Exploring the paths between dysfunctional attitudes towards motherhood and postpartum depressive symptoms: The moderating role of self‐compassion

Better understanding how cognitive processes operate to influence women's depressive symptoms during the postpartum period is crucial for informing preventive and treatment approaches. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between women's dysfunctional attitudes towards motherhood and depressive symptoms, considering the mediating role of negative automatic thoughts and the moderating role of self‐compassion. A sample of 387 women in the postpartum period cross‐sectionally answered a set of questionnaires to assess dysfunctional attitudes towards motherhood, negative automatic thoughts (general and postpartum‐specific), depressive symptoms, and self‐compassion. Women with clinically significant depressive symptoms presented more dysfunctional attitudes towards motherhood, more frequent negative thoughts, and lower self‐compassion. More dysfunctional beliefs about others' judgments and about maternal responsibility were associated with higher depressive symptoms, and this effect occurred through both general and postpartum‐specific thoughts related to the metacognitive appraisal of the thought content. Moreover, these relationships occurred only when women presented low or moderate levels of self‐compassion. These results highlight the need to comprehensively assess women's cognitive variables during the postpartum period with appropriate measures, for the early identification of women with more dysfunctional beliefs about motherhood, who may be at higher risk of depression. Moreover, preventive/treatment approaches should aim not only to challenge women's preexisting dysfunctional beliefs but also to promote a more self‐compassionate attitude towards themselves.     

Considerations of verbal and non-verbal communication in body psychotherapy

Communication with others has both verbal and non-verbal aspects. This article describes theory about the use of language in body psychotherapy, ways of the psychotherapist relating to the client's language, and the psychotherapist using language with different therapeutic purposes in mind. Illustrative case vignettes are included. Links are made to current thinking in neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Language in the therapeutic relationship is discussed in terms of emotional regulation and spiritual awareness by combining verbal and non-verbal communications with intention, presence, contact and awareness.     

书法治疗精神障碍及其机制的研究进展

书法心理治疗是饱含中华民族传统文化和深厚文化底蕴的治疗方式。研究表明,书法心理治疗对患有智力障碍、自闭症、ADHD（又称多动症）和创伤后应激障碍的儿童,以及成年焦虑症、抑郁症、精神分裂症和阿尔兹海默症患者均有良好的治疗效果。书法心理治疗可改善认知功能及情绪调节,调节自主神经系统,有长期书法经验的个体静息状态功能连通性较强,后扣带皮层与右侧楔前叶灰质体积较小。     

Patient personality and psychotherapist reactions in individual psychotherapy setting: a systematic review

Despite the importance of psychotherapists' subjective experiencse working with patients with mental issues, little is known about the relationship between therapists' emotional reactions and patients' personality problems. The present study is a systematic review of quantitative research on the association between patients' personality pathology and psychotherapists' emotional, cognitive and behavioural reactions in individual psychotherapy setting. A systematic database search (from January 1980 to August 2019) supplemented by manual searches of references and citations identified seven relevant studies. Significant and consistent relationships were found between therapist reactions and specific personality traits or disorders. In general, odd and eccentric patients tend to evoke feelings of distance and disconnection; emotionally dysregulated patients tend to evoke anxiety and incompetence, and anxious and withdrawn patients tend to evoke sympathy and concern. However, the relatively small sample of studies and methodological inconsistencies across studies limit firm conclusions and suggest the need for more systematic research. Findings from this review indicate that patients who share the same personality disorder or symptoms tend to evoke specific and similar cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions in their therapists. This suggests that therapists overall reactions toward patients may be source of valuable diagnostic information.     

Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions

Colored photographic pictures that varied widely across the affective dimensions of valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal (excited-calm) were each viewed for a 6-s period while facial electromyographic (zygomatic and corrugator muscle activity) and visceral (heart rate and skin conductance) reactions were measured. Judgments relating to pleasure, arousal, interest, and emotional state were measured, as was choice viewing time. Significant covariation was obtained between (a) facial expression and affective valence judgments and (b) skin conductance magnitude and arousal ratings. Interest ratings and viewing time were also associated with arousal. Although differences due to the subject's gender and cognitive style were obtained, affective responses were largely independent of the personality factors investigated. Response specificity, particularly facial expressiveness, supported the view that specific affects have unique patterns of reactivity. The consistency of the dimensional relationships between evaluative judgments (i.e., pleasure and arousal) and physiological response, however, emphasizes that emotion is fundamentally organized by these motivational parameters.     

Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy With Older Adults

Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy is readily adaptable to use with older adults. This review integrates discussion of cognitive and behavioral intervention techniques with recent research and clinical observations in the field of gerontology. Cognitive changes with aging, personality and emotional development, cohort effects, and the social environment of older adults are discussed in relation to psychotherapy. Applications of cognitive behavior therapy to specific late-life problems such as chronic illness and disability, depression, alcoholism, and insomnia are presented. The effectiveness of cognitive and behavioral techniques in treating these disorders in older adults is discussed.     

