An Emotion Regulation Framework for Treating Distress from Conditions and Contexts

Patients with “distress disorders” (including generalized anxiety disorder & major depressive disorder, especially when they co-occur) and individuals in distressing contexts (i.e., COVID-19 pandemic, familial caregiving), fail to make sufficient treatment gains thereby prolonging their deficits in life functioning and satisfaction. These patients often display heightened sensitivity to threat/safety and reward/loss contexts as well as perseveration (i.e., worry, rumination) to manage this motivationally relevant distress yet often to the detriment of engaging new opportunities. Using this hy...Read morepothesized profile as a framework, Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) integrates principles from traditional and contemporary CBT with basic and translational findings from affective science to offer a blueprint for improving clinical response by focusing on the motivational responses and corresponding regulatory characteristics of individuals with distress disorders. Participants will receive an introduction to the ERT approach to case formulation and the treatment principles including 1) expanding understanding of distress using a motivational and emotion regulation perspective; 2) cultivating mindful awareness and acceptance of sensations, bodily, responses, and conflicting emotions; 3) developing emotion regulation skills that promote a distanced and reframed meta-cognitive perspective; 4) applying these skills during experiential exposure to meaningful behavioral actions and associated internal conflicts to taking these actions; and 5) building a plan to maintain gains and take bolder action despite the ending of the therapeutic relationship. Less...

Learning Objectives

1. Evaluate how a motivational and emotion regulation perspective can be utilized to improve understanding and treatment of refractory cases in distress
2. Identify and discuss attentional and metacognitive regulation skills.
3. Explain how these skills can be used during experiential exposure to meaningful behavioral actions and associated internal conflicts to taking these actions

Friday, October 24, 2025

Touro University
202 W 43rd Street, Room 821, New York, NY, 10036

09:00 AM EDT - 01:00 PM EDT

EARN 3.5 CE Credit Hours

About the speaker

Douglas Mennin, Ph.D.

Professor; Director of Clinical Training, Clinical Ph.D. Program

Douglas Mennin is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Mennin has also had faculty positions at Yale University, New York University, and CUNY Hunter College. Dr. Mennin has trained numerous graduate students and post-baccalaureate research assistants on diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of anxiety and mood disorders. He has published over 150 articles, chapters, and books and regularly gives invited workshops and colloquia, and often speaks to the media about how to help people better understand and respond to their struggles with anxiety, worry, and depression. He currently serves on the editorial board of six journals and has been on the executive boards of the APA Division of Clinical Psychology and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and is the former Chair of the Scientific Council of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

Agenda

9:00 a.m.

Foundations of ERT Model and Approach

Beginning Therapy

10:00 a.m.

Break

10:15 a.m.

Phase I: Regulation Skills Training

11:15 a.m.

Break

11:30 p.m.

Phase II: Experiential Exposure

12:30 p.m.

Ending Therapy and Conceptualization

Discussion

1:00 p.m.

End

CE Information - Earn 3.5 CE Credit Hours

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Disclosure

DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
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The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity’s planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

PLANNERS AND REVIEWER
The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

FACULTY
The faculty of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.