Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders

Transdiagnostic treatments are clinical interventions that can be applied across diagnostic categories to address underlying emotional disorder. In this course, David Barlow's Unified Protocol: Transdiagnostic Treatment for Emotional Disorders (UP) will be the foundational transdiagnostic approach taught. The UP incorporates elements of behaviorism from all three waves, including mindfulness, cognitive restructuring, and emotional exposure. The UP can be applied to a range of different disorders and problems that share emotional disfunction as their core (e.g., panic attacks, social anxiety, obsessive thought/compulsions, depressed mood, impulsive behaviors, eating disorders). The overarching goal of the UP is to help patients learn news ways of responding to uncomfortable emotion that reduce symptoms across a patient's range of problems. The course will be highly experiential, including asking students to participate in activities designed to evoke uncomfortable emotions.