I’ve just returned from the annual
convention of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) held
in Music City USA (Nashville, Tennessee). The convention’s theme this year was “Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies:
Harnessing Synergy among Multidisciplinary Sciences.” Cognitive and
behavioural therapy (CBT) is grounded in empirical findings and the
scientist-practitioner model of clinical practice. Given CBT’s inherent
emphasis on using scientific findings to guide and advance clinical practice,
it is not surprising that numerous methodologies were presented via posters and
symposia to demonstrate their usefulness for both measuring and conceptualising
therapeutic change via CBT across a variety of patient issues. The scientific
development of CBT serves to inform and guide clinical practice in a valuable,
quantifiable ways such as the identification of active treatment components and
variables that influence treatment outcomes. As the scientific discipline of CBT
psychotherapy research continues to develop, scientists have added tremendous knowledge
to the field, the research data has grown, and growth often begets change. In
this case, change overtime in the larger body of research data on CBT calls for
change in the overarching perceptions and practice of cognitive psychotherapy
in the therapy room. As a result, CBT is now more diverse and flexible than
ever before.
The ABCT annual convention affords its
members a unique opportunity to witness discussions among leading minds in the
field. I attended a clinical roundtable focusing on harnessing synergy and
discussing changes in cognitive psychotherapy research overtime among three of
ABCT’s leading thinkers: Drs Gerald
Davison (Distinguished academic; 8th President of ABCT),
Steven Hayes (founder of Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy), and Marsha Linehan (founder of Dialectical Behavioural
Therapy). The panel were asked to discuss their most telling reconsiderations
in the form of three simple questions: What have you changed your mind about?
Why? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind? The panel
discussion of experts shared their thoughts about the progress of CBT as a
stand-alone psychotherapy branching from traditional behavioural therapy and
emphasized how much has been gained by incorporating elements of Eastern
philosophy (e.g., mindfulness, acceptance, nonjudgmental being) into
traditional cognitive psychotherapy.
Notably, each panel member provided ample evidence of failed research
attempts, difficulty interpreting data given prevailing theoretical beliefs,
and occasional disbelief and/or inability to accept research findings. It was
refreshing to learn that giants in the field are equally plagued by the complex
nature of psychotherapy research. Their message was clear: it’s ok to fail as a
researcher as long as you learn why you’ve failed –that’s a true scientist. As
a result of the persistence of these three distinguished academics, cognitive
psychotherapy has continued to expand and branch within itself, making the
practice even more robust, diverse, and effective.
My primary purpose for attending ABCT was
to present recent research findings on social anxiety and situational alcohol
use. My US colleague Dr Julia Buckner
and I were invited by Dr Ruth Cooper at the Institute for Clinical Psychology,
University of Cologne, Germany to present research findings for a symposium
titled: Social Anxiety and Hazardous Drinking: Illuminating Mechanisms of Comorbidity.
This symposium aimed to: 1) describe three new theoretical rationales for the
highly comorbid nature of social anxiety and alcohol; 2) explain potential
anxiety relieving mechanisms of alcohol consumption; 3) assess and target
specific pathological processes relevant to the comorbidity; and 4) suggest
future directions for research and clinical practice in this common but
difficult to treat clinical comorbidity. This symposium included talks by
international leaders in social anxiety research: Drs Julia Buckner (Louisiana
State University, USA), Sherry Stewart (Dalhousie, Canada), Lindsay Ham
(University of Arkansas, USA), and Professor Alex L. Gerlach (University of
Cologne, Germany). My talk, The Role of
Conformity and Coping Motives in the Prediction of Excessive Situational
Drinking Among Socially Anxious Undergraduates, showed socially anxious
undergraduate drinkers are more likely to drink heavily in negative emotion
drinking situations (e.g., when feeling lonely, angry, sad) and drinking in
these situations was moderated by coping and conformity motives (i.e., drinking
to avoid negative affect and/or social scrutiny). Thus, highly socially anxious undergraduate
drinkers with strong beliefs that drinking helps reduce social scrutiny appear
to be especially vulnerable to drink heavily to cope in negative emotion
situations. A paper stemming from these
findings is currently in press at Psychology
of Addictive Behaviors, the American Psychology Association’s quarterly addictive
behaviours journal.
I also presented a paper on research
findings from a longitudinal randomized control trial involving alcohol
treatment for at-risk university student drinkers. The talk, Addressing Heavy Drinking among Alcohol
Treatment Mandated University Students: Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of a Campus-Based
Brief Alcohol Intervention, stems from a completed research project funded
by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as part of my
doctoral research programme. My co-authors and mentors on the project include
Drs Amy Copeland and Julia Buckner, Louisiana State University, and Professor
Mary Larimer, the University of Washington Seattle. Dr Larimer is a leading
researcher in alcohol prevention interventions among young people. A full
length manuscript of this project is currently under review.
Overall, the convention provided an
excellent opportunity to reconnect with the momentum of CBT research, network
with international colleagues, and of course, listen to live country music and
learn to line dance.
Meredith Terlecki
