Let's Talk about CBT- Research Matters

By: Steph Curnow for BABCP
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  • Summary

  • The podcast that brings you all the latest CBT research published in the BABCP Journals
    2024
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Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Science Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • Flashforward Mental Imagery in Adolescents with Dr. Alex Lau-Zhu

    Flashforward Mental Imagery in Adolescents with Dr. Alex Lau-Zhu
    Feb 18 2025
    In this episode of Research Matters, host Steph Curnow talks to Dr. Alex Lau-Zhu, lead author of the paper “Flashforward Mental Imagery in Adolescents: Exploring Developmental Differences and Associations with Mental Health,” published in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. Alex discusses his research into flashforward mental imagery—vivid mental pictures of future events that can be intrusive and emotionally powerful. We explore how these flashforwards relate to anxiety in adolescents, why mental imagery isn’t always a focus in CBT, and how young people may benefit from imagery-based interventions. Guest Bio: Dr. Alex Lau-Zhu is an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology and a clinical psychologist supporting young people affected by trauma. His full list of publications and research areas can be found here: https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/people/alex-lau-zhu Links & Resources: Read the paper: “Flashforward Mental Imagery in Adolescents: Exploring Developmental Differences and Associations with Mental Health” - https://bit.ly/3Eysxd0 Explore more from Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy –https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-and-cognitive-psychotherapy Find our sister podcasts and all our other episodes in our podcast hub here: https://babcp.com/Podcasts Have feedback? Email us at podcasts@babcp.com Follow us on Instagram & Bluesky: @BABCPpodcasts Credits: Music is Autmn Coffee by Bosnow from Uppbeat Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/bosnow/autumn-coffee License code: 3F32NRBYH67P5MIF Transcript: Steph: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk about CBT- Research Matters, the podcast that explores some of the latest research published in the BABCP journals with me Steph Curnow. Each episode, I'll be talking to a recently published author about their research, what was the motivation behind it and how they hope it will impact the world of CBT. Today, I'm talking to Dr. Alex Lau-Zhu, Alex is lead author on the paper “Flash Forward Mental Imagery in Adolescence: Exploring Developmental Differences and Associations with Mental Health” which has been published in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. I really enjoyed this chat with Alex. We talked all about his paper, and we also talked about maybe why mental imagery isn't explored so much with adolescents, or even in CBT in general. It's a really interesting listen, so I hope you all enjoy. Hi Alex. Welcome to the podcast. Alex: Hi Steph, thank you for having me. Steph: You’re welcome. So, before we get into talking about your paper, would you mind introducing yourself to the listeners and telling us a little bit about who you are and the areas you work in? Alex: Yeah, of course. I'm currently an MRC clinician scientist fellow at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and I also work as a clinical psychologist in our local county in Oxfordshire, supporting young people who are affected by trauma. Steph: Thank you. So we're talking today about the paper that was published in the last issue of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, which is about flash forward mental imagery in adolescents. So could you tell us a bit about how this paper came about? Was there any particular motivation for the research? Alex: Yeah so I work with a lot of young people in my clinical work and often find that they sometimes struggle with expressing themselves, sometimes around identifying what goes on in their minds in particular, which is really a key part of doing CBT, for example. And speaking to other clinicians, also working with young people, it seems like actually sometimes they do find thinking on mental images perhaps a bit easier to thinking about, for example, using visual mediums or drawings to express how they feel and what they think, but sometimes it goes to be around talking about mental images that they experience inside their mind, just describing what is it that they see, what is it that they hear, as a way to then better understand some of those thinking processes or what we might call as distortions in CBT. And that led me to think kind of more broadly around how much do we know about these sorts of processes in young people. And actually, we know incredibly little. There's some really I think exciting work that has happened in the last 20 or 30 years in working with adults and doing CBT with adults around thinking about mental images, not just verbal thinking. But that knowledge somehow hasn't really trickled down to working with young people as much. So I'm really curious more generally in, in understanding mental imagery in young people and whether that can help us improve our treatments. Steph: And would you mind just explaining what flash forwards are for anyone who might not be aware of the term? Alex: Yeah, I think it's probably a term that if once I explain what it means, then you might realise ...
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    29 mins
  • ‘Crossing the reflective bridge’: how therapists synthesise personal and professional development from self-practice/self-reflection during CBT training...with Vickie Presley

