Ulrike WillutzkiUniversität Witten/Herdecke · Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy
Ulrike Willutzki
PhD
About
212
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3,245
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
October 2013 - present
April 1986 - August 2013
Publications
Publications (212)
Background
Modern concepts assume that mental health is not just the absence of mental illness but is also characterized by positive well-being. Recent findings indicated a less pronounced distinction of positive and negative mental health dimensions in clinical samples. Self-perceived strengths were associated with markers of mental health in heal...
Objective
Meta-analytic evidence showed robust associations between the alliance in psychotherapeutic dyads and treatment outcomes. Recent studies have indicated that facets of positive mental health are additionally relevant predictors of both the alliance and success of psychotherapy. However, the impact of patients’ pre-therapy strengths on the...
Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Das BDI-II ist ein Selbstbeurteilungsinstrument zur Erfassung des Schweregrads einer Depression. Es liegen kaum Analysen mit Modellen aus der Item-Response-Theorie (IRT) vor. Fragestellung: Wie hoch ist die Messgenauigkeit des BDI-II über die unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen des latenten Traits (Depressivit...
Angst ist eine zentrale menschliche Emotion und hat damit adaptive Funktionen. Aktuelle Forschungsbefunde deuten zudem an, dass Ängste nicht nur mit negativem Erleben einhergehen. Gleichzeitig erscheinen diese Mechanismen für Menschen mit starken Ängsten oft fremd. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es daher, verschiedene Konzepte für funktionale Aspekte de...
BACKGROUND
Only 11-40% of those affected by a mental disorder in Germany receive treatment. New approaches to improve the German health care system are needed in order to counter chronification. Online-interventions have been shown to be effective as stand-alone as well as add-ons to routine practice. Interventions designed for a wide range of ment...
Background:
Only 11%-40% of those with a mental disorder in Germany receive treatment. In many cases, face-to-face psychotherapy is not available because of limited resources, such as an insufficient number of therapists in the area. New approaches to improve the German health care system are needed to counter chronification. Web-based interventio...
Background
Recent findings indicated that mental disorders are associated with both an up-regulation of negative affect and a down-regulation of positive affect (PA) as distinct processes. Established treatment approaches focus on the modification of problems and negative affect only. Experimental paradigms in healthy samples and research on streng...
Objective:
Modern conceptualizations suggest the independence of positive and negative mental health constructs. Research of positive constructs in psychotherapy is scarce. This study analyzed the development of patients' strengths during psychotherapy and whether pre-therapy strengths incrementally predict treatment outcome.
Methods:
Two hundre...
While psychotherapists are trained to improve their clients’ quality of life, little work has examined the quality of life experienced by psychotherapist trainees themselves. Yet their life satisfactions and stresses would plausibly affect both their ability to learn new skills and conduct psychotherapy. Therefore, in the Society for Psychotherapy...
Fragebogen zur direkten Veränderungsmessung
Background
Psychology is at the beginning of a cooperative revolution. Traditionally, psychological research has been conducted by individual labs, limiting its scope in clinical samples and promoting replication problems. Large-scale collaborations create new opportunities for highly powered studies in this resource-intensive research area. To pre...
Background: Emotion regulation has been identified as an important transdiagnostic factor relevant to the treatment of mental health disorders. Many empirically validated psychotherapeutic treatments incorporate elements targeting emotion regulation. Most of these treatment approaches are conceptualized as standard face-to-face treatments not as bl...
Background: Psychology is at the beginning of a cooperative revolution. Traditionally, psychological research has been conducted by individual labs, limiting its scope in clinical samples and promoting replication problems. Large-scale collaborations create new opportunities for highly powered studies in this resource-intensive research area. To pr...
Different measures of attachment are usually weakly correlated. In a subsample of an RCT comparing short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy (PDT) we examined the association between attachment and outcome using two attachment measures. The sample comprises 148 patients with social anxiety disorder who were treated in...
Hintergrund: Menschen mit intellektueller Beeinträchtigung (IB) sind häufig von psychischen Störungen betroffen. Gleichzeitig ist die psychotherapeutische Versorgung in diesem Bereich bisher unzureichend, und die Evidenz bezüglich der Wirksamkeit verhaltenstherapeutischer Interventionen bei Erwachsenen mit IB ist unklar. Ziele: Eine systematische L...
