Being able to think when caught in the maelstrom - how adolescents used mindfulness when facing exams.

Purpose: Research indicates that exam anxiety may decline with mindfulness-based interventions but there is a lack of research on adolescents' accounts of the processes involved. We explored high-school students' descriptions of how they perceived and applied mindfulness in managing anxiety-inducing thoughts related to academic performance following an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course.

Method: Post-course individual semi-structured interviews with 22 high school students (2 males, mean age 17.

Detecting child sexual abuse in child and adolescent psychiatry: a survey study of healthcare professionals' assessment practice.

Background: Research shows that only around half of all survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclose the abuse during childhood and adolescence. This is worrying, as CSA is related to substantial suffering later in life. The proportion of children and adolescents who have been exposed to CSA is significantly higher in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) than in the general population.

Nothing less than a creative triumph: a study of children admitted to hospital for serious somatic illness or injury and their experience of art therapy.

Background: Hospitalization can be an extremely distressing experience for seriously ill and injured children. Art therapy has a well-established clinical history, and recent research has begun to demonstrate its effectiveness in somatic pediatric wards. Descriptive and statistical research indicates that art therapy can alleviate anxiety and fear, improve mood, and enhance communication among children, parents, and healthcare professionals.

Agency in avoidant personality disorder: a narrative review.

Objectives: Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is a highly prevalent personality disorder, especially in clinical settings, yet scarcely researched. People diagnosed with AvPD have severe impairments in functioning and suffer greatly, yet we still lack meta-analytic evidence for therapy and only a few RCTs are conducted. Patient factors are the most important for outcome in therapy, in general.

Perfection is a sad and lonely place: A study of existential vulnerability in the life stories of persons struggling with perfectionism.

Under what life conditions do individuals turn to perfectionistic striving and ideals as a solution? The present paper examines how people with perfectionism narrate their relationship to our shared existential vulnerability; that we are vulnerable as human beings, and that the ways we relate to this vulnerability have consequences for psychological health. In the present qualitative study, we explored the life narratives told by nine students with perfectionism, drawing on semi-structured life-story interviews. We conducted an explorative-reflexive thematic analysis and identified five themes: 1) Outside-Feeling Alienated, 2) Relating to Chaos, 3) Trying to Control the Painful and Uncontrollable, 4) Islands of Just Being and Positive Contact, and 5) Heading Toward a Balance Between Doing and Being.

The call of the unlived life: On the psychology of existential guilt.

This paper examines the psychology of existential guilt with Martin Heidegger and Rollo May's conceptualizations as the point of departure. The concept of existential guilt describes preconditions for responsibility and accountability in life choices and the relationship to the potential given in the life of a human. It might also be used as a starting point to examine an individual's relationship to the potential offered in their life and life context and, in this way, the hitherto unlived life of an individual.

Possible paths to increase detection of child sexual abuse in child and adolescent psychiatry: a meta-synthesis of survivors' and health professionals' experiences of addressing child sexual abuse.

Background: Efforts are directed both towards prevention and early detection of Child sexual abuse (CSA). Yet, only about 50% of CSA survivors disclose before adulthood, and health professionals rarely are the first disclosure recipients. Increasing the detection rate of CSA within the context of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) therefore represents a significant secondary prevention strategy.

Self-Compassion and Its Association With Ruminative Tendencies and Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability in Recurrent Major Depression.

Background: Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most disabling mental disorders in modern society. Prior research has shown that self-compassion protects against ruminative tendencies, a key feature of recurrent MDD. In addition, self-compassion has been found to be positively related to higher psychophysiological flexibility (indexed by a higher vagally mediated heart rate variability; vmHRV) in young, healthy adults.

Suffering a Healthy Life-On the Existential Dimension of Health.

This paper examines the existential context of physical and mental health. Hans Georg Gadamer and The World Health Organization's conceptualizations are discussed, and current medicalized and idealized views on health are critically examined. The existential dimension of health is explored in the light of theories of selfhood consisting of different parts, Irvin Yalom's approach to "ultimate concerns" and Martin Heidegger's conceptualization of "existentials.

A Randomized Control Trial of a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention for Perfectionism, Anxiety, Depression, and Body Image.

Due to a rise in perfectionistic tendencies and growing concerns about the increase in mental health conditions among students this study aimed to examine the effects of a brief intervention in self-compassion on maladaptive perfectionism, anxiety, depression, and body image. The intervention consisted of four seminars and a silent half-day retreat with short lectures and relevant experiential practices from Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This randomized wait-list control trial was pre-registered at Clinicaltrials.

Integration Is Correlated With Mental Health Help-Seeking From the General Practitioner: Syrian Refugees' Preferences and Perceived Barriers.

Despite a seemingly higher need, refugees in Europe tend to underuse mental health (MH) services. To better understand this underuse, it is important to understand refugees' willingness and ability to seek help from their general practitioner (GP) when experiencing MH problems. We employed a combined vignette and survey design to explore how the GP fits into the larger context of help-seeking preferences among a sample of Syrian refugees in Norway ( = 92), and what barriers they perceive in accessing help from the GP.

Parenthood-Lost and Found: Exploring Parents' Experiences of Receiving a Program in Emotion Focused Skills Training.

