Workshop 12 - The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents: An Introductory Workshop

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A) is a modular, core-dysfunction focused intervention that can be used flexibly with a range of emotional disorders, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and their common comorbid presentations. The UP-A includes cognitive behavioral strategies, including emotion education and awareness, flexible thinking, problem-solving, and interoceptive and situational exposures, and mindfulness strategies to address emotional disorder symptoms, emotional distress, and related impairment. The UP-A primarily aims to reduce avoidance of strong emotions by addressing maladaptive behaviors, across disorders, that contribute to a negative reinforcement cycle and therefore maintain symptoms. Parent-related factors (e.g., overprotection, criticism, modeling) are also addressed. This workshop will provide an introduction to the UP-A, including a review of the rationale for treatment, case formulation, and clinical content review. Didactic review of clinical strategies will be supplemented by behavioral role plays, experiential practice, and video review. The workshop will emphasize how to best tailor these strategies to varying client presentations, including culturally-responsive modifications, and treatment length, implement the modules flexibly, and use the UP-A to optimize and personalize treatment outcomes. Highlights from the upcoming UP-C/UP-A 2.0 will also be presented.

Outline:
• Briefly review the empirical support for the UP-A, including the support for different clinical presentations
• Orient participants to UP-A materials
• Review the UP-A treatment model case conceptualization.
o Transdiagnostic approach
o Define and describe neuroticism.
 Neuroticism: pattern or temperament that is present from an early age.
 Individuals high in neuroticism experience high levels of negative emotions more frequently than others, become distressed, anxious, and uncomfortable, and take actions to suppress, avoid, escape, distract from, or otherwise control these feelings in effort to relieve oneself from distress.
o Review the cycle of negative reinforcement associated with emotional behaviors.
 When faced with a trigger, clients engage in emotional disorders, which results in short-term relief, but in the long-term, may get them into trouble, cause them to miss out on things, makes things more difficult for them, and prevents them from seeing what may have happened if they did not engage in that emotional behavior. Because the emotional behaviors provide relief, they are negatively reinforced, thus creating a cycle of behaviors.
o Illustrate how to apply the case conceptualization to various clinical presentations.
 Present how the treatment model applies to comorbid anxiety and depression.
 Present the Cycle of Angry behaviors.
 Present a case conceptualization of OCD.
• Describe the eight modules of the UP-A and their strategies/goals.
o Module 1: Building and Keeping Motivation
o Module 2: Getting to Know Your Emotions and Behaviors
o Module 3: Introduction to Emotion-Focused Behavioral Experiments
o Module 4: Awareness of Physical Sensations
o Module 5: Being Flexible in Your Thinking
o Module 6: Awareness of Emotional Experiences
o Module 7: Situational Emotion Exposure
o Module 8: Reviewing Accomplishments and Looking Ahead
o Module P: Parenting the Emotional Adolescent
• Demonstrate UP-A concepts and strategies using video of role-plays, participant role-plays, and live demonstration, as time permits
• Present UP-A content related to parent factors.
• Present UP-A tailoring and modification strategies
o How to shorten UP-A and prioritize modules
o Culturally responsive modifications
o Personalizing the ordering of modules
• Coming soon: UP-A 2.0
o Review considerations for a new edition of the manual
 Reducing and streamlining worksheets
 Beginning exposures sooner in treatment
 Expanding Module P<br>