Relapse Prevention in Bipolar Disorder
A treatment manual and workbook for therapist and client
John Sorensen
Comments about the Sorensen Therapy for Instability in Mood from clinicians
"The manual and the intervention it describes are likely to have a significant impact on the lives of people diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder, and to be of considerable value to clinicians working in mental health settings"
Prof. David Winter, Head of Clinical Psychology Services (Barnet),
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust
"This new therapy appears at a point in time when it is most needed ... it has become clear that bipolar affective disorder is much more prevalent in the psychiatric population than previously known ... The Sorensen Therapy for Instability in Mood will make it possible for the majority of patients, outside of the university clinics, to benefit from effective treatment. To my knowledge there are no other such programmes available"
Jens-Emil Viftrup, Consultant Psychiatrist Adult Mental Health
"The therapy developed by Sorensen ... is likely to be of significant value to clients who crave a sense of understanding and control over a ‘disorder’ that so often severely disrupts their lives on many levels. His innovative psychological therapy provides a much-needed augmentation to the often unilateral (and predominantly medical) treatment currently available to those given a diagnosis of ‘bipolar disorder’ ... Both the thorough and systematic description of the therapy in the manual, and the relapse prevention resource it provides to clients will help professionals and clients alike feel quickly confident in applying this new approach ... which will enable those who live with the effects of severe mood instability to develop a sense of renewed agency and hope"
Dr Maria Gennoy, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
"Such a brief but effective intervention would undoubtedly be a significant contribution to the psychological treatment of [bipolar disorder]"
Graham Huff, Head of Psychological Services,
Chadwick Lodge, Milton Keynes
Comments from clients who have undergone the treatment
"I feel a lot more confident ... It’s understanding it now, more … Someone’s taken time out to explain it bit by bit … and to know that when I start feeling something there is a reason behind that, and to delve a bit deeper and find out what the reason was in the first place. And then use the treatment to change it. I feel a lot more confident because I know a lot more ... I think why I found this [treatment] particularly useful is as a way to get to the deeper stuff, like you are making choices about things you can do, you can act on … I can make those choices ... I feel different about it, I feel hopeful, really"
"My mother would know that something was up straight away but I could never talk to her. Whereas I have a brilliant relationship with my mother now. She’s read [the workbook] ... It’s helped her ... She has seen, since I’ve had this treatment, a completely different person come out. I’m a lot happier"
"[The treatment] has broken down the illness into bite-size, manageable pieces, that has allowed me to digest what it is to be ill like me"
The Sorensen Therapy for Instability in Mood (STIM) is an important new psycho-educational and cognitive therapy for bipolar disorder (BPD, formerly referred to as manic depression). The key characteristics of the therapy are that it is brief, taking place over only four sixty-minute sessions, and that it can be delivered by practitioners with little specialist training.
The author, John Sorensen, has achieved impressive results with patients who have received the therapy, with significant improvements in their perceived control over mood, and significantly reduced hopelessness, which is known to be closely related to the likelihood of attempting suicide.
Historically, there has been a reluctance to offer psychotherapy to patients with BPD as they were perceived to be unable to benefit from talking treatments — and to this day the standard treatment remains prophylactic pharmacological interventions. However, the STIM manual and client workbook offers a psychological therapy which has proven to be effective, popular with clients, inexpensive to implement and which delivers rapid results.
The STIM therapy is based on the collaborative development of a relapse-prevention handbook that also provides the client with an individualised bio-psycho-social formulation of their BPD-related experiences. It involves education about the disorder, work with the therapist to understand the client’s particular triggers for manic or depressive periods, and the inclusion of the patient’s social network in attempts to stabilise mood.
John Sorensen is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and has worked in mental health departments in Denmark and in the UK where the research to develop and validate the STIM approach was conducted. Throughout his professional life he has been committed to the development of treatments and approaches that empower service users and are based on the needs of the individual. The STIM is just such an approach to mental illness.
ISBN-10 1-902806-56-5
ISBN-13 978-1-902806-56-3
October 2005, 80pp
Manual shrinkwrapped with 5 workbooks
Paperback £16.99 / US$33.95
ISBN-10 1-902806-57-3
ISBN-13 978-1-902806-57-0
Extra pack of 10 A4 workbooks
Paperback £20.00 / US$39.95
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