My guest today is Ros Knight is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist with over 25 years experience and the President of the Australian Psychological Society (the largest professional organisation of psychologists in Australia) from 2017-20. Ros is also a NSW Psychology Council Member, a Board Member of the Sydney North Health Network and was the Clinical Director at Macquarie University for nearly 14 years.
Our conversation is something of a guide for people who may be considering getting professional psychological support for the first time. We discuss when to see a psychologist, what to look for in a psychologist, how to know if you and your therapist are a good fit and how to get the most out of therapy.
Show Notes
1:50 – How do you know when you should see a psychologist?
8:40 – What to look for in a therapist?
15:10 – How to approach therapy to get the most out of it?
17:55 – Will therapy be difficult?
19:15 – How to know if you and your therapist are a good fit?
22:00 – When to leave your therapist vs. when to work to save the relationship?
25:00 – Practically, how to find a psychologist in Australia?
29:00 – How to support a friend/family member who we think needs to see someone?
In this episode I speak with Norm Farb, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and Principal Investigator of the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics Lab.
Dr. Farb studies the neuroscience of the self and emotion with a focus on how cognitive biases shape the emotional reactions that influence well-being, and how these biases and emotional reactions are affected by cognitive training practices such as mindfulness meditation.
He has led several influential studies on the mechanisms of mindfulness training and depression vulnerability, highlighting that resilience against depression stems more from the growth of mindfulness-related skills, such as interoceptive awareness, than the eradication of residual depressive symptoms.
Show Notes
1:30 – How did Norm come to focus on the role of interoception in mindfulness, a practice so often described in cognitive terms (such as quietening the mind).
6:35 – On whether the interoceptive and default mode networks are anti-correlated
10:00 – Does mindfulness enhance your ability to perceive interoceptive signals from the body?
13:15 – How the experiential and narrative modes relate to depression
24:50 – How do people relate to the signals from within their body in a way that supports their wellbeing?
32:00 – How does the interoceptive way of looking at mindfulness relate to the positive effects of mindfulness in healthy populations?
40:00 – Are there any cultural factors that might be shaping our balance between narrative and experiential modes?
46:00 – Is there research on interoception and intuition?
48:20 – What is coming up next for Norm?
53:10 – Advice for students
1:30 – How did Norm come to focus on the role of interoception in mindfulness, a practice so often described in cognitive terms (such as quietening the mind).
Norm started thinking that meditation would be a process of quieting the self, and expected to see reduced activity in the brain regions associated with self-referential thought (regions now identified as part of the default mode network). What he instead found, was greater activation in regions responsible for sensory processing. And so, following the data, he came to see that rather than quietening the self-related brain regions, meditation enhances the ability to access other modes of self-knowledge that aren’t about conceptual self-evaluation. This finding came to make good sense when Norm later started meditating himself, and realised that at least in the early stages, that meditation is a sensory awareness practice with the instructions centred on sensations and the body.
6:35 – On whether the interoceptive and default mode networks are anti-correlated
At least in young adults, there is an opponency between task-focused and default-mode networks. However, this may not be the case for everyone. More importantly, however, the interoceptive network is not a task-focused network in the conventional sense; it doesn’t use the same parts of the brain that we use to make judgements or manipulate information from the external world.
10:00 – Does mindfulness enhance your ability to perceive interoceptive signals from the body?
No, mindfulness does not seem to make people ‘super sensors’, just as a concert pianist isn’t able to hear quieter sounds than other people. Instead, the concert pianist does more with, or gets more information, sounds. Similarly, mindfulness training seems support people become more in the habit of using information from the body. In the brain, we see that mindfulness increases the integration of interoceptive signals into overall evaluative parts of the brain (e.g. the anterior insula), rather than enhancing activity directly in primary representers (i.e. posterior insula) of what’s happening in the body. And the connection between interoceptive and evaluative parts of the brain is strengthened.
13:15 – How the experiential and narrative modes relate to depression
While the first episode of depression usually relates to some adverse circumstances, people can fall into mental habits that make them vulnerable to future episodes of depression. Where this is true, recurrent depression can be seen as a product of an overly rigid negative set of interpretations that are applied to a variety of events in life. But in depression, people also tend to suppress new sensory processing once they become sad. The more people suppress signals from the body, the more likely they are to experience relapses into depression.
