Arts for the blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression

ABSTRACT

Routinely prescribed psychological therapies for depression are not always effective. Arts therapies, particularly Dance Movement Psychotherapy, may offer additional therapeutic mechanisms for depression. Therefore, client-reported helpful factors from various therapy types, along with client preferences, are key in devising new therapeutic interventions. We present a framework for a new pluralistic “meta-approach” of therapy for depression, based on an interdisciplinary thematic synthesis (Thomas, J., & Harden, A. (2008). Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 8[1], 45) of active ingredients from both talking therapies and creative approaches. Lastly, we offer an illustrative group therapy workshop based on this approach, to be piloted with clients and practitioners within an NHS mental health service. Further research is required to evaluate this pilot and to devise a full treatment for trialling within the service.     

Capturing Situational Information with Smartphones and Mobile Sensing Methods

Smartphones are pervasive companions to many people as they go about their daily lives. In addition, they are equipped with a wide array of sensors making it possible to measure objective information about people and situations, many times, with great fidelity, over long periods of time, in a way that is both unobtrusive and ecologically valid. Therefore, we argue that smartphones and other forms of mobile sensing are ideally suited to measuring situations. In particular, we describe how sensing methods can be used to assess situational cues, characteristics and classes. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology