I recently wrote a post on using video in the most effective treatment we have for social anxiety ... "Treating social anxiety disorder: video (and still) feedback (6th post)".  Typically with social anxiety there are several "layers" to a sufferer's fears about potential negative judgements from others. For example they might be anxious that 1.)  They will blush.  2.)  Other people will notice that they are blushing.  3.)  They will then be judged negatively for blushing.  CBT treatment aims to reduce this anxiety by showing sufferers that their fears are exaggerated and that the methods they have developed for managing their difficulties are mostly making the problem worse.

Back last autumn I wrote five detailed blog posts about CBT treatment of social anxiety disorder and also a further post giving access to a series of assessment & monitoring questionnaires - "Self-practice, Self-reflection (SP/SR) & David Clark's treatment for social anxiety: introduction (1st post)", "David Clark's treatment for social anxiety: assessment (2nd post)", "Treatment for social anxiety: personal aims (3rd post)"

The last morning of this excellent BABCP conference dawned bright & sunny ... as it has all week.  I have particularly enjoyed this year's BABCP get-together.  I think this has been due to a combination of factors including presentations that have been personally of real interest, the weather, the University of Birmingham accommodation, good wifi access(!) and the general friendliness.  Not bad considering I hurt my back in the train on the way here and it has only gradually been easing over the four days of the workshops & conference.

So yesterday was the second full day of the BABCP conference.  I have already written initial blog posts about the first day of the conference and about the pre-conference workshop I went to on emotion regulation.  This is a bit of a pre-breakfast scamper over yesterday's experiences.  As with the other blog posts I've written about the conference & the emotion regulation workshop, I intend to re-visit the more personally relevant subjects in future posts.

This is a quick overview of the first full day of the annual BABCP summer conference in Birmingham.  I intend to return to some of the key learning points in later posts.  I've already written about the pre-conference workshop I went to on "Emotion regulation" in a couple of earlier posts. Apparently the conference itself offers 37 symposia, 5 panel discussions, 3 clinical roundtables, multiple poster sessions, 13 skills classes, numerous special interest group & branch meetings, and 18 keynote addresses - all over the course of two and a half days here on the University of Birmingham campus. The freely downloadable 101 page abstracts book gives a great sense of what's on offer.

Yesterday morning I wrote about the BABCP pre-conference workshop that I was going to on "Emotion regulation therapy".  I cut & pasted information from the workshop publicity into the blog and many further details about this approach are available from their website "Emotion regulation therapy for chronic anxiety and recurring depression".

Well ... here I am again at one of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) annual summer conferences.  It's before breakfast on the first morning and I'm a bit wrapped in a funny mix of feelings.  It's about 6.30am on a stunning morning.  The view from my room is of a lovely sun-splashed green lawn leading to a lake.  I'm really looking forward to the conference too.  It's got all kinds of goodies in it. Fascinating.  But in the train on the way down from Edinburgh yesterday, I 'tweaked' my back.  It stiffened up overnight and when I first got going this morning, I wondered if I was going to be able to make it to the conference today.  Well, it seems to be loosening up.  Dignified cautious posture & movements are on the menu just now.

I have written a series of blog posts about the 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology held in Amsterdam earlier this month ... "Positive supervision and positive relationships", "Love, national happiness comparison tables, & life satisfaction assessment", "What proportion of well-being is genetically determined?" and "Self-determination,

I have already written three blog posts about early July's 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Amsterdam ... firstly on pre-conference workshops "Positive supervision and positive relationships", then on "Love, national happiness comparison tables, & life satisfaction assessment" and most recently on "What proportion of well-being is genetically determined?" After lunch on the first full day of the conference, I was faced with choosing from fifteen different workshops, symposia & paper sessions. I picked a "paper session" on "Self-determination theory (S-DT)". S-DT is a bit of a passion of mine ... absolutely central to my clinical and personal understanding of eudaimonia, well-being & positive psychology.

I have already written a couple of blog posts about this 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology - the first on pre-conference workshops about supervision & about relationships and the second on love, national happiness league tables, and life satisfaction assessment. After the coffee break I went on to, what for me turned out to be, one of the most interesting sets of presentations at this conference - an invited symposium on "Biological aspects of wellbeing and resilience".