So we see the opposite pattern activity from mindfulness: in depression there is a suppression of bodily signals and a dominance of conceptual-evaluative activity while in mindfulness there is greater integration of bodily signals relative to conceptual-evaluative judgements. From this perspective, mindfulness facilitates the opening to new (sensory) information that may serve to challenge the entrenched, negative mental patterns of depression. This opening to different information, contrasts with CBT where you challenge and restructure negative evaluations directly.
24:50 – How do people relate to the signals from within their body in a way that supports their wellbeing?
While depression relapse may be associated with the suppression of interoceptive signals following a negative cue induction, just paying more attention to interoceptive signals isn’t always associated with better outcomes. For example, interoceptive signals may be interpreted in a catastrophising manner in panic disorders. So it is a matter of relating to interoceptive signals differently, rather than just boosting them.
To start relating to interoceptive signals differently, people shouldn’t start by trying to focus on their body in the most unpleasant, triggering or patterned situations. Instead they should start small, in safe, pleasant situations and get in the habit of relating to your body differently. Once you are in the habit of relating to your body in an open, curious way, you can slowly progress to more unpleasant, triggering or patterned situations.
32:00 – How does the interoceptive way of looking at mindfulness relate to the positive effects of mindfulness in healthy populations?
Mindfulness can lead to a greater feeling of agency and presence, both of which are thought to be related to interoceptive signals. Strengthening of concentration is also likely to be a mechanism of beneficial effects.
Additionally, mindfulness can help us see the patterns in our thinking, feeling, and behaviour which we all have, but often become blind to. Seeing these habits better gives us the chance to evaluate them, and decide to change it if it doesn’t serve us.
40:00 – Are there any cultural factors that might be shaping our balance between narrative and experiential modes?
Our education system is all about moving into the conceptual and elaborative way of relating to experience. The complexity of identity in our modern cosmopolitan world also demands ready intricate narratives about who we are.
46:00 – Is there research on interoception and intuition?
Norm has been developing a lot of behavioural tasks that can be run online that can test aspects of contemplative training (for example, tasks that can measure how stable someone’s attention is) and how these aspects are applied (for example, people’s emotion regulation tendencies).
53:10 – Advice for students
Early on, there should be a decision made around whether you want your role to be someone who pushes the frontier vs. consolidate and clarify things that have already started to be discovered. Norm has always been somewhat of a maverick choosing things that are interested to him, rather than making choices that are safer in terms of leading to jobs.
If you are interested in being someone that pushes the frontier, it can be helpful to think about applying the principles leading scientists are using in other fields to your field of interest.
Norm also recommends people look into Open Science. Especially in the contemplative science field, the rigour demanded by Open Science is a useful way to distinguish yourself.
Today we speak with Professor Robert Krueger, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Hathaway Distinguished Professor, and the Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. Professor Krueger’s work spans the fields of personality and personality disorders, psychometrics, and genetics, and is centred on developing an empirically-based system of grouping and delineating psychopathology.
This is a topic that I think is important to the way we think about mental health and conduct research into it. And I couldn’t hope to have to have a more qualified guest to discuss the topic with. Professor Krueger was a member of the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Work group, and is an architect of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology a new, dimensional classification system of psychiatric problems.
Show Notes
1:20 – On Robert’s background
2:55 – On the problems associated with the DSM diagnostic procedure
5:05 – How did we end up with the DSM given how readily the associated problems are observed, and given the transdiagnostic approach of early psychotherapists?
8:20 – On the pendulum swinging back the other way now.
11:50 – An outline of the HiTOP (Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology) approach to diagnosis and categorisation.
17:20 – On why traditional categorical diagnoses appear in the HiTOP?
22:25 – On the similarities and differences of Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)
26:40 – On other approaches to deriving an empirically derived nosology, apart from HiTOP and RDoC.
28:55 – Will the shift to an empirically derived nosology be a big change for clinicians?
33:20 – Thinking about an example involving multiple diagnoses, from a HiTOP perspective.
37:15 – Does the move toward an empirically derived nosology have any implications for debates around the over-pathologising of normal human experience?
41:00 – What advice does he have for students?
2:00 – On Robert’s background
Robert was trained as a clinical psychologist, obtaining a PhD in clinical psychology. His interest in diagnosis and categorisation goes back to early experiences struggling to apply the standard diagnoses to his clients.