BACKGROUND
Emotion regulation has been identified as an important transdiagnostic factor relevant to the treatment of mental disorders. A variety of empirically validated psychotherapeutic treatments aim to incorporate elements targeting emotion regulation. Most of these treatment approaches are conceptualized as standard face to face treatments, n...
Objectives:
The use of trajectories and analysis of change patterns is a promising way toward better differentiation of subgroups in psychotherapy studies. Research on change patterns in social anxiety disorder (SAD) are still rare, although SAD is one of the most common mental disorders. In a secondary analysis of data from the SOPHO-NET-trial (I...
Objectives: Description of the qualifications of psychotherapy-training candidates in Austria at the beginning of their training. Methods: Psychotherapists in training in Austria were interviewed at the beginning of their training concerning their socio-demographic background and prior education. These background data were collected using the Train...
Vielfach spricht man über Manuale und manualisierte Psychotherapie. Aber: Was ist eigentlich unter Manualen zu verstehen? Ab wann ist die Beschreibung eines therapeutischen Vorgehens ein Manual? Wo werden Vorteile, wo eher Nachteile von Manualen gesehen? Warum scheint es so schwierig, Manuale angemessen umzusetzen? Der Beitrag geht diesen Fragen mi...
Objective:
The personal self of psychotherapists, that is, experiences of self in close personal relationships and its association with therapists' individual and professional attributes is explored. The study aimed to: (a) describe therapists' self-ratings on specific self-attributes; (b) determine their dimensionality; (c) explore demographic, p...
Background:
In many countries, humanistic psychotherapy (HPT) is viewed as a broad psychotherapeutic approach and is accepted in health care systems. To qualify for reimbursement by health insurance in Germany, psychotherapy approaches have to be evaluated positively by the German Scientific Board of Psychotherapy (GSBP). The GSBP examined HPT and...
In diesem Beitrag wird an das vor fast exakt 10 Jahren fertiggestellte Expertengutachten zur Ausbildung psychologischer Psychotherapeut*innen und Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychotherapeut*innen erinnert, das als Grundlage für eine Novellierung des Psychotherapeutengesetzes aus dem Jahr 1999 dienen sollte. Die Entstehung und die wichtigsten Ergebnisse...
The Witten Resource Questionnaire (WIRF) is a multidimensional instrument assessing individual resources, which are defined as positive or functional aspects in a person's life. Resources are assessed in the three contexts of everyday life, crises well coped with and current problems with three subscales each (action regulation, relaxation and soci...
Objective:
Patients' sudden deterioration in symptomatology, also called sudden losses, is a rarely explored phenomenon.
Method:
Psychological distress of 1,763 patients treated by 140 therapists was monitored after every therapy session. Patient-reported outcome measures and patients' therapy satisfaction was assessed. Therapists rated their ex...
Objective:
Long-term follow-ups several years after receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are scarce and most of the existing literature describes follow-up data of randomized-controlled trials. Thus, very little is known about the long-term effects of CBT in routine care.
Methods:
We investigated psychological functioning in a sample of...
Ressourcen-Fragebogen & Auswertungsschablone
In recent studies positive mental health has been shown as a resilience factor related to suicide ideation/behavior. It is not known if positive mental health buffers the effect of various risk factors (depression, perceived burdensomeness, hopelessness, childhood maltreatment) on suicide ideation/behavior in psychiatric inpatients—a high risk popu...
The present work provides preliminary insight into the training situation for psychotherapists in Austria. On the basis of a survey of candidates at the beginning of their training, the requirements of psychotherapeutic training candidates in Austria are considered. Psychotherapists in training were interviewed at the beginning of their training co...
Abstract
Background: This article presents key findings of two major empirical studies of psy- chotherapist and counsellor development. Both aimed to advance knowledge of vari- ations in professional development and better understand the complexity of formative influences.
Methodology: The Minnesota Study of Therapist and Counsellor Development and...
Background: Students are increasingly seeking psychological counseling due to stress-related problems or mental disorders. While many interventions focus on alleviating psychopathological symptoms, the Personal Model of Resilience (PRM) provides a way to make use of existing strengths to overcome obstacles. Objective: To compare the PRM with a prob...
Objectives: Description of the qualifications of psychotherapy-training candidates in Aus- tria at the beginning of their training.
Methods: Psychotherapists in training in Austria were interviewed at the beginning of their training concerning their socio-demographic background and prior education. These background data were collected using the Tra...
Background:
Suicide ideation is a prerequisite for suicide attempts. However, the majority of ideators will never act on their thoughts. It is therefore crucial to understand factors that differentiate those who consider suicide from those who make suicide attempts.