    ‘Crossing the reflective bridge’: how therapists synthesise personal and professional development from self-practice/self-reflection during CBT training...with Vickie Presley
    Nov 4 2024
    In this episode, host Steph Curnow interviews Vickie Presley, the lead author of a paper titled "Crossing the Reflective Bridge: How Therapists Synthesize Personal and Professional Development through Self-Practice/Self-Reflection (SP/SR) during CBT Training", published in The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. Vickie shares her insights from the research, discussing the importance of reflective practice in CBT training and how it shapes therapists’ professional growth and personal awareness. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Twitter at @BABCPpodcasts or on Instagram . Share your feedback or episode suggestions by emailing podcasts@babcp.com. Useful links: The full version of the article being discussed can be found freely available here The SP/SR book that Vickie mentions is “Experiencing CBT from the Inside Out: A Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Workbook for Therapists (Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Guides for Psychotherapists)” by James Bennett-Levy, Richard Thwaites, Beverly Haarhoff, and Helen Perry. Foreword by Christine A. Padesky Credits: Music is Autmn Coffee by Bosnow from Uppbeat Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/bosnow/autumn-coffee License code: 3F32NRBYH67P5MIF Transcript: Steph: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk about CBT- Research Matters, the podcast that explores some of the latest research published in the BABCP journals with me Steph Curnow. Each episode, I'll be talking to a recently published author about their research, what was the motivation behind it and how they hope it will impact the world of CBT. Today, I'm talking to Vickie Presley. Vickie is course director for CBT training at Coventry university. She's also the lead author of the paper “Crossing the reflective bridge’: how therapists synthesise personal and professional development from self-practice/self-reflection during CBT training” which she co-wrote with Gwion Jones and is published in the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. Hi, Vickie. Welcome to the podcast. Vickie: Hi Steph, thanks for having me. Steph: Thank you. It's lovely to have you here. I was wondering if you would mind telling everyone a bit about who you are and the areas where you work. Vickie: Yeah, of course. So my name is Vickie, Vickie Presley. I'm currently the lead for psychological therapies training at Coventry University and the course director for our CBT training programme. And I guess outside of my university role, I'm also a CBT therapist and supervisor in private practice. I guess for the purposes of today as well, it'd be important to say I am also Vickie. I am a lady heading quickly towards my 45th birthday. I am a mum. I'm a wife to a long-suffering husband. I'm a sister. I'm an auntie. I'm a great auntie, Lots of things outside of that sort of professional context. And I guess also I'm a nervous wreck today, if I'm honest. I guess just thinking about conveying things around this research, but it just seems important to say that given we're going to talk about sort of how therapists might synthesise their personal and professional development, there's bits about me that might come through today that are about my personal self, not just my professional self. Steph: Great. Thank you. And that's great that you've sort of brought in some of the personal as well. That's really nice. And I'm always nervous when we start doing podcasts as well. So it's fine. And I've been doing this for a while now. Vickie: Oh, that's good to know. Thanks, Steph. Steph: The paper we're going to be talking about today is about self-practice, self-reflection in CBT training but before we get into talking a bit about the paper, would you be able to tell me a bit about how this research came about? What inspired it? Vickie: Yeah, of course. I mean, I suppose the answer to that question is, one that takes me back, sort of, 15 years or so to my own CBT training. So, I trained at Coventry. Coventry's got quite a long-standing ethos of reflective practice as part of the training course. And for me, I think that allowed me to really think about the role of myself in my therapeutic interactions with clients. And I started to notice as part of my training that I was getting in the way sometimes. So sometimes my own stuff was getting in the way of my work with clients. There's this example that I always give where, I was working with a lady who was very, very depressed, and as part of that presentation she was very perfectionist and held herself to really high standards, which, is something that I have to manage myself. So, there's kind of this schema match, I guess, if you like, that we noticed, and we did some work around that. And technically it was really good. Technically we did this continuum exercise. It worked really well, it was really helpful for her in the session. But right in the last minute, I suggested to her that she took the worksheet home, and she...
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    31 mins
  • Ten misconceptions about trauma-focused CBT for PTSD with Dr Nick Grey