2:55 – On the problems associated with the DSM diagnostic procedure
Under the DSM, diagnoses are made when someone meets a certain threshold of diagnostic criteria from a list of diagnostic criteria. Under this system there can be considerable heterogeneity within categories (people with different symptoms receiving the same diagnosis). Similarly, people tend to meet the criteria for more than just a single diagnoses. This is known as the co-morbidity problem, and limits the usefulness of a diagnosis for planning appropriate treatments.
5:05 – How did we end up with the DSM given how readily the associated problems are observed, and given the transdiagnostic approach of early psychotherapists?
DSM-3, published in 1980, was a significant turning point. Earlier editions of the DSM had only descriptive paragraphs instead of well delineated criteria sets (which was also problematic). It is only by doing research with such criteria sets that their problems clearly emerge.
8:20 – On the pendulum swinging back the other way now.
Robert identifies the main reasons why people in the research community are supportive of a move to a more empirical diagnostic system as due to the disappointing search for biomarkers of psychiatric conditions. For clinicians, it is the lack of informativeness of a diagnosis for planning appropriate treatments.
11:50 – An outline of the HiTOP (Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology) approach to diagnosis and categorisation.
HiTOP is an effort to follow the evidence of how the symptoms associated with psychiatric conditions are organised. The resulting view is one where people’s experience is seen to fall along different dimensions, rather than in clearly different categories. The dimensions are considered to be organised hierarchies from signs and symptoms at the lowest level to a general psychopathology factor at the highest level.
17:20 – On why traditional categorical diagnoses appear in the HiTOP?
The presence of traditional categorical diagnoses in HiTOP, such as Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder, partially reflects that fact that most research has been done along the line of such categories. However they are also intended to help with the transition from the current approach to an empirical approach.
In time, the use of such diagnoses may fall away if such a change was supported by the evidence.
22:25 – On the similarities and differences of Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)
The RDoC project is an initiative being developed by US National Institute of Mental Health. It was initiated in response to the same dissatisfactions with the DSM criteria that motivated HiTOP. However, in comparison with HiTOP, RDoC is more focused on biological mechanisms and makes less concessions to ensure continuity and an easy transition from the current approach.
RDoC and HiTOP should be seen less as competing approaches, and more as complementary approaches that will dialogue and converge on a consensus conception of psychopathology.
26:40 – On other approaches to deriving an empirically derived nosology, apart from HiTOP and RDoC.
There are a variety of approaches currently being explored with the hope of deriving an empirically derived nosology. Network approaches focus on the relationship between different symptoms. A key difference between network approaches and HiTOP is that network approaches don’t give much focus to higher levels of the hierarchy proposed by HiTOP.
28:55 – Will the shift to an empirically derived nosology be a big change for clinicians?
In some ways, especially around record-keeping and insurance, the move to a HiTOP-type system may require significant changed. But in terms of how they think about and approach treatment, clinicians may already operate in a way that is consistent with a HiTOP-type system. For example, they may often forego a formal diagnostic assessment as they consider it to have little clinical utility. Instead, they may think about their client’s difficulties in broader terms than DSM-5 labels, something like the HiTOP spectra (internalising, externalising and thought disorders).
33:20 – Thinking about an example involving multiple diagnoses, from a HiTOP perspective.
The example involved a case where a person presents with symptoms of anxiety, depression and substance-use disorder. There is little difference in the way one would approach treatment (again, testament to the fact that most clinicians don’t use DSM-5 diagnoses to guide treatment). However, a notable opportunity that comes from thinking in a HiTOP-consistent way, is to identify processes that are relevant to a number of diagnostic categories.
37:15 – Does the move toward an empirically derived nosology have any implications for debates around the over-pathologising of normal human experience?
For one thing, efforts to derive an empirically derived nosology have highlighted that there is no bright line between psychopathology and normal variation. This spectrum-based thinking, instead of categorical thinking, highlights that it is convention that dictates when to intervene, rather than a simple case a disease is present and therefore an intervention is warranted/necessary.
41:00 – What advice does he have for students?
Pursue your passion. This might seem cliche, but for Robert, doing something meaningful and interesting makes it easier to persist through the difficult times.
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Announcements
There is currently an opportunity to volunteer as a research assistant with the Black Dog Institute. They are particularly after volunteers who can visit Walcha and/or Glen Innes (travel costs reimbursed), though opportunities exist in other areas of New South Wales too. The positions will support The Future Proofing Study, which is the largest mental health prevention study ever undertaken in Australia. I spoke with the Chief Investigator of The Future Proofing Study in Episode 10 (https://www.mindstewpodcast.com/e010/). Details of the position can be found here.
