Traditional Workshop 15 - Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety and Anhedonia

Threat and reward sensitivity are fundamental processes that become dysregulated in the context of vulnerability to, or expression of, anxiety and depression. Treatments have traditionally targeted reductions in threat sensitivity with limited effects upon reward mechanisms. Investigation of reward sensitivity is essential for our understanding of psychopathology and for targeted treatment approaches. These findings led us to develop a treatment that specifically targets reward hyposensitivity, termed Positive Affect Treatment, which we have shown to be more effective than conventional cognitive behavioral therapy for anxious and depressed individuals. I will present the evidence from randomized controlled trials. Then I will present the step by step details of Positive Affect Treatment, accompanied by video demonstrations. The content will include treatment rationale, positive emotion labelling, behavioural activation with imaginal recounting, cognitive strategies for attending to rewarding stimuli and generosity, loving kindness, gratitude and appreciative joy exercises.