Sarah A Hayes

• University of Massachusetts Boston

To examine the maintenance effects of acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) and applied relaxation (AR) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) 46 adults (69.6% female, 82.6% White) with high end-state functioning following an RCT comparing ABBT to AR were re-assessed at 12- and 24-month follow-up. End-state functioning was based on post-treatmen...

Social anxiety is characterised by fear of negative evaluation and negative perceptual biases; however, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these negative biases are not well understood. We investigated a possible mechanism which could maintain negative biases: altered adaptation to emotional faces. Heightened sensitivity to negative emotions could...

Research has shown that interpersonal racial discrimination occurs frequently among racially minoritized individuals. Consequently, interracial dynamics are considered to be important considerations for effectively treating social anxiety among racially minoritized individuals. However, research to date has not directly examined the relations betwe...

The present experiment investigated the personal meaning of a behavior and state social anxiety as predictors of behavioral action. Participants (N = 68) were given the chance to take the behavioral action of recording a statement for a video blog. Participants were randomized to personal meaning (n = 34; assigned to speak on the social issue most...

Background Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) shows the weakest treatment response among anxiety disorders. This study aimed at examining whether an acceptance‐based group behavioral therapy (ABBT) for patients in a Brazilian anxiety disorders program, combining mindfulness and exposure strategies, can improve clinical outcome when compared with a...

The present study examined whether cognitive restructuring (CR) or mindfulness led to increases in decentering and whether changes in decentering were related to changes in anxiety and willingness to approach anxiety-provoking situations. Forty-six individuals with social anxiety completed speaking tasks before and after receiving CR, mindfulness,...

The high rates of anxiety in college students and the many barriers to accessing evidence-based care in communities and on campuses indicate a clear need to explore ways to increase access to evidence-based treatments. Web-based interventions and preventions are one way to bridge this gap; they hold the potential to decrease mental health dispariti...

To further improve treatments, we need to better understand potential common treatment mechanisms, such as decentering, or the ability to observe thoughts and feelings as objective events in the mind rather than personally identifying with them (Safran & Segal, 1990). Therefore, this study examined whether 12 sessions of Cognitive Behavioral Group...

The present study investigated the role of social cost bias, probability bias, and self-efficacy as correlates of behavioral action in a nonclinical sample of 197 individuals, using a series of vignettes and self-report measures. The findings indicated that, as hypothesized, social cost bias, probability bias, and self-efficacy were associated with...

Although research indicates that anxious arousal in response to feared stimuli is related to treatment outcome (Heimberg et al., 1990), less is known about the patterns of anxious arousal. We identified patterns of anxious arousal in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) at pre- (n = 61) and post-treatment (n = 40; 12-session CBGT, Heimber...

Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT), which involves restructuring maladaptive thoughts and exposures in social contexts in a group format, is an empirically supported treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, research on applying these skills to experiences of discrimination that may contribute to social anxiety in marginalized po...

Internalized heterosexism (IH) refers to the internalization of stigma, stereotypes, and negative views of sexual minorities into one’s self concept as a product of social bias. Although substantial research has documented the negative impact of IH on mental health, there is a dearth of research examining variables buffering this association. One c...

Faces drive our social interactions. A vast literature suggests an interaction between gender and emotional face perception, with studies using different methodologies demonstrating that the gender of a face can affect how emotions are processed. However, how different is our perception of affective male and female faces? Furthermore, how does our...

As a field, we lack information about specific mechanisms that are responsible for changes that occur over the course of treatments for anxiety disorders (Kazdin, 2007). Identifying these mechanisms would help streamline evidence-based approaches, increase treatment response rates, and aid in the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based a...

College is a critical time in which individuals experience transition and stress, and may experience subthreshold or clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition, educational contexts offer a unique opportunity to serve the needs of a diverse group of students who may experience additional stressors related to experiences with discrimin...

There is emerging evidence supporting the acceptability of mindfulness and acceptance-based therapies with individuals from marginalized backgrounds. The current phenomenological study aimed to understand the extent to which clients from marginalized backgrounds who had completed an acceptance-based behavioral therapy (ABBT) for GAD felt that their...

