Mindfulness, Group Therapy, and Psychosis

This is a within-group comparison that evaluated mindfulness as a new technique, along with cognitive behavioral therapy in an outpatient group therapy program. All participants were diagnosed with a psychotic spectrum disorder. Additional objectives replicated concepts from earlier works, to evaluate scores on depression and anxiety scales related to distressing psychosis, and to determine if participants’ responses were a mindfulness-based response or an experiential-avoidance response. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, at admission and discharge. The first experiment compared matched scores of those who received mindfulness training plus standard psychiatric treatment (treatment as usual: TAU) against those who received only TAU. The second experiment compared age using matched scores from participants who received mindfulness training plus TAU.The first experiment showed a significant pretest to posttest decrease in anxiety and depression scores in those who received mindfulness training and TAU. A Tukey-Kramer test indicated a statistically significant finding for the GAD-7. Secondary data indicated improvement in skills and the importance of the mindfulness training. The TAU only group showed a significant reduction in depression but not anxiety. In the second experiment, both the older and younger groups showed a significant pretest to posttest decrease in anxiety and depression. The findings have implications for mindfulness training as an effective method for decreasing anxiety and depression in psychosis.

Introductory: This program is for psychologists, other mental health professionals, and students.

Objectives:

1. Describe the process of a with-in group comparison and what results determine for a group therapy setting.
2. Describe how strong emotions such as anxiety and depression can influence hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and other symptoms of psychosis.
3. Describe how practicing mindfulness helps participants learn to identify feelings, thoughts, images, and sensations from a psychosis event and be able to distance themselves from the strong emotions and then choose to respond to the psychosis event in a different way.

This session qualifies for 1 continuing education credit. You must attend the full program to receive continuing education credit.

The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

If you need accommodations to make this event accessible, please notify the MPA office at (952) 928-4657 or info@mnpsych.org.