Today we speak with Dr. Rebecca Brewer, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Rebecca studies social and emotional abilities across a range of clinical and typical populations, and how interoception (the perception of the internal states of one’s body) is related to these emotional and social abilities.
Interoception is a topic that I’ve been finding fascinating lately. Interoception is important to many processes fundamental to what makes us who we are, from homeostasis to subjective experience itself, from decision making to psychopathology.
In this conversation, we focus particularly on the relation of interoception to psychopathology, an area where Rebecca has done interesting work and proposed big ideas.
Show Notes
1:20 – What is interoception and why study it?
4:25 – On the relevance of interoception to psychopathology.
6:25 – On interoception abnormalities as the p-factor.
9:45 – Does the relationship of interoception abnormalities to psychopathology appear causal?
13:00 – On treatments targeting interoceptive ability.
21:45 – On what Rebecca hopes the next wave of interoception research
26:00 – On the importance of interpretation of interoceptive signals
28:30 – On whether interoception is an area of interest for positive psychology
30:30 – On the focus of upcoming research for Rebecca’s group
39:40 – What Rebecca wishes she new when she was a student.
1:20 – What is interoception and why study it?
Interoception is the perception of signal arising from within the body. Sometimes the definition is widened to include stimuli that share similar neural pathways, such as slow sensuous touch.
Rebecca’s early research focused on ASD and alexythymia (difficulty understanding your own emotions), which led her to interoception.
4:25 – On the relevance of interoception to psychopathology.
Many different clinical populations struggle to understand their own emotions. Additionally, it seems linked to other disorders unrelated to emotional recognition, such as eating disorders and substance use disorders.
6:25 – On interoception abnormalities as the p-factor.
The p-factor is idea that there is a single factor that might underlie susceptibility to psychopathology in general, analogous to the g-factor in intelligence. Rebecca did work with Geoff Bird and Jennifer Murphy suggesting that the p-factor might relate to interoception. They suggested this as interoceptive abnormalities have been seen across a very wide range of psychopathologies (including depression, anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, eating disorders, substance use disorders).
9:45 – Does the relationship of interoception abnormalities to psychopathology appear causal?
It’s unclear at this point. In some cases interoception abnormalities can lead to psychopathology, but the relationship is likely bidirectional.
13:00 – On treatments targeting interoceptive ability.
There are different aspects to interoceptive ability. Hugo Critchley and Sarah Garfinkel proposed the following aspects:
Accuracy/sensitivity: your objective ability perceive a particular internal signal. eg. Accuracy in counting heartbeats.
Sensibility: how much do you report noticing and focusing on your internal states.
Metacognitive awareness: Your accuracy of your perception of your interoceptive accuracy/sensitivity.
There are treatments that train both sensibility (focusing more on internal signals) and accuracy. Sensibility can be targeted through mindfulness-based interventions. Accuracy can be targeted by providing external feedback at the same time a an internal signal, most commonly heartbeart.
It is not yet clear whether training heartbeat perception translates to improved perception of other interoceptive signals, and the other psychological processes that involve interoception, such as understanding emotions, empathy, processing risk and reward.
21:45 – On what Rebecca hopes the next wave of interoception research
On of the main things is to develop better tests of interoception. And, of course, larger studies looking at whether altering interoceptive ability changes cognitive functioning and psychopathological symptomatology.
26:00 – On the importance of interpretation of interoceptive signals
Alongside the objective accuracy one’s ability to perceive interoceptive signals, the interpretation of perceived signals is important. Interoceptive signals can be over-interpreted, as in the case of someone with anxiety who might think that they are having a heart attack when it is really just a slight increase in their heart rate, or under-interpreted, as in the case of those with alexythymia who tend to report heart attacks too late.
28:30 – On whether interoception is an area of interest for positive psychology
There have been some studies on non-clinical populations, looking at for example the relation between interoceptive ability and decision making. However, the majority of the work is clinically focused.
30:30 – On the focus of upcoming research for Rebecca’s group
One thing that Rebecca’s group will be looking at the link between interoception and social perception. For example, does your ability to perceive whether you are tired correlate with your ability to perceive if someone else is tired. This work could inform interpersonal interactions in medical and care-based professions, and any work where empathy is important.
