Levita, L., Salas Duhne, P.G., Girling, C. et al. (1 more author) (2016) Facets of clinicians' anxiety and the delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 77. pp. 157-161. ISSN 0005-7967
Abstract
Psychological therapists commonly fail to adhere to treatment protocols in everyday clinical practice. In part, this pattern of drift is attributable to anxious therapists being less likely to undertake some elements of evidence-based therapies - particularly the exposure-based elements. This study considers what facets of anxiety (cognitive, behavioral, physiological) are related to junior clinicians' reported use of cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques. Thirty-two clinicians (mean age = 28.9 years; mean length of CBT experience = 1.5 years; 23 female, nine male) who offered CBT were assessed for their cognitive, behavioral and physiological characteristics (Intolerance of Uncertainty scale; risk taking; skin conductance response and heart rate variability). While the three different facets of anxiety were relatively poorly associated with each other, as is usual in this literature, each facet was linked differently to the reported delivery of CBT techniques (P < .05). Overall, higher anxiety levels were associated with a poorer use of exposure methods or with a greater use of other behavioral or cognitive methods. Of the three facets of anxiety, only physiological reactivity showed an association with the clinicians' temporal characteristics, with more experienced therapists being more likely to have greater skin conductance responses to positive and negative outcomes. These findings suggest that clinicians who are more anxious are less likely to deliver the full evidence-based form of CBT and to focus instead on less challenging elements of the therapy. Potential ways of overcoming this limitation are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Behaviour Research and Therapy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Clinician anxiety; Cognitive-behavioral therapy; Exposure |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 26 Jan 2016 11:35 |
Last Modified: | 29 Dec 2017 01:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.015 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.015 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:94184 |