Aim:
Our aim was to investigate the role of protective factors in differentiatin...
Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt einen ersten Einblick in die Ausbildungssituation für Psychotherapeuten in Österreich dar. Auf Grundlage einer Befragung von Kandidaten zu Beginn ihrer Ausbildung werden die Voraussetzungen von Psychotherapieausbildungskandidaten in Österreich betrachtet. Psychotherapeuten wurden am Beginn ihrer Ausbildung in Hinblick...
Burnout tritt in allen Berufen und Gesellschaftsschichten auf – warum nicht auch bei Psychotherapeuten? Der Beitrag ordnet Burnout-Prozesse in den Kontext professioneller Entwicklungsprozesse ein. Dabei scheint die Reflexion von Schwierigkeiten und Herausforderungen in der therapeutischen Arbeit die zentrale Stellschraube für funktionale bzw. dysfu...
Zusammenfassung
Im Rahmen des SOPHO-Net-Projektes, dessen Kernstudie eine randomisiert-kontrollierte Vergleichsstudie zur kognitiven bzw. psychodynamischen Kurzzeittherapie bei sozialer Angst war, wurde an einer Teilstichprobe von 88 Patienten aus 3 der 5 Zentren untersucht, ob der Behandlungserfolg, zu Therapiebeginn im Interview erhobene Bindungs...
Objective:
The German version of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI-G) is a validated measure for the detection of social anxiety disorder (SAD). The aim of the present study was to develop optimal cut points (OC) for remission and response to treatment for the SPAI-G.
Methods:
We used Receiver Operating Characteristic methods and boo...
Objectives
Within a randomized controlled trial contrasting the outcome of manualized cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and short term psychodynamic therapy (PDT) compared to a waiting list condition (the SOPHO-Net trial), we set out to test whether self-reported attachment characteristics change during the treatments and if these changes differ between t...
Background: In internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy, explicitly strengths-based approaches are still missing. The Personal Model of Resilience (PMR) is a positive intervention that utilizes clients’ strengths to overcome problems. Up to now, it has only been evaluated in a face-to-face setting. This study aimed to compare the PMR in a guided...
The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is the most frequently used instrument to assess social anxiety disorder (SAD) in clinical research and practice. Both a self‐reported (LSAS‐SR) and a clinician‐administered (LSAS‐CA) version are available. The aim of the present study was to define optimal cut‐off (OC) scores for remission and response to...
Die Forschung an psychotherapeutischen Hochschulambulanzen (HSA) leistet einen entscheidenden Beitrag zur Be- handlung von Menschen mit psychischen Störungen und zur Weiterentwicklung und wissenschaftlichen Fundierung von Psychotherapie im Kindes-, Jugend- und Erwachsenenalter. Durch das im Jahr 2013 gestartete Projekt zur Koordination der Datenerh...
Positive and negative mental health are independent but correlated concepts. Yet, it is unknown whether positive mental health does co-occur with suicide ideation. The present study aimed to determine the proportion of patients who have positive mental health as well as suicide ideation. Inpatients (N=100) and outpatients (N=182) completed self-rep...
This study investigated whether partner-related attachment characteristics differentially predict premature treatment termination as well as posttreatment and 1-year follow-up outcome in patients with social anxiety disorder treated with a manualized cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) or short-term psychodynamic therapy (PDT) in the SOPHO-NET (Soci...
Background: The present study aimed at validating the German version of the Brief Reasons for Living inventory (BRFL).
Methods: Validity and reliability were established in a community (n = 339) and a clinical sample (n = 272). Convergent and discriminant validity were investigated, and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for the complete B...
Background
The evaluation of the therapy outcome of psychotherapy training is an important component of internal quality management and patient-oriented research at training institutes. At the same time data in this research field are scarce.
Objective
First outcome evaluation in training centers of the training academy of the German Association o...
Depression and suicide ideation co-occur regularly. The present study investigated whether religious beliefs, i.e. trust in higher guidance, buffers the association between depression and suicide ideation. A total of 427 participants (n=93 inpatients, n=334 online sample) completed measures of suicide ideation, trust in higher guidance, and depress...
Objective:
This study examined psychotherapist trainees' experiences of "professional self-doubt" (PSD) and "negative personal reaction" (NPR) during cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and their associations with patients' symptoms and interpersonal problems.
Method:
Forty therapists treating 621 patients were analyzed. Patients' symptoms and in...