To better understand the role interpersonal problems play in response to two treatments for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); an acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) and applied relaxation (AR), and to examine how the development of mindfulness may be related to change in interpersonal problems over treatment and at follow-up. Eighty-one indi...

Internalized heterosexism refers to the development of a negative view of one’s own and others’ sexual minority identities as a product of living within a heterosexist society. Various negative mental health outcomes have been associated with internalized heterosexism (IH), such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality. However, little is known abou...

Purpose: Improving mental health literacy is an important consideration when promoting expedient and effective treatment seeking for psychological disorders. Low recognition serves as a barrier to treatment (Coles and Coleman, 2010), and this article examines recognition by lay individuals of severity for three psychological disorders: social anxi...

Previous research suggests that individuals with a marginalized sexual orientation report higher levels of emotional distress (Cochran, 2001; Meyer, 2003), including higher prevalence of social anxiety (Gilman et al., 2001; Potoczniak, Aldea, & DeBlaere, 2007; Safren & Pantalone, 2006) than heterosexuals. The present study builds on previous resear...

Anxiety disorders represent a prevalent and impairing class of disorders. Although individual and group cognitive–behavioral interventions have been efficacious in treating anxiety, this research typically looks at individuals or study condition as the unit(s) of analysis. Thus, an understudied area in group therapy is in the investigation of outco...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine decentering as a potential mechanism of action across 2 treatments for generalized anxiety disorder: an acceptance-based behavioral therapy (ABBT) and applied relaxation (AR). Method: Sixty-four individuals who completed at least half of the 16 total sessions of either ABBT or AR (65.6% female;...

Because most behavioral treatments are time-limited, skills and practices that foster long-term maintenance of gains made during treatment are of critical importance. While some studies have found mindfulness practice to be associated with improvements in outcome variables over the course of treatment (Vettese et al., 2009), very little is known ab...

Danitz, S.B., & Orsillo, S.M., Hayes-Skelton, S. & Roemer, L. (2013, November). Predictors of change in an acceptance-based behavior therapy and applied relaxation for GAD. In M. J.Dugas, (Chair), Beyond the Horserace: What Are the Factors that Predict and Explain Treatment Response to CBT for GAD? Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the A...

Applied relaxation (AR), originally developed by Lars-Göran Öst, is a long-standing, efficacious treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). While newer treatments are continuing to be developed, AR remains one of the most efficacious treatments for GAD. However, AR has received less in-depth attention more recently, particularly in terms of...

Objective: To examine whether an empirically and theoretically derived treatment combining mindfulness- and acceptance-based strategies with behavioral approaches would improve outcomes in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) over an empirically supported treatment. Method: This trial randomized 81 individuals (65.4% female, 80.2% identified as Wh...

Background: The tendency to employ both cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness are associated with reduced trait social anxiety; however, it is unclear whether reappraisal and mindfulness are associated with social anxiety through the same mechanisms. It has been proposed that decentering, or the process of seeing thoughts or feelings as objective...

Applied Relaxation (AR), which involves noticing early signs of anxiety and responding with a relaxation response, is an empirically supported treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). However, research on hypothesized mechanisms of AR (e.g., reduced muscle tension) has been mixed, making it likely that additional mechanisms are contributin...

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Psychological Maltreatment (PM) and Neglect subscales of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI; DiLillo et al., 2010). The CAMI is a retrospective self-report measure that assesses multiple forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual, physical, psychol...

Previous exposure therapy research has suggested potential differences in emotional processing at different points in treatment (Hayes, Hope, & Heimberg, 2008). For example, indicators of emotional processing may be more related to outcome during the later exposure sessions than during the initial session. This is consistent with a growing body of...

In response to clinical observations and research findings that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder are reactive to their internal experiences, avoid and suppress painful emotions, thoughts, and sensations, and limit their involvement in meaningful activities, an Acceptance Based Behavioral Therapy (ABBT) was developed to specifically tar...

Evidence generally supports a situationally specific view of social skill competence. This perspective contends that behavior is specific to a particular situation, and therefore deficits in social skills are transient depending on the situational context (Meier & Hope, 1998). Therefore, when assessing social skill competency it is important to not...

