PUBLIC LECTURE: Targeting transdiagnostic processes and using imagery to optimise clinical outcomes from cognitive behaviour group therapy for anxiety disorders

Presenter: Associate Professor Peter McEvoy

Associate Professor Peter McEvoy completed his masters in clinical psychology and PhD in the School of Psychology at UWA in 2004, after which he worked as a clinical psychologist and service co-ordinator at the Anxiety Disorders Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney for four years. After he returned to Perth in 2008 he worked as a senior clinical psychologist and research co-ordinator in the anxiety and depression program at the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) for six years. Over the last decade he has personally run around 80 therapeutic groups for various anxiety and affective disorders whilst maintaining an individual caseload and squeezing in research projects where possible. In February 2014 Peter commenced a teaching and research position in the School of Psychology and Speech Pathology at Curtin University, although he maintains an ongoing consultancy with CCI. Peter teaches the adult psychopathology and psychotherapy units in the clinical Masters program, he has published around 50 journal articles and book chapters in the areas of mental disorders and their treatment, and he has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders since 2008.

Title: Targeting transdiagnostic processes and using imagery to optimise clinical outcomes from cognitive behaviour group therapy for anxiety disorders

Abstract

Cognitive behavioural interventions are highly efficacious and effective for emotional disorders, and yet a significant proportion of patients fail to achieve full remission of their symptoms after gold-standard treatments. A significant minority of patients in clinical practice also find exposure-based techniques highly distressing, leading to high attrition rates in real world practice. Evidence-based clinical innovations are required to further improve engagement with, and the potency of, existing treatments. This presentation will describe two parallel programs of research being conducted at the Centre for Clinical Interventions to meet these aims. The first research program involves an intervention targeting a key transdiagnostic factor known to contribute to multiple emotional disorders, namely, repetitive negative thinking (RNT). A 6-week, transdiagnostic metacognitive group treatment for RNT will be described and initial outcomes will be reported. The second research program involves modifying the mode within which cognitive therapy is applied to potentiate greater emotional change. A new, innovative imagery-enhanced 12-week group program for social anxiety disorder will be described and outcomes will be reported. Both of these programs have demonstrated high retention rates, huge effect sizes (ds >2.0), and an improvement compared to gold standard treatments reported in the literature in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.