Background:
Interventions focusing on positive experiences have moderate effects on distress, protective factors and quality of life.
Aims:
To evaluate the 'Personal Model of Resilience' (PMR) intervention by Padesky and Mooney (2012) with a focus on resilience strategies the person already possesses.
Method:
In a pre-post design, intervention...
Background:
Social anxiety disorder is one of the most frequent mental disorders. It is often associated with mental comorbidities and causes a high economic burden. The aim of our analysis was to estimate the excess costs of patients with social anxiety disorder compared to persons without anxiety disorder in Germany.
Methods:
Excess costs of s...
Dieses Buch zeigt Psychotherapeuten, Psychiatern und Beratern detailliert die Gestaltung einer gruppentherapeutischen Behandlung und ist angepasst an die Behandlung von Patienten, die an leichteren Formen unipolarer Depressionen leiden. Sämtliche der beschriebenen therapeutischen Strategien lassen sich zudem im einzeltherapeutischen Kontext nutzen....
Background:
To determine the cost-effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) versus psychodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of social anxiety disorder after a follow-up of 30 months from a societal perspective.
Methods:
This analysis was conducted alongside the multicenter SOPHO-NET trial; adults with a primary diagnosis of social...
Objective:
The study represents a conceptual replication of the study by Eng et al. (2001) in a sample of adult patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder as primary diagnosis.
Methods:
Two different attachment questionnaires (Bielefeld Questionnaire of Client Expectations (BQCE) and Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-RD)) were applied...
Dealing with difficult clients, situations and their own emotions is an integral part of psychotherapists’ daily work; however, what is the nature of difficulties in psychotherapy and how should therapists’ deal with them? In spite of the high relevance of these topics for therapeutic practice, scientific research in this area lacks consistent defi...
Hintergrund: Bei hoher Prävalenz psychischer Störungen, hohem Behandlungsbedarf und langer Wartezeit auf einen Psychotherapieplatz mangelt es an niederschwelligen Versorgungsangeboten. Hier bieten sich kurze, positiv-psychologische Interventionen wie das „Persönliche Resilienzmodell“ (PRM) [1] an. Die Intervention wird erstmalig im naturalistischen...
In the journal Psychotherapeut, issues of psychotherapy training have been repeatedly published during recent years, especially related to discussions about a reform of the current training system. This reform now seems to have been initiated. Besides a historical sketch of the training-related discourse of recent years and a proposal for defining...
Outpatient university clinics for psychotherapy (as they have been established in
accordance with the German psychotherapy law of 1999) are important facilitators of
psychotherapy research. These clinics gather a considerable amount of data on therapy
outcome as well as on patient and therapist characteristics. Setting up closer research
cooperatio...
To investigate the short-term cost-effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy (PDT) compared to waiting list (WL).
The analysis was conducted alongside the SOPHO-NET multi-center efficacy trial. Patients were randomly assigned to CBT (n=209), PDT (n=207), or WL (n=79). Resource use was assessed prior and during tr...
The Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS) was developed to measure core concepts of behavioural activation for depression. A number of studies, mostly based on analogue samples, have provided initial support for the BADS. In the present study, we examined the psychometric properties of the German version of the scale more broadly, inclu...
Process research began with therapist-reported case studies describing therapeutic practice but conflating data and analysis. Audio recordings of therapy shifted the focus towards a third-party perspective, avoiding previous bias but marginalising therapy participants who alone can supply first-hand reports of the process. Today, both patients’ and...
The interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005) postulates that for a serious suicide attempt, one has to possess the acquired capability to commit suicide. Acquired capability includes higher pain tolerance, which is further assumed to comprise both an elevated physical pain tolerance and fearlessness of pain. Recently, the German Capability fo...
Die soziale Angststörung ist eine der häufigsten Angststörungen mit oft chronischem Verlauf, bei der die Angst vor Peinlichkeit oder Demütigung im Vordergrund steht. Im kognitiven Störungsmodell werden die zentralen Befürchtungen herausgearbeitet, die mit körperlichen Symptomen, Selbstaufmerksamkeitsprozessen, Sicherheits- und Vermeidungsverhalten...
Method:
Data came from the CT arm of a multicentre RCT with n = 244 patients having DSM-IV SAD. CT was conducted according to the manual by Clark and Wells. Severity of SAD was assessed at baseline and end of treatment with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Multiple linear regression analyses and logistic regression analyses were applied....
