Treatment Modalities

My evidence-based practice focuses on rapid, aggressive therapy, drawing on my training in CBT, DBT, CBASP, and ISTDP. It is important to understand the characteristics - and advantages - of each, below.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT is an empirically-supported, time-limited, and collaborative treatment that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. By learning to identify and change their maladaptive thinking patterns, clients can improve their mood and make behavioral changes to increase problem solving and coping, and to achieve life goals., Research studies have demonstrated CBT’s effectiveness in treating a wide variety of mental health problems including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, and substance abuse disorders. Recent studies have shown that CBT may actually change brain activity and improve its functioning as a result of engaging in this form of therapy.

During her doctoral training, Dr. Henry received extensive training in CBT. This included work in the UCLA Anxiety Disorders Behavioral Clinic under the supervision of Dr. Michelle Craske, a leader in the field of anxiety disorder research and treatment.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an empirically-supported treatment that combines cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness techniques to treat patients with severe mood dysregulation, dysfunctional behaviors and interpersonal problems. It helps clients build “lives worth living” through the concepts of mindful awareness , emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal skill-building and incorporates strageties of “radical” acceptance, behavior chain analysis, and reality-testing.

What is DBT?http://behavioraltech.org/resources/whatisdbt.cfm

Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP)

CBASP is a treatment for chronic depression that combines aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

CBASP uses “situational analysis” to teach individuals to view their problems in manageable “slices of time,” from which they can better evaluate their behavior and its consequences. Situational analysis, targets maladaptive (“unhelpful”) thoughts and behaviors in order to achieve desired outcomes, particularly in interpersonal interactions.

CBASP has the following characteristics:

  • Time Limited: A limited number of sessions are required
  • Evidence-based: Studies have shown CBASP to be “remarkabl[y] favorable” in the treatment of chronic depression[1]. CBASP has been shown to be effective when medication is ineffective[2]. CBASP has been shown to achieve better long-term results than other common methods[3].
  • Highly structured

CBASP focuses on maladaptive patterns that developed from early attachment relationships (“transference hypotheses”) that impact current expectations, perceptions and behaviors that affect interpersonal outcomes.

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)

ISTDP is an evidence-based, psychodynamic treatment that is designed to be rapid and highly attuned to your specific internal obstacles.

  • Like CBT, ISTDP is very active, with the therapist often directing the focus of investigation and even teaching you effective techniques for addressing your problems.
  • Like psychodynamic therapy, the goal is to unlock the unconscious.
  • ISTDP seeks to treat root causes (unlike CBT) and focuses on behaviors that can be observed and therefore verified by the patient (unlike psychodynamic therapy).

In an ISTDP session, the therapist evokes and throws a spotlight on the patient’s reactions so that the patients themselves become aware of their unconscious processes. In this way, the patient is directly involved in navigating the road to their own unconscious. It is through this highly active process that ISTDP achieves powerful results.

ISTDP has been empirically supported as an effective way of rapidly treating a broad spectrum of diagnosable conditions.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness techniques train the mind to focus on the “moment-to-moment” experience from a position of being nonjudgmental and nonreactive. Although it is inherited from ancient Buddhist tradition, recent neuroscience research has found that focused attention and awareness strengthen parts of the brain that regulate mood. It is a form of “tuning in” to oneself that also enhances one’s ability to be better attuned with others.

Research has consistently shown that mindfulness-based psychotherapy can help:

  1. Reduce depression
  2. Prevent depression relapse
  3. Reduce anxiety
  4. Reduce addiction relapse
  5. Improve attention
  6. Improve mood regulation
  7. Improve immune functioning

Notes

  1. ^ Wiersma, J., van Schaik1, D., van Oppen, P., McCullough, J., Schoevers, R., Dekker, J., Blom, M., Maas, K., Smit, J., Penninx, B., and Beekman, A. Treatment of chronically depressed patients: A multisite randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of 'Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy' (CBASP) for chronic depressions versus usual secondary care. BMC Psychiatry 2008, 8:18
  2. ^ Schatzberg, A., Rush, A., Arnow, B., Banks, P., Blalock, J., Borian, F., Howland, R., Klein, D., Kocsis, J., Kornstein, S., Manber, R., Markowitz, J., Miller, I., Ninan, P., Rothbaum, B., Thase, M., Trivedi, M., and Keller, M. Chronic Depression Medication (Nefazodone) or Psychotherapy (CBASP) Is Effective When the Other Is Not. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(5):513-520
  3. ^ Schramm, E., Zobel, I., Dykierek, P., Kech, S., Brakemeier, E., Külz, A., and Berger, M.Cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy versus interpersonal psychotherapy for early-onset chronic depression: A randomized pilot study. Journal of Affective Disorders 129 (2011) 109–116

External links

Further reading

  • McCullough Jr., James P. Treatment for Chronic Depression: Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP). Guilford Press, 2000. ISBN 1-57230-965-2
  • McCullough Jr., James P. Treating Chronic Depression With Disciplined Personal Involvement: CBASP. Springer Press, 2006. ISBN 0-387-31065-7