Contextual Schema Therapy Project

Description

Social anxiety and depression are highly prevalent and comorbid, and this has stirred a quest for
common underlying processes. Self-criticism is a likely candidate, since it is central to both social anxiety and depression, disorders characterized by low self-compassion. Experiential avoidance (i.e., the unwillingness to experience internal events) is a transdiagnostic factor in anxiety and depressive disorders, leading to restricted affect and self-isolation. Self-criticism and experiential avoidance reinforce each other, further leading to symptoms of social anxiety and depression. One unifying approach to target both is contextual schema therapy (CST), a novel development of schema therapy which engages psychological flexibility processes (acceptance, mindfulness, cognitive defusion, self-as-context, values and committed action) in strengthening healthy emotional and behavioral responses to challenging situations (i.e., the Health Adult mode). The COVID-19 pandemic extended the use of online psychological interventions, which eliminate many accessibility barriers. Therefore, our proposal includes two online studies: Study 1, investigating the interplay between self-criticism, experiential avoidance and social anxiety and depression in an experience sampling paradigm, and Study 2, a randomized control trial comparing a short (two sessions) online contextual schema therapy training to psychoeducation for people with symptoms of social anxiety and depression.