Background: Parents play a crucial role in the development, maintenance, and deterioration of child difficulties. Emotion focused skills training (EFST) targets parents' capacity to provide their child with emotion-oriented skills in order to promote good child mental health. Few qualitative studies have specifically investigated parents' experiences of receiving such programs.

Trauma narratives: recommendations for investigative interviewing.

In the investigation of a criminal event, the police may encounter witnesses or victims experiencing symptoms of being traumatized (e.g. anxiety, intrusive thoughts or avoidance of trauma-related stimuli).

Perfectionistic Individuals' Understanding of How Painful Experiences Have Shaped Their Relationship to Others.

Perfectionism is increasing over time and associated with various mental health problems. Recent research indicates adverse childhood experiences may play a role in the development of perfectionism. In addition, perfectionism is marked by interpersonal problems with implications for treatment outcome.

A Qualitative Study of Use of Mindfulness to Reduce Long-Term Use of Habit-Forming Prescription Drugs.

The aim of this study was to study how participants used a mindfulness-based program-Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention to reduce use of habit-forming prescription drugs after long-term use. We explored participants' descriptions of their post-intervention strategies for controlling medication intake. Eighteen participants provided semi-structured qualitative interviews shortly after completion of the program and 13 participants were also interviewed 1 year after completion.

The Psychometric Properties of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale - Brief.

Previous psychometric analyses of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and the abbreviated version (FMPS-Brief) have resulted in inconsistent findings regarding the scale's bidimensionality or unidimensionality. Different studies evaluating the scale with different statistical analyses and comparative samples report different results and recommendations. This study assessed the FMPS-B's psychometric properties by conducting both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and pure bifactor modeling in order to address previous findings and guide future use of the scale.

Participant experiences of change in mindfulness-based stress reduction for anxiety disorders.

Aim: To explore experiences of change among participants in a randomized clinical trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for anxiety disorders.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the subjective experiences of change for individuals with anxiety disorders after a course in MBSR. Interviews were analysed employing hermeneutic-phenomenological thematic analysis.

The effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on risk and protective factors of depressive relapse - a randomized wait-list controlled trial.

Background: The aim of this randomized wait-list controlled trial was to explore the effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on risk and protective factors for depressive relapse within the domains of cognition, emotion and self-relatedness.

Methods: Sixty-eight individuals with recurrent depressive disorder were randomized to MBCT or a wait-list control condition (WLC).

Results: Completers of MBCT (N = 26) improved significantly on measures assessing risk and protective factors of recurrent depression compared to WLC (N = 30) on measures of rumination (d = 0.

Is Dispositional Self-Compassion Associated With Psychophysiological Flexibility Beyond Mindfulness? An Exploratory Pilot Study.

Background: Dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion are shown to associate with less self-reported emotional distress. However, previous studies have indicated that dispositional self-compassion may be an even more important buffer against such distress than dispositional mindfulness. To our knowledge, no study has yet disentangled the relationship between dispositional self-compassion and mindfulness and level of psychophysiological flexibility as measured with vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV).

General Practitioners' Experiences of Clinical Consultations With Refugees Suffering From Mental Health Problems.

Refugees suffer from higher rates of certain mental health problems than non-refugee migrants and the native population of their host country. General practitioners (GPs) in Norway and many other European countries are the first contact person for settled refugees in need of non-emergency medical support. This includes psychiatric support, although GPs are not typically specialists in psychiatry.

Becoming Aware of Inner Self-Critique and Kinder Toward Self: A Qualitative Study of Experiences of Outcome After a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention for University Level Students.

This qualitative study investigated ways in which student participants in a three-session self-compassion course became more compassionate toward themselves and challenges related to this change. Ninety-four participants completed an online survey and 12 participants were interviewed face-to-face. First, a thematic analysis of the responses from the online survey was conducted, and then sorted by frequency, indicating their representativeness in the written responses.

Therapist self-disclosure and the problem of shared-decision making.

Therapist self-disclosure is one of the most controversial topics in the history of psychotherapy. The controversies reflect some basic discussions regarding the nature of psychotherapy practice. In psychotherapy practice, a particular concern is the interaction between the psychotherapist and the patient.

The Association Between Juvenile Onset of Depression and Emotion Regulation Difficulties.

Juvenile onset of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with increased likelihood of recurrent episodes of depression and more detrimental clinical trajectories. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of juvenile onset of MDD on emotion regulation as measured by self-report and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Furthermore, we wanted to assess whether juvenile onset impacted the association between rumination and depressive symptoms.

"You Feel They Have a Heart and Are Not Afraid to Show It": Exploring How Clients Experience the Therapeutic Relationship in Emotion-Focused Therapy.

The therapeutic relationship is regarded as an important source of change in emotion-focused therapy (EFT) (Greenberg, 2014; Watson, 2018), but few qualitative studies have specifically investigated how clients experience the role of the relationship in EFT. The purpose of the present study was to explore what clients experienced as helpful or hindering aspects of the therapeutic relationship when undergoing EFT for depression, anxiety, and severe self-criticism. We interviewed 18 clients after a clinical trial of time-limited EFT, to explore their experiences of the relationship with their therapist during treatment.