Protocol for a randomized controlled trial: exercise-priming of CBT for depression (the CBT+ trial).

Background: Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and treatments could be more effective. Identifying methods to improve treatment success has the potential to reduce disease burden dramatically. Preparing or "priming" someone to respond more effectively to psychotherapy (e.

Therapeutic Groups to Help People Forgive Others: A Case Study.

Most people have been harmed by another at some point in their lives. Many of these hurts linger in the lives of those who were hurt, through anger, fear, and rumination. Forgiving others, when it is safe and prudent to do so, can be one route toward healing these past hurts.

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a theory-informed resistance exercise training single-arm intervention for major depression.

Unlabelled: Many adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not receive effective treatment. The potential benefits of resistance exercise training (RET) are understudied and may be mechanistically related to cerebral blood flow changes.

Purpose: To assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a 16-week, theory-informed RET trial for the treatment of MDD and explore changes in cerebral blood flow.

Associations between forgiveness and physical and mental health in the context of long COVID.

Objective: Forgiveness has been positively associated with health in those with functional disorders. This cross-sectional study examined the relationships among dimensions of forgiveness and physical and mental health in individuals with and without long COVID.

Methods: Adults (N = 4316) in the United States took part in an online survey study detailing long COVID presence, physical and mental health, and trait forgiveness.

Feasibility of an Exercise and CBT Intervention for Treatment of Depression: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Depression (DEP) is prevalent and current treatments are ineffective for many people. This pilot study's purpose was to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and plausible efficacy of an 8-week intervention employing 30 min of prescribed moderate intensity exercise ("ActiveCBT") compared to 30 min of usual activities ("CalmCBT") immediately prior to weekly online CBT sessions. Ten adults with DSM-5-diagnosed current DEP were randomized to groups and completed: an intake assessment, eight weekly CBT sessions, final assessment, and 3-month follow-up.

The effects of group counseling and self-affirmation on stigma and group relationship development: A replication and extension.

The stigma of seeking counseling and negative attitudes about counseling are primary barriers to its use. In the only known study examining the utility of attending a group counseling session to ameliorate stigma (no control group), participation was associated with reductions in self-stigma (Wade et al., 2011).

Examining the Dimensionality, Reliability, and Invariance of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) Across Eight Countries.

This study evaluated the dimensionality, invariance, and reliability of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) within and across Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States ( = 2,580) in college student samples. We used confirmatory factor analyses to compare the fit of four different factor structures of the DASS-21: a unidimensional model, a three-correlated-factors model, a higher order model, and a bifactor model. The bifactor model, with three specific factors (depression, anxiety, and stress) and one general factor (general distress), presented the best fit within each country.

Modeling cohesion change in group counseling: The role of client characteristics, group variables, and leader behaviors.

Despite continued empirical support for a relationship between group cohesion and therapeutic gain, few studies have attempted to examine of cohesion during the life of counseling groups. The present investigation explored the impact of client variables, group characteristics, and first-session leader behaviors on changes in cohesion across time. Participants were 128 volunteer clients and 14 group therapists participating in 23 separate 8-week-long counseling groups.

Self-affirming values to increase student veterans' intentions to seek counseling.

Student veterans experiencing mental health concerns could benefit from seeking counseling (Rudd, Goulding, & Bryan, 2011), though they often avoid these services. Self-affirmation interventions have been developed to increase openness to health-related behaviors (Sherman & Cohen, 2006), and may also help promote psychological help-seeking intentions. This study explored whether a self-affirmation intervention increased intentions to seek counseling in a sample of 74 student veterans who had not previously sought counseling services.

Promoting forgiveness: Characteristics of the treatment, the clients, and their interaction.

Forgiveness-based group treatments to address interpersonal hurts have been shown to be efficacious across a range of therapy models (Wade, Hoyt, Kidwell, & Worthington, 2014). However, little is known about how treatment and individual characteristics may interact in predicting outcomes. The present study examined a sample of 162 community adults randomly assigned to three treatment conditions; an 8-week REACH Forgiveness intervention (Worthington, 2006), an 8-week process group, and a waitlist control.

Can use of positive religious coping predict greater distress? An examination of Army soldiers on deployment.

Although positive religious coping is generally viewed as an adaptive, functional coping pattern, some studies have actually found positive religious coping to be associated with more distress in military populations. In the current study, we examined the role of positive religious coping on distress across 2 time points. Participants in this study were 192 Army soldiers (men = 90.

Working through past wrongdoing: Examination of a self-forgiveness counseling intervention.

