Combining Treatment Components in Transdiagnostic Therapy for Anxiety and Depression

"The mindful emotion awareness module will follow the manual by Barlow et al. (2018). In session 1, the participant will receive psychoeducation about the purpose of mindful emotion awareness (i.e., to cultivate present-focused, non-judgmental attention to one's emotional experiences) and will complete an in-session guided meditation exercise which they will be asked to practice daily using an audio file. In session 2 and 3, two additional exercises are introduced. With mindful mood induction, the participant is instructed to induce emotions and then practice mindful emotion awareness in this context. With anchoring in the present, the participant is taught four steps to help them use mindful emotion awareness to pull themself back to the present whenever they feel an emotional response start to build in their everyday life. For homework, the participant will practice mindful emotion using these exercises and the audio file."

The cognitive flexibility module will follow the manual by Barlow et al. (2018) which is based on the principles by Beck (1976). In session 1, the participant will be psychoeducated about the purpose of cognitive flexibility (i.e., to encourage flexible thinking through reappraisal of one's automatic thinking), and how their thoughts influence their emotional reactions. For homework, the participant will be asked to monitor their automatic thoughts. In session 2, the participant will be introduced to the technique of cognitive flexibility (i.e., generating other possible interpretations), and this technique will be practiced throughout session 2 and 3. For homework, the participant will continue to monitor their automatic thoughts and generate and record other possible interpretations.