39:40 – What Rebecca wishes she new when she was a student.
Rebecca wishes she new how much freedom and flexibility academia provides, both in terms of collaborators and research areas. Also, that not every piece of work needs to entail a groundbreaking idea. And that she had a better understanding of the publication process.
Today we speak with Dr. Aliza Werner-Seidler, a Clinical Psychologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute, affiliated with the University of New South Wales. Aliza works on the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety disorders, particularly via school-based and digitally delivered, evidence-based programs. She is currently the Chief Investigator of the largest preventative program of anxiety and depression run in Australia, a randomised controlled trial involving 20,000 young people across 400 schools.
Prevention is an emerging and understudied area of mental health, but one with the potential to save huge amounts of suffering and make a significant contribution to the alleviation of the economic burden of mental health disorders facing the modern world.
In this conversation, Aliza provides outlines the work that she is leading at the Black Dog Institute and gives an overview of the field of preventative and early intervention approaches to mental health care.
Show Notes
0:55 – On the history of preventative and early intervention programs, and the reasons increasing interest in them
2:45 – Do preventative and early intervention programs actually reduce the incidence of mental health issues or reduce their severity?
5:05 – What do we know about matching people with different sorts of preventative and early intervention programs?
6:50 – Challenges that preventative programs face, beyond being a young field
7:45 – On what a typical universal prevention program looks like.
11:35 – On the relation between mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention.
13:35 – What is happening at the moment in terms of pilot programs?
18:10 – What content is typical of a universal program aimed at preventing depression and anxiety?
21:00 – What is the attitude of schools toward preventative programs?
26:05 – On the goals of the Future Proofing study Aliza is currently leading
27:45 – How do we prevent less common mental health challenges, such as psychotic disorders.
32:15 – What do the economics of preventative mental health programs look like?
39:10 – What must be considered around “critical windows”?
43:25 – Early life trauma and preventative programs
44:50 – How to learn more about the field of prevention
47:45 – Opportunities to get involved in the field, and the work at the Black Dog Institute.
50:10 – On disorders which preventative approaches don’t seem to be effective for.
0:55 – On the history of preventative and early intervention programs, and the reasons increasing interest in them
The increasing interest in preventative and early intervention programs was catalysed by a statement from a taskforce of the Institute of Medicine in 1994 on disease prevention. Additionally, interest has been fuelled by growing recognition that the high rates of common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, must be addressed with not only treatment but preventative efforts.
2:45 – Do preventative and early intervention programs actually reduce the incidence of mental health issues or reduce their severity?
In short, both. But it is worth differentiating between different sorts of programs.
Universal prevention programs are delivered to an unselected group (eg. an entire school or workforce). Universal programs have been shown to reduce the incidence of mental health problems.
Selective intervention programs are delivered to people on the basis of the presence of some risk factor.
Indicated prevention programs are delivered to people who display symptoms of a disorder but don’t yet meet clinical criteria.
Early intervention, which has some overlap with indicated prevention programs, but is also used to refer to programs that have experienced their first episode of a mental health disorder.
In school, universal programs, can be expected to reduce the incidence of depression by ~20% in the 2 years after the program. How this translates to later outcomes is unknown.
5:05 – What do we know about matching people with different sorts of preventative and early intervention programs?
As the field is still quite young, most meta-analyses lump all preventative and early intervention programs in together without differentiating between them. One factor to consider when comparing programs is that the very low symptom levels displayed by the recipients of universal prevention programs (ie. healthy populations) result in a floor effect, and hence indicated prevention programs typically appear more effective.
6:50 – Challenges that preventative programs face, beyond being a young field
A key challenge is motivating people to engage in preventative exercises if they don’t have any symptoms or risk factors. This is particularly challenging given the audience is children and adolescents and a challenge the field is yet to solve.
7:45 – On what a typical universal prevention program looks like.
Typically universal prevention programs will resemble a CBT course that has been adapted from being part of a treatment program. The skills taught are the same as a treatment course, and often the scenarios used in the program are the same. There are other non-CBT prevention programs, such as interpersonal psychotherapy programs, mindfulness programs, yoga and exercise programs, but CBT programs have been studies the most and (therefore?) have the most evidence to support them. Overwhelmingly, these programs are delivered to children in school. Due to cost considerations, digital programs are being increasingly explored, however engagement is even more of a challenge with digital programs.