This pilot study examined the effectiveness of a new emotion-focused individual counseling intervention designed to increase self-forgiveness for regretted actions committed against another person. Exactly 26 adult participants (21 completers) who indicated they had unresolved emotions about a past offense enrolled in the study and were randomly assigned to a delayed or immediate treatment condition. Controlling for screening scores, participants who received the treatment had significantly lower self-condemnation and significantly greater self-forgiveness regarding their offense at the end of treatment than did participants who spent time on a waiting list.

Modeling stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and intentions to seek behavioral healthcare in a clinical military sample.

Objective: This study examined the relationship between public and self-stigma of seeking behavioral health services, and help-seeking attitudes and intent in a sample of active duty military personnel currently being assessed for traumatic brain injuries in a military health center. Although it has been suggested that many military personnel in need of care do not seek services due to concerns with stigma it is not fully clear what role different types of stigma play in the process.

Method: Using previously collected data from a clinical sample of 97 military personnel, we conducted path analyses to test the mediation effects of self-stigma on the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward and intentions to seek behavioral health care.

Forgiveness-reconciliation and communication-conflict-resolution interventions versus retested controls in early married couples.

The first 6 months of marriage are optimal for marriage enrichment interventions. The Hope-Focused Approach to couple enrichment was presented as two 9-hr interventions--(a) Handling Our Problems Effectively (HOPE), which emphasized communication and conflict resolution, and (b) Forgiveness and Reconciliation through Experiencing Empathy (FREE). HOPE and FREE were compared with repeated assessment controls.

Efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to promote forgiveness: a meta-analysis.

Objective: This meta-analysis addressed the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to help people forgive others and to examine moderators of treatment effects.

Method: Eligible studies reported quantitative data on forgiveness of a specific hurt following treatment by a professional with an intervention designed explicitly to promote forgiveness. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted using k = 53 posttreatment effect sizes (N = 2,323) and k = 41 follow-up effect sizes (N = 1,716) from a total of 54 published and unpublished research reports.

Understanding group therapists' use of spiritual and religious interventions in group therapy.

The current study examined therapist characteristics that are related to the use of spiritual and religious interventions in group therapy and to perceived barriers to attending to spirituality in group therapy among a sample of experienced group therapists. Results demonstrated that greater therapist spirituality was associated with more frequent use of both spiritual and religious interventions, as well as lower perceived barriers to attending to spirituality in group therapy. Religious commitment was only uniquely related to perceived barriers, such that therapists with higher religious commitment actually perceived greater barriers.

Disentangling self-stigma: are mental illness and help-seeking self-stigmas different?

Two established but disparate lines of research exist: studies examining the self-stigma associated with mental illness and studies examining the self-stigma associated with seeking psychological help. Whereas some researchers have implicitly treated these 2 constructs as synonymous, others have made the argument that they are theoretically and empirically distinct. To help clarify this debate, we examined in the present investigation the overlap and uniqueness of the self-stigmas associated with mental illness and with seeking psychological help.

Cross-cultural validity of the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) scale: examination across six nations.

Researchers have found that the stigma associated with seeking therapy--particularly self-stigma--can inhibit the use of psychological services. Yet, most of the research on self-stigma has been conducted in the United States. This is a considerable limitation, as the role of self-stigma in the help-seeking process may vary across cultural groups.

Is stigma internalized? The longitudinal impact of public stigma on self-stigma.

Stigma is considered an important barrier to seeking mental health services. Two types of stigma exist: public stigma and self-stigma. Theoretically, it has been argued that public stigma leads to the development of self-stigma.

Development and initial testing of a measure of public and self-stigma in the military.

Objective: This research developed and tested the Military Stigma Scale (MSS), a 26-item scale, designed to measure public and self-stigma, two theorized core components of mental health stigma.

Method: The sample comprised 1,038 active duty soldiers recruited from a large Army installation. Soldiers' mean age was 26.

Comparison of forgiveness and anger-reduction group treatments: a randomized controlled trial.

Interventions to promote forgiveness are effective. However, in what ways and in comparison to what other treatments is still unresolved. College students (n=112) who had been hurt in the past and struggled to overcome their negative experiences of it participated in this study.

Predictors of the change in self-stigma following a single session of group counseling.

One of the major obstacles to seeking psychological help is the stigma associated with counseling and therapy. Self-stigma, the fear of losing self-respect or self-esteem as a result of seeking help, is an important factor in the help-seeking process. In the present study, college students meeting a clinical cutoff for psychological symptoms participated in 1 session of group counseling that either contained therapist self-disclosure or did not.

Comparison of brief group interventions to promote forgiveness: a pilot outcome study.

Helping clients come to terms with past hurts such as sexual, physical, or verbal abuse is often an important goal of therapy. Research suggests that specific treatments to help people forgive their offenders can be effective. However, these treatments have not been systematically compared with other treatments that are typically offered in real-world settings.