The Unified Protocol: A Transdiagnostic Approach to the Treatment of Emotional Disorders

This event will be recorded for all those who are registered on the day. Recording is available for three weeks. Please note that all registrations have to be paid in full before the event takes place - otherwise you will miss out on receiving the Zoom link. 

Recent conceptualizations of anxiety, depressive, and related "emotional" disorders emphasize their similarities rather than their differences. In response, there has been a recent movement away from traditional disorder-specific manuals for treating these disorders and toward approaches that focus on addressing psychological processes that appear to cut across them. These "transdiagnostic" evidence-based treatments may prove to be more cost-efficient and have the potential to increase the availability of evidence-based treatments to meet a significant public health need.

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP), developed by researchers at Boston University, is the most recognizable and widely used transdiagnostic treatment protocol with empirical support for its use. The UP is an emotion-focused, cognitive behavioral treatment consisting of five core modules or components. These modules are designed to directly target temperamental characteristics, particularly neuroticism and resulting emotion dysregulation, underlying all anxiety, depressive, and related disorders, rather than focus on surface-level, DSM diagnostic symptoms. 

This introductory workshop, presented by one of the co-developers of the UP, will provide clinicians with the knowledge and skills to apply this innovative treatment to commonly occurring (and co-occurring) mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. The workshop will begin with a brief conceptual and descriptive overview of the UP and the mechanisms underlying temperamental change. This will be followed by a description and demonstration of how to apply core UP treatment modules, along with the similarities and differences between the UP and traditional CBT. Videotaped illustrations of core treatment interventions (e.g., mindful awareness, emotion exposures) will be presented and attendees will be invited to participate in exercises as part of these demonstrations.  

PRESENTER: TODD FARCHIONE

Dr. Farchione directs a research program at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders that focuses on identifying higher-order, functional mechanisms associated with the development and maintenance of emotional disorders and the dissemination of improved psychological treatments for these disorders. Dr. Farchione is a co-developer of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) and has substantially contributed to evaluating and refining the protocol since its inception. He has also published extensively on the UP and the nature and treatment of emotional disorders in general.