Person-centred/experiential approaches to social anxiety: initial outcome results

Elliott, Robert (2009) Person-centred/experiential approaches to social anxiety: initial outcome results. In: 40th International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, 2009-06-24 - 2009-06-27. (Unpublished) (http://www.psychotherapyresearch.org/associations/...)

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Abstract

Good evidence exists for the effectiveness of person-centred/experiential (PCE) therapies with clients experiencing depression and post-trauma difficulties; however, evidence for its effectiveness with anxiety problems is much more sparse. Social anxiety (or social phobia) is a chronic, debilitating condition with wide-ranging effects of a person's interpersonal, occupational and psychological functioning. Almost all previous research on social anxiety has been carried out on CBT and psychopharmacological interventions. The purpose of this presentation is to present pilot study quantitative results on the outcome of Person-Centred/Experiential (PCE) therapy for clients with social anxiety. Method. Using a naturalistic pre-post design (open clinical trial), we assessed client functioning quantitatively on the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), CORE-Outcome Measure, Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, and Personal Questionnaire, among others. Clients were recruited from various local sources.Results: Pre-post data from our first ten clients will be presented, including pre-post significance tests,effect size, and reliable change and clinical significance calculations. Overall, clients showed substantial pre-post gains.Discussion: Limitations of this pilot study include the small sample size, client self-selection bias, reactivity of study instruments, and possible researcher allegiance effects.Nevertheless, to our knowledge, this is the first study of the application of an bona fide PCE therapy with social anxiety, and should provide a basis for larger and more controlled studies. Our results are promising and begin to provide justification for using PCE therapies for social anxiety.

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