• 9th World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies Berlin 2019 12 July 2019 In July, Bronwyn Raykos and Peter McEvoy from the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) travelled to Berlin to present talks at the World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (WCBCT).  Over 4,000 international delegates attended the conference and it was a privilege to listen to the world’s leading experts in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) discussing cutting edge research and advances in CBT for psychological disorders.  Highlights of the conference included excellent papers on the use of mental imagery to enhance outcomes in CBT across a range of psychological problems; the use of exposure-based techniques and learning principles to maximise the effectiveness of CBT interventions and reduce relapse, and a consideration of techniques that are effective in improving outcomes for individuals across a range of psychological problems (such as the use of mental imagery, addressing perfectionism, increasing experience of positive emotions, and metacognitive...
  • Support and Skill Building Groups for Friends and Family Members at CCI 04 July 2019 Here at the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) we are conscious that anyone who provides care and support to a partner, relative, or friend while they are experiencing a mental health problem plays a really important role in providing emotional and practical support to their loved one. We are keen to help people learn how they can best support their loved ones. At CCI we offer Support and Skill-Building Groups for people who have a loved one who has an Eating Disorders and also for people who have a loved one with Bipolar Disorder. These interactive groups provide information about the disorders and give participants an opportunity to share their personal experiences of supporting a person with a mental health problem, as well as providing the opportunity for participants to learn helpful skills and strategies relating to their support role. We have found that these brief groups have a big impact, and that people report feeling less burdened as well as more skilled, knowledgeable,...
  • A Trial of 10 Session Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Eating Disorders at CCI 02 June 2019 To celebrate World Eating Disorders Action Day on June 2nd 2019, we share some recent innovations developed within our own Eating Disorders Program. There are currently long waitlists to access evidence-based interventions for eating disorders.  This has resulted in an increased need for shorter, cost-effective psychological therapies that are also effective to ease the burden on the healthcare system and ensure that individuals can access appropriate treatment more quickly.  Professor Glenn Waller and colleagues at the University of Sheffield recently developed 10-session Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for eating disorders – an outpatient treatment that adopts some of the key elements of CBT for eating disorders (CBT-ED) such as in-session weighing, exposure, nutrition, cognitive restructuring, body image work, and relapse prevention. Initial evaluations of CBT-T have shown it to be as effective as longer treatments for eating disorders, and that it changes to both b...
  • Visiting Professionals... Opportunities for Learning and Collaboration 17 April 2019 Here at CCI we are continually looking at innovations in the field of psychology and ways we might be able to improve our practice, collaborate with other professionals, or contribute to advances in psychological interventions. In early April 2019, the team at CCI were fortunate to meet with Professor Bethany Teachman from the University of Virginia to discuss her work in the area of cognitive bias modification and learn more about the MindTrails Project. Professor Teachman works at the University of Virginia Program for Anxiety, Cognition and Treatment (PACT) lab, where she studies cognitive processes that contribute to the development and maintenance of psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders. The lab has a particular focus on automatic cognitive processing, and trying to understand how thoughts that occur outside of our awareness or conscious control contribute to emotional dysregulation. Professor Teachman invited CCI staff to provide feedback around how cognitive biasing...
  • New Training Workshop CBT for Body Dysmorphic Disorder 28 February 2019 In 2018 CCI was pleased to introduce a new training workshop to its training series that specifically focuses on CBT for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Given the positive feedback we received from participants at this training, we will be offering this workshop again this year on May 22nd from 9:00 – 4:30pm (for more details on the workshop, and to download the registration form, please see the Training section of our website). BDD affects 1-2 % of the general population, but prevalence rates can be as high as 6-7% in psychiatric settings. The appearance-related preoccupations and behaviours (e.g. mirror-checking, grooming) of individuals with BDD far exceed the physical appearance concerns experienced by most people from time to time. BDD commonly co-occurs with disorders such as depression and social anxiety disorder, and individuals with eating disorders may also report appearance concerns that meet criteria for a comorbid diagnosis of BDD. While attempts to r...
  • CCI Founding Director Awarded Officer of The Order of Australia 11 February 2019 Late last year, CCI’s founding director Paula Nathan was awarded the Office of the Order of Australia (AO) on the 2018 Queen’s Birthday List.  Paula was recognised for her distinguished service to community health as a psychologist, particularly to understanding mental health disorders, and to establishing specialised treatment and support services. Motivated by humanist and social justice values, Paula developed CCI to provide expert specialist psychological interventions for patients suffering from complex affective disorders and anxiety disorders.  In 2005, WA’s first adult and youth eating disorders service was established within CCI.  Strongly grounded in the scientist-practitioner model, CCI provides WA consumers with access to high quality, evidence-based psychological treatment, and continually works to improve treatments through an ongoing dialogue between clinical practice and a strong program of applied clinical research.  CCI has made a...
  • 2019 Training Calendar 03 December 2018 Every year, the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) offers a series of clinically relevant and practical workshops in evidence based psychological therapy.  From the beginning therapist to the experienced clinician, the workshop series designed by the CCI team each year aims to provide a range of training experiences to extend participants’ understanding and clinical practice. We are pleased to present our training calendar for 2019 - in this coming year, we hope to continue sharing the most up-to-date, evidence-based approaches in working with specific clinical issues, including eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, social anxiety disorder, low self-esteem, and procrastination. Several of these workshops will require experience in using CBT; however, our introductory CBT Foundation workshop is suitable for mental health practitioners with no previous experience of CBT, and provides a good basis for completing other CCI workshops. For further information on our tra...