Affection for patients as a factor in therapists' outcome judgments

This study was concerned with psychotherapists' evaluations of the outcome of therapy. Staff and resident psychiatrists employed a 23-item questionnaire to rate the success of psychotherapy with 85 of their inpatients. These were patients for whom psychotherapy constituted a significant part of the treatment that they received in the hospital. The therapists' responses to the questionnaire items were intercorrelated. The results indicated that a major aspect of a psychotherapist's judgment of the success of treatment—as these judgments usually are employed in current psychotherapy research—is the therapist's affective reaction to the patient. Better-liked patients were viewed as having improved more. However, when the therapists' responses were subjected to factor analysis, independent Improvement and Affection factors emerged. It is suggested that when therapists' ratings of success are used in psychotherapy research they should be treated or refined statistically to minimize potential confounding with their affection for patients.     

Object relations assessment predicts outpatients' attrition,early working alliance and psychotherapy process

This study investigated the predictive utility of assessing clients' object relations functioning to prognosticate therapy dropout, quality of the early working alliance and psychotherapy process events reported by clients after their first five sessions. Clients accepting a recruitment invitation were administered the thematic apperception test (TAT) shortly after intake, and those still in treatment three to four sessions later rated the working alliance and psychotherapy process events. Participants were 47 clients beginning psychotherapy with advanced doctoral practicum students at a university-based community-serving training clinic. The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scales (SCORS), an object relations scoring system for TAT stories, was used to assess object relations functioning. The California Psychotherapy Alliance Scales—Patient form measured four dimensions of the alliance. The Therapy Orientation Process Scales, created from the Psychotherapy Process Q-set, measured clients' perceptions of therapy process events as involving relatively more psychodynamic or cognitive behavioural techniques. The SCORS significantly predicted remaining in therapy, client ratings of stronger working alliance and typical therapy process as more psychodynamic than cognitive behavioural. SCORS complexity of representations and capacity for emotional investment in relationships scales were the strongest predictors, especially of the patient commitment facet of the alliance. The findings suggest that (1) beginning psychotherapy with object relations assessment can be useful for treatment planning and (2) the relationship between clients' object relations functioning, working alliance and greater sensitivity to psychodynamic than to cognitive behavioural interventions depends on the aspect of object relations that is being assessed.     

A critique of the theoretical bases of cognitive behavioral theories and therapy

Cognitive-behavior therapy is a generic term for several recent approaches to the treatment of emotional disorders. Although differing somewhat in therapeutic procedures, these therapies appear to share a common theoretical basis: Emotional disorders result from or are at least maintained by an individual's cognitive activity. The aim of the present review is to examine the nature and function of cognition as proposed by cognitive theorists, the available empirical evidence for the importance of cognition in influencing emotional behavior, and the relationship of cognitive-behavioral theories to cognitive-behavior therapy. In each case, the claims of cognitive-behavioral theorists were found to be unsubstantiated. The failure of cognitive-behavioral theorists to use the findings from basic cognitive psychology is noted.     

Brief Report: Bradyphrenia in Parkinson's Disease,Huntington's Disease,and Schizophrenia

The current paper assessed bradyphrenia, or slowed thinking, in patients with Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and schizophrenia using a modified planning measure designed to maximise the demands on cognitive processing. Findings indicated normal performance in schizophrenia but prolonged thinking time in Parkinson's disease and, to a lesser degree, Huntington's disease and a relationship between thinking time and task complexity.     

How Much Does Physical Appearance Say About the Psychological Adjustment of Competent and Dysfunctional Children?

Presents a study in which three sets of photographs of socially competent, aggressive, and anxious preschoolers were rated by college students (n = 150 raters per set), blind to the children's group membership. This was done to assess the extent to which adults are able to make valid and reliable evaluations of children's psychological adjustment on the basis of physical appearance alone. Sets 1 and 2 were photographs of different children taken under the same conditions and providing both facial and nonfacial cues. Sets 2 and 3 were of the same children taken under conditions that varied as to the amount of nonfacial cues they provided. Results showed that (a) socially competent children were judged to be better adjusted than their dysfunctional peers (i.e., more competent, less aggressive, less anxious, and less likely to have emotional or behavioral problems); (b) within the dysfunctional group, aggressive and anxious children were distinguished in ways that correspond closely to what is known about them from behavioral and clinical research; (c) irrespective of group membership, girls and boys were generally distinguished in ways that reflect normative beliefs about gender differences from social and developmental research; (d) group differences in ratings of psychological adjustment were generally comparable across photograph sets and could not be accounted for by differences in the children's perceived physical attractiveness; and (e) raters reported that they relied mainly on the children's expression, eyes, and posture to make their judgments of adjustment. These results replicate and extend earlier findings based on 1 of the 3 photograph sets (Serketich & Dumas, 1997). They suggest that when first impressions matter, competent children are at an advantage and their dysfunctional peers at a disadvantage even before their actual behavior comes to confirm or to invalidate these impressions. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Report on the European Association of Body Psychotherapy: Bodies of Knowledge: Resources for a World in Crisis

