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Completed

NCT Number: NCT03354975

Experiential Training for Community Therapists

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of employing an experiential training approach that targets community mental health therapists' attitudes toward and use of exposure therapy. In addition to assessing attitudes and use of exposure therapy, the study will evaluate the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, retention, and assessment processes, as well as the acceptability of the experiential training relative to training-as-usual. To assess these outcomes, community therapists will be randomized to experiential training or training-as-usual. A subset of therapists from each arm will also complete qualitative interviews to further assess acceptability of the training approaches. The training-as-usual condition will include a traditional one-day workshop that focuses on principles of exposure and incorporates active learning strategies. The experiential training will include a one-day workshop that teaches principles of exposure and has therapists themselves undergo a one-session phobia treatment for spiders. Therapists in both training conditions will be asked to attend weekly consultation phone calls for a three-month period following the trainings.

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Key information

Conditions

Anxiety Anxiety Disorders Mental Disorders

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19122, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Participants will be aged 21 and older with degrees (masters or doctorate) in a mental health field. They must be working in a community mental health clinic, currently treating at least one client with anxiety, and planning to continue providing therapy to at least one client with anxiety for the duration of the study. Participants must be interested in participating in a training workshop and able to commit to the time requirements for study completion. They must also be willing to provide an email or mailing address to complete study-related surveys. Finally, they must be able to read and speak English.

Exclusion criteria

  • Participants cannot have previously attended a full day (8+ hours) workshop on exposure-based treatments for anxiety.

Treatment and study plan

Experiential Training

Behavioral

Participants in the experiential training will be provided with information about using exposure therapy to treat patients with anxiety via lecture-style teaching. Then, they will themselves undergo a one-session phobia treatment for spiders.

Training-As-Usual

Behavioral

The training-as-usual condition will incorporate passive and active learning components. The first half of the training will include lecture-style teaching about using exposure therapy to treat patients with anxiety. The second half of training will incorporate active learning components (e.g., role plays) to reinforce concepts discussed in the first half of training.

Primary outcomes

  1. Change from baseline Therapist Beliefs about Exposure Scale (TBES) at 3-month follow-up

    Time frame: Pre-training; 3-month follow-up

    The Therapist Beliefs about Exposure Scale is a 21-item self-report measure that assesses therapists' negative beliefs about exposure therapy. Agreement with each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (disagree strongly) to 4 (agree strongly), yielding a total score ranging from 0 to 84. Higher scores indicate more negative beliefs about exposure.

  2. Change from baseline Exposure Therapy Clinical Use Survey (ETCUS) at 3-month follow-up

    Time frame: Pre-training; 3-month follow-up

    The ETCUS measures therapist-reported use of nine exposure therapy procedures, such as providing the rationale for exposure therapy, creating a hierarchy, and completing in-vivo exposures.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Temple University

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Registry information

Official study title

Dissemination of Exposure-Based Treatment for Anxiety: Experiential Training for Community Therapists

Important dates

Study start
2018
Primary completion
2018
Study completion
2018
First posted
Nov 28, 2017
Registry last updated
Jan 3, 2019

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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