grounded in the CT-R protocol of activating a competing network of beliefs and an adaptive mode of functioning, collaborating on development of the client’s aspirations, increasing/evaluating the role of activity in the individual’s life, and reinforcing belief networks to make the adaptive mode dominant.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this workshop, the learner will be able to:

1. List the three beliefs about voices associated with dysfunction and their associated compensatory strategy.

2. Describe two behavioral experiments for correcting voice hearing beliefs.

3. Explain the relationship between Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy protocol stages and voice hearing experience.

Recommended Readings:

1. Brinen, A.P.: “Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy and Distressing Voices” (Chapter 23) in Isla Parker, Joachim Schnackenberg, and Mark Hopfenbeck (Eds.) Practical Handbook of Hearing Voices: Therapeutic and Creative Approaches, PCCS Books (2021).

2. Brinen, AP, Sokol, L, & Fox, M.: The Comprehensive Clinician's Guide to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Chapter 10) in Sokol, L., & Fox, M. (Eds.). PESI Publishing & Media Page: 229-239, 2019.   

3. Grant, P.M., Bredemeier, K., & Beck, A.T. (2017) Six-month follow-up of recovery-oriented cognitive therapy for low-functioning individuals with schizophrenia. Psychiatric Services, 68(10), 997-1002.

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All attendees will receive a certificate of completion when the course requirements are satisfied. Certificate of completion is included in the cost of the webinar

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For more information, contact:

Rachel Lamb, ABCT Membership and Marketing Manager
212-647-1890 ext. 209
rlamb@abct.org

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