The heterogeneous field of body oriented psychotherapy (BOP) provides a range of unique contributions for the treatment of mental disorders. Practice based clinical evidence and a few empirical studies point towards good efficacy of these non-verbal intervention strategies. This is particularly relevant for those disorders with body image aberration and other body-related psychopathology, but also for mental disorders with limited treatment response to traditional talking therapies, e.g. somatoform disorders/medically unexplained syndromes, PTSD, anorexia nervosa or chronic schizophrenia. However, the evidence base is not yet sufficiently developed in order to get BOP recognised as suitable mainstream treatment by national health services and their commissioning bodies. Strong academic links are urgently required in order to support practitioners in their efforts to evaluate the clinical work in systematic research. The field would greatly benefit from the development of international higher education training in integrated clinical body psychotherapy, enabling practitioners to obtain a master's degree. From a scientific perspective, projects on the interface between neuroscience and psychotherapy research should be conducted in order to understand more fully the therapeutic processes in BOP, particularly with regard to emotional processing, movement behaviour and body/self perception. Qualitative research is needed to further investigate the specific interactive therapeutic relationship, the dynamics of touch in psychotherapy and the additional self-helping potential of creative/arts therapy components. Provided that these requirements will be fulfilled, BOP could be established as one of the main psychotherapeutic modalities in clinical care, alongside other mainstream schools such as psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural and systemic.     

Reason,emotion, and cognitive therapy

There are two main assumptions implicit in the theory and practice of cognitive therapy. One assumption is that emotional or psychological disturbances are caused largely by illogical or irrational thinking. The second assumption is that the restructuring of cognitions accessible to awareness represents a therapeutic solution. The present paper examines these assumptions in the context of a general theoretical review of the nature of emotion, cognition, and the relation between emotion and cognition. Also included is a discussion of the potential limitations posed by these assumptions for various cognitive therapeutic approaches, including Ellis's rational-emotive therapy, Beck's cognitive therapy of depression, and attribution therapy. Finally, a neomentalistic research strategy is proposed for the clarification of these issues.     

Ripley's Game: Projective identification,emotional engagement,and the counselling psychologist

Counselling psychology's dual emphasis on the use of the self as both vehicle of therapeutic change and legitimate focus of inquiry and research is one of the features by which the profession may be distinguished from related fields such as clinical psychology or psychotherapy. This paper discusses the relevance of the psychoanalytic concept of projective identification in understanding the extent, nature and subtlety of the ways in which the therapist's ‘self’ and emotions may be deployed within the therapeutic relationship. Illustrated with reference to the film ‘Ripley's Game’ and a clinical case vignette, Searles's (1978) advocacy of ‘a richness of emotional participation’ within clinical work is discussed in relation to the pluralist philosophy of counselling psychology; implications for the training and personal development of counselling psychologists are also briefly explored.     

An exploration of emotion regulation in psychosis

The emotional experience of individuals who experience psychosis has historically been neglected, possibly due to the divide between the psychoses and neuroses. This study examined emotional experience and regulation in individuals who had experienced psychosis, individuals experiencing anxiety or mood disorders, and non‐patient controls. Participants completed validated measures of emotional experience and emotion regulation. Both clinical groups were found to experience similar levels of emotions, and in comparison to the non‐patient controls, they experienced greater levels of negatively valenced emotions and lower levels of happiness. Both clinical groups also used similar emotion regulation strategies, and in comparison to non‐patient controls, they used significantly more dysfunctional and less functional strategies, suggesting that the emotional experience and emotion regulation strategies of people who have experienced psychosis are more similar to non‐psychotic disorders than have previously been thought to be the case. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message: ? Individuals with psychosis experience similar emotions as individuals with anxiety and mood disorders, namely more unhappiness, fear and less happiness. ? People with psychosis attempt to regulate these emotions in similar ways to people with mood and anxiety problems, by using more dysfunctional emotional regulation strategies such as ruminating. ? Clinicians may want to pay closer attention to assessing the emotion regulation strategies of those who experience psychosis and consider the implications of these in therapy. ? They may also want to consider the role emotional dysregulation may play in the development, maintenance and course of psychosis. ? An emotion regulation approach to psychosis may be characterised by focussing on emotional experiences and the individual's response to these, as opposed to psychotic symptoms.     

Metacognitive interpersonal therapy in a case of obsessive-compulsive and avoidant personality disorders

Metacognitive interpersonal therapy (MIT) for personality disorders is aimed at both improving metacognition--the ability to understand mental statesand modulating problematic interpersonal representations while building new and adaptive ones. Attention to the therapeutic relationship is basic in MIT. Clinicians recognize any dysfunctional relationships with patients and work to achieve attunement to make the latter aware of their problematic interpersonal patterns. The authors illustrate here the case of a man suffering from obsessive-compulsive and avoidant personality disorders with dependent traits. He underwent combined individual and group therapies to (a) modulate his perfectionism, (b) prevent shifts towards avoiding responsibilities to protect himself from feared negative judgments, and (c) help him acknowledge suppressed desires. We show how treatment focused on the various dysfunctional personality aspects.