  • WA Health Excellence Awards Finalists 01 November 2018 We are delighted that two CCI projects have been selected as finalists in the Western Australian Health Excellence Awards. Our Family Based Therapy (FBT) program is being recognised for improving out of hospital healthcare for young people with eating disorders. CCI has made changes to ensure that young people and their families can access FBT quickly. This has presented some challenges for our service, due to the high demand for this treatment and the small number of clinicians working in this program. The hard work involved in reducing wait times for families is paying off. Preliminary results from our program are showing that when families access FBT sooner, they are more likely to complete treatment, and achieve better outcomes sooner. We are honoured to be selected as a finalist for this award, and particularly congratulate our FBT clinicians. For the last few years, CCI has been running support and skills building evenings for people with a loved one who has an eating disorder,...
  • National Carers Week 10 October 2018 Carers are being recognised during National Carers Week from the 14th – 20th October. Carers play a unique and important role in supporting people who are experiencing mental health problems. If you have a loved one who is engaging in treatment at CCI, we would firstly like to say thank you! We appreciate the role you play in supporting your loved one as they engage in treatment. You may find it helpful to read our ‘Information for Carers’ brochure, which provides some information about what you can expect, and how you can support your loved one as they undertake the challenges involved with treatment. Equipping yourself with information can help you provide support to your loved one who is dealing with a mental health problem. The CCI website has free resources that can help you learn more about various mental health problems and helpful coping strategies. CCI also runs free information evenings for family and friends of people with an Eating Disorder, or with...
  • Body Image Awareness Week 10 September 2018 Body Image and Awareness Week ran from the 1st to the 8th September.  It aims to raise awareness of eating disorders, which are a life-threatening illness.  It also takes the opportunity to celebrate our bodies – unique, diverse, strong, and beautiful.  A range of wonderful resources have been developed to assist with these goals.  So what can you do to be part of the conversation? For further information about eating disorders and their treatment, check out the huge range of resources available for consumers and professionals on the CCI website, including our handouts on “Body Image and Body Dissatisfaction” and “Media and Body Image”. As part of Body Image Awareness Week, Dr Bronwyn Raykos from CCI, attended the Inspiration Evening held at the Perth Children’s Hospital.  This was a wonderful opportunity to hear stories from individuals who have a lived experience of an eating disorder share their inspiring stories of reco...
  • Welcome to our new website 15 August 2018 We are very pleased to present our recently upgraded website. Over the years we have been busy developing resources for use in our clinical work when treating people who come to our service for assistance with anxiety, depressive and eating disorders. About 15 years ago we were fortunate to receive a grant which allowed us to develop our original website and make our resources available to consumers and clinicians around the world. Over this time, our website has become incredibly popular and we are pleased that our resources have been so helpful to so many (thanks to everyone who has provided feedback over the years!). The website has also allowed us to promote and provide information about our training program and to highlight our research activities. We have now had the opportunity to upgrade the site, which allows us to reorganise the content and take advantage of many features to make accessing the site easier. All of our resources are still available on this site, and we hope it...
  • Updated handouts for eating disorders 10 August 2018 One of the core areas of CCI’s business is the creation of freely available online resources that are accessible to both consumers and professionals. These include a range of guided self-help modules, as well as many information sheets covering a wide range of topics relating to mental health. These online resources are regularly accessed by people all over the world, and we are fortunate to frequently receive feedback from individuals and organisations that have used our resources (either for research, clinical practice or their own personal use) and have found them to be clear, accurate, and helpful. During 2017, CCI’s Eating Disorders Program team have been hard at work reviewing each and every one of their handouts, with the support of various experts in the field. This has involved carefully revising the content of each handout to ensure they contain the most up to date evidence-based information that is easy and accessible for both professionals and consumers to read...
  • Treating severe and enduring anorexia 24 July 2018 CCI has been working with Professor Glenn Waller from the University of Sheffield to assess whether people with more severe or enduring anorexia nervosa have poorer outcomes with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). We also wanted to know whether people who have struggled with anorexia nervosa for longer are less likely to complete CBT treatment. We studied 134 people with anorexia nervosa who completed measures of eating disorder symptoms and quality of life before, during, and after treatment. We found that the duration of illness or severity of anorexia nervosa behaviours, attitudes or weight were not associated with treatment completion or outcomes in CBT. This study shows that individuals with more severe or long-standing anorexia nervosa did just as well in CBT as any other patient starting treatment. These findings offer hope for patients who have struggled with anorexia nervosa illness for a long time they have just as much chance of doing well in CBT as any other individual...
  • Social anxiety disorder treatment trial 19 July 2018 CCI is currently conducting an NHMRC-funded randomised controlled trial comparing two group treatment protocols for social anxiety disorder (SAD). The trial was funded from 2016-2019 with the aim of providing treatment to around 100 clients with a principal diagnosis of SAD. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common anxiety disorders, with an estimated 8.4% of Australian adults affected at some point in their life. People with SAD are highly fearful of evaluation, often expecting themselves to fall far short of others’ expectations. Situations such as parties, meetings, presentations, job interviews, and just being observed by others can be extremely anxiety-provoking for people with SAD. Because social situations cannot be easily avoided, SAD can be highly distressing, debilitating, and chronic without treatment. To date, over 90 people have been assessed and 60 have been randomised to a treatment condition. After they complete the 12-week group program all cl...