“Promoting wellbeing in and out of the Clinic”, 21st July 2022 at the BABCP Annual Conference

One of the highlights of the conference for me was this keynote address on promoting wellbeing in and out of the clinic by Andrew Gloster. There was plenty of useful information for my clinical work as a therapist which I have already started to implement and the feedback has been positive.

Professor Gloster works in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Misophonia

I attended an excellent presentation on Saturday 11th September 2021 on using CBT to help clients understand and manage misophonia by Dr Jane Gregory and Dr Tom Graham.

Misophonia is a disorder in which certain sounds trigger emotional or physiological responses that some might perceive as unreasonable given the circumstance. Those who have misophonia might describe it as when a sound “drives you crazy.” Their reactions can range from anger and annoyance to panic and the need to flee.  The disorder is sometimes called selective sound sensitivity syndrome.

Individuals with misophonia often report they are triggered by oral sounds  -- the noise someone makes when they eat, breathe, or even chew. Other adverse sounds include. keyboard or finger tapping or the sound of windshield wipers. Sometimes a small repetitive motion is the cause -- someone fidgets, jostles you, or wiggles their foot.

For more information about Misophonia, see her misophonia website

Dr Jane Gregory is a clinical psychologist and doctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford.

Dr Tom Graham is a counselling psychologist who works at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders & Trauma (CADAT), Kings College, London.

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

I attended a fascinating workshop with Prof Eni Becker on 8th September 2021 while attending the Annual Congress of the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies in Belfast. It was good to learn about new developments for working with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). 

Prof Becker investigates the development and treatment of anxiety disorders as well as affective disorders. She mainly focuses on cognitive processes (memory, attention, interpretation), considering these appear to play an important role in the development of anxiety disorders. She is the chair of Clinical Psychology at Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Depersonalisation and Derealisation

I attended an excellent presentation by Dr Elaine Hunter at the Annual Congress of the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies in Belfast on Saturday 11th September 2021. 

I have been using Dr Hunter’s protocol and guidance to help clients with depersonalisation and derealisation for several years. It was good to attend her superb presentation and to have the opportunity to engage with her at the conference.