Despite the success of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), a sizable subgroup of patients fails to achieve an acute and enduring treatment response. Patients with “distress disorders” (including generalized anxiety disorder & major depressive disorder, especially when they co-occur) and individuals in distressing contexts (i.e., COVID-19 pandemic, familial caregiving), fail to make sufficient treatment gains thereby prolonging their deficits in life functioning and satisfaction. Using this hypothesized profile as a framework, Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) integrates principles from traditional and contemporary CBT with basic and translational findings from affective science to offer a blueprint for improving clinical response by focusing on the motivational responses and corresponding regulatory characteristics of individuals with distress disorders.

This program will begin by offering a concise overview of ERT findings from our 9 published and on-going clinical trial both in terms of clinical improvement as well as findings supporting the neurobehavioral model undergirding ERT. Attendees will also receive an introduction to the ERT approach to case formulation and the treatment principles developed and utilize. Attendees will learn to help clients to 1) expand their understanding of anxiety and depression using a motivational and emotion regulation perspective; 2) cultivate mindful awareness and acceptance of sensations, bodily, responses, and conflicting emotions; 3) develop emotion regulation skills that promote a distanced and reframed meta-cognitive perspective; 4) apply these skills during emotion-based exposure to meaningful behavioral actions and associated internal conflicts to taking these actions; and 5) build a plan to maintain gains and take bolder action despite the ending of the therapeutic relationship.