Introduction to advanced psychotherapy skills: Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP)

Introduction to advanced psychotherapy skills: Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) is organized by The British Psychological Society (BPS) and will be held on Nov 14, 2019 at British Psychological Society, London, England, United Kingdom.

Target Audience:
Important: This workshop is suitable for clinicians in the fields of psychotherapy, clinical and counselling psychology, psychiatry and allied fields, at all stages of their careers.

No prior knowledge of ISTDP or dynamic psychotherapy is required. However participants must be qualified in mental health or allied fields and registered with a professional body (eg: UKCP, GMC, UKCP, BACP etc.). Trainees in the above fields are also eligible.

Course Description:
An introduction to advanced, effective therapy techniques to regulate anxiety and process unconscious emotion. Important: Participants must be qualified in mental health or allied fields and registered with a professional body.

Practitioners in the UK are increasingly seeking to find cost-effective, long-lasting psychotherapy techniques to alleviate commonly presenting difficulties such as depression, anxiety or medically unexplained symptoms.

There is an emphasis on the importance of evidence-based psychotherapy approaches that are efficient in terms of treatment length.

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a brief-term, emotion-focused therapy which draws on principles of psychodynamic and attachment theory.

The clinical and cost-effectiveness of ISTDP has been extensively researched and the approach has been shown to be effective for a broad spectrum of disorders, including depression, anxiety and somatisation. More than forty published research studies, including RCTs, show ISTDP to be effective for the majority of psychiatric patients with benefits enduring in long-term follow-up (Abbass, 2016).

ISTDP incorporates key common ingredients of interest in psychotherapy today, including:
• the use of video for quality improvement and research,
• systematic assessment and evaluation for treatment,
• active therapist involvement & use of the therapeutic relationship and alliance,
• cognitive restructuring,
• a high degree of emotional engagement
• This approach also incorporates distinctive and highly effective interventions aimed at: monitoring unconscious signalling in the body; rapid handling of defences; and intensifying the somatic experience of emotions.

The former common psychotherapy factors, together with these latter unique components, allow clinicians to promote long-lasting change and to work with a broad range of clients within a shorter time-frame than traditional dynamic psychotherapies.

This introductory workshop will present the evidence base and theory of ISTDP, as well as some of the key techniques, which participants will have the opportunity to see on video and to put into practice in skill building exercises.

Learning Outcomes
• Establishing a therapeutic focus
• Identifying unconscious pathways of anxiety
• Identifying when anxiety regulation is indicated, and techniques for anxiety regulation
• Ability to identify defences which can impede therapeutic progress and to begin to intervene effectively to encourage the patient to turn against these
• Techniques to deepen emotional experiencing