Unified Protocol (UP) Treatment
The Unified Protocol (UP) is a transdiagnostic, emotion-focused, and evidence-based treatment approach.
The UP is invaluable for helping support clients with co-occurring diagnoses. It provides a roadmap for treating the shared core mechanisms and processes, as opposed to diagnosis-specific treatments. It is primarily a goal-oriented and skills-based therapeutic intervention that is less concerned with symptoms and diagnoses, and more focused on the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns that cross over diagnostic boundaries.
The UP incorporates and integrates effective components from other well-known, evidence-based treatment approaches. Primary therapeutic interventions include mindfulness (ACT/DBT), increasing cognitive flexibility (CBT/ACT/DBT), reducing emotion avoidance and maladaptive behaviors (CBT/ACT/DBT), and engaging with behavioral, interoceptive, and emotional exposure (ERP).
The Goal of UP
The Unified Protocol challenges us to approach difficult thoughts and feelings versus avoid them. The overarching goal of UP interventions is to get better at feeling versus feeling better. Oftentimes, increasing the tolerance for uncomfortable feelings does help a person to also feel better. However, the reason we do not make “feeling better” a goal is because difficult thoughts and feelings are unavoidable. Feeling better as a goal only leads to past maladaptive strategies, with behavioral and emotional avoidance being the most common default tactic.
The UP is ultimately rooted in understanding and accepting your emotional experience as a cumulative effect of:
1) your thoughts (what you are thinking)
2) your physiological sensations (what you are feeling in your body)
3) your behaviors (what you are doing / feel like doing in response)
Establishing this foundational framework creates a new space to begin to interface with thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations differently than before. Emotion insight, awareness , and acceptance helps to elicit altered and more adaptive behavioral responses.
To learn more about the Unified Protocol, please visit https://unifiedprotocol.com/
Learn More About Unified Protocol (UP) Treatment with Sara Watts
If it would help, I would be pleased to offer a 15 minute complimentary call to introduce myself and my approach to Unified Protocol (UP) Treatment.
Please feel free to contact me today.