Brad Desmond
University of Melbourne, Australia
Title: Harnessing both patient and practitioner strengths in the work of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: The ‘dance’ of respective resources.
Biography
Biography: Brad Desmond
Abstract
The central objective of CBT remains helping people identify dysfunctional cognitions and acquiring skills to change them. And while there are varied approaches to CBT, most treatment protocols tend to be prescribed uniformly across patient cohorts. More recently Positive Psychology has opened more scope for tailoring CBT techniques to individual patients as informed by prior assessments of the patient’s strengths. For example Flückiger & Grosse Holtforth (2008) found when practitioners spent five minutes reviewing a patient’s strengths immediately prior to sessions there were improvements in therapeutic alliance and outcomes. Moreover; further to involving the patient’s strengths in CBT, this presentation will argue the next, logical progression is for greater involvement of the practitioner’s own personal strengths in the work of therapy. In the first instance this is intended to enhance the therapeutic alliance through deeper authenticity and congruence. There are also the benefits of practitioner resilience and the experience of ‘flow’ as documented elsewhere in the Positive Psychology literature. This presentation will draw from research and case studies to illustrate the ‘dance’ between the respective strengths of the patient and the practitioner, as they work towards deeper therapeutic alliance and better therapeutic outcomes.