The present study reports on the development and initial psychometric properties of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), a web-based self-report measure of child maltreatment history, including sexual and physical abuse, exposure to interparental violence, psychological abuse, and neglect. The CAMI was administered to a geographical...

The goal in (Heimberg, R. G. (1991). A manual for conducting Cognitive Behavior Group Therapy for social phobia (2nd ed), Unpublished manuscript) cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) for social anxiety disorder (social phobia) is to challenge irrational automatic thoughts and create exposures to provide disconfirming evidence for these irratio...

Social anxiety disorder is a prevalent and impairing disorder for which viable cognitive-behavioral therapies exist. However, these treatments have not been easily packaged for dissemination and may be underutilized as a result. The current study reports on the findings of a randomized controlled trial of a manualized and workbook-driven individual...

Based on the theory that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is maintained through a reactive and fused relationship with one's internal experiences and a tendency towards experiential avoidance and behavioral restriction, an acceptance-based behavior therapy (ABBT) was developed to specifically target these elements. Since ABBT has been shown to be...

Exposure-based therapies are efficacious treatments for social anxiety disorder (i.e., Gould et al., 1997). Much of the theory behind these treatments is derived from Foa and colleagues' (Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2005; Foa & Kozak, 1986) work on emotional processing. However, there has been little research examining individual differences in emotion...

Much has been written about the applicability of cognitive-behavioral group treatments for anxiety disorders using a transdiagnostic model. These studies generally support the efficacy of such treatments, although concern is apparent regarding the impact on therapeutic processes by including individuals with different DSM-IV anxiety disorder diagno...

Frequent assessment during therapy can improve treatments and provide accountability. However, clinicians often do not monitor progress because of the time it takes to administer and score assessments. In response, the Social Anxiety Session Change Index (SASCI) was developed. The SASCI is a short, easily administered rating of subjective improveme...

Exposure-based therapies have been considered the most efficacious treatments for social anxiety disorder (i.e., Gould et al., 1997). The majority of the theory behind exposure-based treatments rely on Foa and colleagues’s (Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2005; Foa & Kozak, 1986) emotional processing theory. However, there has been less research examining...

There is now consistent evidence to support the efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) to reduce clinical symptoms and improve quality of life across a variety of clinical problems (Butler, Chapman, Formen, & Beck, 2006). This outcome research typically relies on a pretreatment-posttreatment design and follow-up assessments at fixed intervals...

It has been suggested that a strong working alliance encourages clients to take risks during therapy (Raue, Castonguay, & Goldfried, 199333. Raue , P. J. , Castonguay , L. G. and Goldfried , M. R. 1993. The working alliance: a comparison of two therapies.. Psychotherapy Research, 3: 197–207. [Taylor & Francis Online]View all references). This en...

This study compared retrospective reports of childhood sexual and physical abuse as assessed by two measures: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), which uses a Likert-type scaling approach, and the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), which employs a behaviorally specific means of assessment. Participants included 1,195 undergradua...

This descriptive and comparative study employed a Q-sort process to describe common factors of therapy in two group therapies for inpatients with chronic mental illness. While pharmacological treatments for chronic mental illness are prominent, there is growing evidence that cognitive therapy is also efficacious. Groups examined were part of a larg...

This study examined the sensitivity of the Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule IV (ADIS-IV) in detecting potentially traumatic childhood abuse experiences in a sample of 50 consecutive adult anxiety disorder patients. Of 13 patients who reported traumatic childhood maltreatment experiences using a behaviorally specific abuse history questionnaire,...

This study assessed rates of imaginal exposure therapy (ET) utilization and completion of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a clinical setting and examined variables associated with CBT completion. Using a clinical definition, the completion rate of CBT was markedly lower than rates reported in randomize...

Given that social anxiety disorder is a common, chronic, debilitating disorder and socially anxious women appear to have different experiences related to social development and social support than men, it is essential that the gender differences in social anxiety and social support be understood. The present study examined perceived social support...

Researchers have recently explored transdiagnostic anxiety treatments based on models of anxiety emphasizing a single common pathway across diagnostic categories. Results from a previous study [Norton and Hope, in press] indicated that a transdiagnostic approach was effective for both targeted and untargeted anxiety disorders. Consistent with the t...