In this episode of Let’s Talk About CBT- Practice Matters, Rachel Handley talks to two expert guests – Professor Kim Wright from the University of Exeter and Associate Professor Tom Richardson from the University of Southampton – about bipolar disorder and the role of CBT in supporting people with this diagnosis.

Tom and Kim share their extensive clinical and research experience, alongside insights from Tom’s own lived experience of bipolar disorder. They discuss common myths, the importance of timely and accurate diagnosis, and how CBT can support people with bipolar in a meaningful and collaborative way.

They explore what CBT for bipolar looks like in practice, including work on relapse prevention, mood stabilisation, routine regulation and addressing beliefs about mania. The conversation also covers important systemic issues such as gaps in service provision, barriers to access and the need for more widespread training and implementation.

This episode is released to mark World Bipolar Day and aims to raise awareness and improve understanding of this often misunderstood condition.

Resources & Further Learning:

·        Richardson, T. (Eds). Psychological Therapies for Bipolar Disorder: Evidence-Based and Emerging Techniques. Spinger-Nature, 2024.

·        Bipolar UK Commission

·        Find out more about Kim Wright’s research and publications

·        Find out more about Tom Richardson’s research and publications

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If you enjoyed this episode, check out our sister podcasts, Let’s Talk About CBT and Let’s Talk About CBT – Research Matters for more discussions on evidence-based therapy.

Credits:

Music is Autmn Coffee by Bosnow from Uppbeat

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/bosnow/autumn-coffee

License code: 3F32NRBYH67P5MIF

This podcast was edited by Steph Curnow

Transcript:

Rachel: Welcome to. Let's talk about CBT Practice Matters, the BABCP podcast for therapists using cognitive behavioural therapy with me, Rachel Handley. Each episode we talk to an expert in CBT who will share insights that will help you understand and apply CBT better to help your patients.

Today I'm delighted to be joined by not one, but two expert guests, my wonderful friend Kim Wright, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter, and the equally wonderful Tom Richardson, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and CBT at the University of Southampton. Both of our illustrious guests specialise in researching, treating, teaching, and training others in psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder. Welcome guys.

Tom: Thanks for having us.

Rachel: I know you've both been working in this field of bipolar for many years. Kim, when I first met you, you were doing a PhD in bipolar, even before embarking on your doctorate in clinical psychology. And Tom, I know you have personal as well as professional reasons to be so committed, and passionate about the area. Can you tell us a little bit about your pathways into this work?

Kim: Yeah. Hello Rachel. It's really good to be here. So, I, started out quite a long time ago, when it was possible to finish your psychology degree and go straight into a research associate job and I was very fortunate to be able to do that and work with Dominic Lamb on his trial of CBT for people with bipolar, for relapse prevention. And that is at the, or was at, Kings College London and it was one of the early CBT trials in the area and it was really exciting to be involved in it and as part of that, again, this is a bygone era, it was possible to do a part-time PhD that was heavily subsidised for members of staff of the institution. So I did my PhD part-time with Dominic alongside my role, and that gave me the opportunity to meet hundreds of people with bipolar disorder and hear about their experiences. And then, after I finished, I did clinical psychology training and then worked in a community mental health team for a bit. And then I had a really wonderful opportunity to join the clinical research group at the University of Exter where I am now. And back then it was led by Willem Kuyken and Ed Watkins, who work in the area of depression. And they liked the idea of broadening out the team to include a focus on bipolar.

So that was a great opportunity for me to return back to research in the area of bipolar and also to work in the research clinic that we set up in the university not long after.

Rachel: What a brilliant opportunity to work with such amazing people, but also to be in there from the ground up, working on that first CBT trial in the area. Really exciting. How about you, Tom?

Tom: Yeah. Well, as you said, my research interests really has come a lot from my own experiences because I have Bipolar disorder type I. I haven't always been completely open about that. It's taken a few years of qualified life for me to feel comfortable with that, but yeah, I ended up having a manic episode just after my A levels, just before I started my degree, my undergraduate degree. I ended up in a hospital with a manic episode, so that got me interested in it. And then, when I was doing my undergraduate degree, actually I started doing a little bit, I started doing some stuff for kind of student journals and my thesis was actually about hypomania and how it relates to impulsivity and risk taking in the general population. So I actually became hypomanic about my dissertation, about hypomania.

So, and then I was working as a research assistant on sort of computer-based CBT at the University of Bath with children. But I did a little bit of stuff, a few bits of research and kind of papers around bipolar disorder, around like letters to the editor and reviews and that kind of thing. And then when I started my doctorate here in 2010, and that's when I started to get my kind of first real clinical experience, my first placement, I worked with a couple of people with bipolar disorder. And then, I was working in the NHS in Portsmouth community mental health teams for eight years. And that was a whole range of problems, but I did a lot of bipolar work there. I set up and ran a bipolar group, which was, which I really love doing. So it's gone from there. And then I joined the university in 2021, and this is a big part of my research here is about psychological therapies for bipolar. So influenced by my own experiences a lot of the time, as well as my service users.

Rachel: And I know that's naturally and rightly a very personal choice to share that information about your own mental health, but incredibly helpful, I think, for other mental health professionals as well as I'm sure your research to de-stigmatise that area and to be able to think about it from the inside out.

Tom: Thank you.

Rachel: We've recorded a number of podcasts recently on unipolar depression, and in fact, we've got a whole series of podcasts on depression coming out. This will probably be the first one because we've got World Bipolar Day coming up, but those conversations really underlined to me how common unipolar depression is. And our listeners will be not only aware of that, the massive numbers of people suffering from depression, but also probably seeing them in their practice’s day in, day out. But bipolar is perhaps a little less well recognised and understood. So, can we start with some