11:35 – On the relation between mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention.
Mental health promotion often aims to increase help-seeking behaviours and increase people’s knowledge about mental health problems. Preventative programs tend to be more skills-based. So the two are distinct, but with significant overlap.
13:35 – What is happening at the moment in terms of pilot programs?
At the moment, the program designers are focused on building engagement by learning from the gaming community and increasingly involving young people. There is also room for improvement with selling these programs in to schools: stigma and a preference for a positive-focus continue to be challenges. Consequently, Aliza is; (a) targeting the angle of poor sleep, as a risk factor and an angle to increase engagement, and (b) seeking to understand how psychological skills can be incorporated into PDHPE classes.
18:10 – What content is typical of a universal program aimed at preventing depression and anxiety?
Most programs are based on a modified CBT approach. They contain psycho-education, relaxation techniques, thought challenging and restructuring, behavioural activation and for anxiety, some sort of exposure therapy. Aliza would ideally like to see modules on interpersonal relationships, sleep, well-being promoting practices (such as exercise and time outdoors) and also something on less-common psychotic disorders.
21:00 – What is the attitude of schools toward preventative programs?
The state government’s education department and other peak bodies are very much on board with preventative programs. And although individual schools are varied in their enthusiasm for preventative programs, there is enough support that the largest digital mental health prevention trial ever attempted is underway.
26:05 – On the goals of the Future Proofing study Aliza is currently leading
The Future Proofing study is looking at how to scale up and implement digital preventative programs. In part this involves looking for patterns in how engagement and outcomes vary, with a focus at school-level differences and how to increase student engagement.
27:45 – How do we prevent less common mental health challenges, such as psychotic disorders.
Screening is a key approach to helping prevent less common mental health challenges, and Aliza sees a place for universal screening. Alternatively, it might be considered that less common disorders are better suited to an early intervention approach rather than a preventative approach. This second position, is supported by the difficulty in predicting who will suffer a mental health disorder even if we can screen for risk factors. In other instances, we can sensibly target high risk groups, such as those with particular personality traits or adults who have recently been diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses associated with risk of depression and anxiety. Ultimately, it depends…
32:15 – What do the economics of preventative mental health programs look like?
Prevention programs, and especially digitally-delivered prevention programs, are likely to have very favourable economics, especially once lost productivity, the recurrent nature of common mental health disorders and other social outcomes are considered. This is evidenced by, for example, the work of Pim Cuijpers in the Netherlands But at this stage, a lack of long-term follow up studies in Australia, limits what we can say with precision and confidence. Hence, vision is required at a policy level.
39:10 – What must be considered around “critical windows”?
This is still being teased apart, but the jump in mental health difficulties seen among 16-17 year olds, compared to 11-15 year olds, suggest a critical window during adolescence. There is also demand from schools for programs for younger children.
43:25 – Early life trauma and preventative programs
Preventative programs aren’t intended to treat the effects of early life trauma. Preventative programs could be an adjunct to but not a replacement for other therapy for trauma.
44:50 – How to learn more about the field of prevention
47:45 – Opportunities to get involved in the field, and the work at the Black Dog Institute.
The Future Proofing Study will be supported by a team of volunteer research assistants who will support school visits. The next wave of volunteer research assistants will be recruited our next year. If this is something you are interested in, please keep an eye on the Black Dog website closer to the end of the year. Also, the Black Dog Institute, in association with the University of New South Wales, offers a number of PhD scholarships.
50:10 – On disorders which preventative approaches don’t seem to be effective for.
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Episode References
The 1994 report from the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Prevention of Mental Disorders
Blackdog’s preventative, digitally-delivered Future Proofing Study, involving 20,000 high school students.
Today we speak with Dr. Maria Kangas, Associate Professor of Macquarie University’s Centre for Emotional Health.
Maria is a registered psychologist with dual endorsements from the Psychology Board of Australia in Clinical and Counselling Psychology. Maria is also Director of the Clinical Psychology program at Macquarie University. Her research has focussed on coping strategies and emotional regulation relating to stress/PTSD, anxiety and mood disturbances in trauma and medical (e.g., cancer) populations, across the lifespan.
*Please accept my apologies for the recording quality. There are a number of moments where a faulty internet connection has undermined our VOIP program and resulted in a recording that was clipped in a few places.