    Ten misconceptions about trauma-focused CBT for PTSD with Dr Nick Grey
    Oct 1 2024
    In this episode of Let’s Talk about CBT – Research Matters, host Steph Curnow speaks with Dr. Nick Grey, a consultant clinical psychologist with extensive experience in anxiety disorders and PTSD. Together, they discuss the paper “Ten Misconceptions about Trauma-Focused CBT for PTSD,” co-authored by Nick and published in the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. The paper addresses common myths and challenges in trauma-focused CBT, offering insights for both therapists and researchers in the field. Key misconceptions discussed include: Misconception 1: “Trauma-focused treatments are not suitable for complex or multiple trauma.” Misconception 2: “Stabilisation is always needed before memory work.” Misconception 10: “Cognitive Therapy for PTSD is rigid and inflexible.” If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Twitter at @BABCPpodcasts or on Instagram . Share your feedback or episode suggestions by emailing podcasts@babcp.com. Useful links: The paper discussed is: Murray, H., Grey, N., Warnock-Parkes, E., Kerr, A., Wild, J., Clark, D. M., & Ehlers, A. (2022). Ten misconceptions about trauma-focused CBT for PTSD. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 15, e33. doi:10.1017/S1754470X22000307 The full version of the article can be found freely available here: https://bit.ly/47KIwPL Transcript: Steph: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk about CBT- Research Matters, the podcast that explores some of the latest research published in the BABCP journals with me Steph Curnow. Each episode, I'll be talking to a recently published author about their research, what was the motivation behind it and how they hope it will impact the world of CBT. Today I am talking to Dr Nick Grey. Nick is a consultant clinical psychologist and has worked in the field of anxiety disorders and PTSD for many years. He is also one of the authors of the paper we are going to be talking about today which is titled “Ten misconceptions about trauma-focused CBT for PTSD” and is published in the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. So Nick, welcome to the podcast. Nick: Thank you, Steph. It's nice to be here. Steph: It's great to have you. So before we get talking about the paper, I was wondering if you would just mind telling everyone a bit about who you are and the areas in which you work. Nick: Yeah, sure. So, I'm a clinical psychologist by professional background and a sort of a CBT therapist by sort of flavour of psychological therapy. And I work down in Sussex now, based in Brighton working across Sussex partnership and for many years I worked up in London at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma and continue to work together with David Clark, Anke Ehlers and other members of the Wellcome Trust anxiety disorders team who are based in Oxford. And, and that's where a lot of the work that we're going to be talking about has originated in both London and Oxford and in particular the paper is pulled together by the Oxford team. What I should also say and just wanted to say up front is that the paper is lead authored by Hannah Murray, who sadly passed away after a long illness in December 2023 and her input, not just to this paper, but to us as a group has been unbelievably crucial and, both us as a team, but I know that the wider, sort of CBT community will really miss her. Miss her contribution. Steph: Absolutely. And thank you for mentioning Hannah. She was a great friend to the journals as well. She spent so much time contributing to both of our journals, mentoring people, reviewing for us. Yeah, we really miss her. So I really wanted to talk to you about this paper today, because not only is it one of our most widely read papers, which is brilliant, but the format of this paper was so popular, it's actually sparked a whole new series of papers for us. We're doing a whole new set of “10 Misconceptions” papers now that we're currently commissioning. I just wanted to ask how did this come about? What was the idea for this? Nick: The idea came around because we found ourselves, doing a lot of training, a lot of supervision over a number of years, particularly for the treatment that we provide Cognitive Therapy for PTSD, which is one of the types of trauma focused kind of CBT. And we found ourselves saying many of the same things again and again, really sensible questions that people would raise in training workshops, really sensible questions people would raise in supervision, and we thought it would be helpful for us and therefore for all the people that we are also sort of like supervising and training to have us almost perhaps a single resource. So like an FAQs, around some of the things in this line of work. Steph: Before we get into talking about the misconceptions themselves, you've worked in PTSD and trauma for a long time now. If you don't mind me asking, when you started out were there any myths or misconceptions that you held about working with ...
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    44 mins

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