Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for emotion regulation (mbct-er) for people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: development and preliminary evaluation

SeNSS ESRC-FUNDED COLLABORATIVE STUDENTSHIP OPPORTUNITY.

People diagnosed with ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’ (BPD) have severe, distressing, and hard to manage experiences. Difficulties with emotion regulation are core to the condition. The existing ‘gold standard’ treatment is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). This is costly, not implemented by many NHS trusts, not well tolerated and has modest outcomes and poorly understood mechanisms of action.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a brief group intervention with a strong evidence base for depression and other mental health conditions. MBCT has potential to target emotion dysregulation, the core problem of BPD.

The research has four interlocking objectives:

1. To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the role of emotion regulation in BPD and exploring the effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on emotion regulation outcomes.

2. To conduct a qualitative study exploring service user and therapist experiences of MBIs for people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Findings from objectives 1 and 2 will be used to refine the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) therapy manual.

3. Assess the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial of MBCT-ER.

4. Exploring the acceptability of the trial and therapy using qualitative methods.


The project will be co-supervised by Dr Clara Strauss, Dr Helen Startup (Consultant Clinical Psychologists and Clinical Research Fellows, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust), and Dr Claire Rosten.

A comprehensive package of training will be agreed in consultation with the supervisors. Elements of training will be provided by the supervisors, the University of Sussex, the Sussex Partnership Trust, and by other providers.

Applicants who have experience working in NHS mental health services would have an advantage.

Studentship Details:
• This studentship may be taken as either a 1+3 year award (a one-year MSc followed by a three-year PhD), or a +3 award (a three-year PhD)
• It may be taken full-time or part-time
The studentship award covers your university fees, and provides you with a stipend

Residential eligibility
To be eligible for a full award you must be a Home or EU student who satisfies the criteria below:
• You must have settled status in the UK, meaning there are no restrictions on how long you can stay in the UK; AND
• You must have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for 3 years prior to 30 September 2018, when the Studentship starts. ’Ordinarily resident’ means that you must have been normally residing in the UK (apart from any temporary or occasional absences; AND
• You must not have been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education. However, this criterion does not apply to UK or EU nationals.

Students from EU countries other than the UK are generally eligible for a fees-only award. To be eligible for a fees-only award, you must be ordinarily resident in a member state of the EU, in the same way as UK students must be ordinarily resident in the UK.

How to apply for this studentship
In order to be considered for this SeNSS studentship, you must first apply for a place to study at the University of Sussex, noting that you are applying for the collaborative studentship. Please go to http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/doctoral/funding-support/south-east-network-social-sciences for information on how to make your application.

You will then need to make a separate application to SeNSS for this collaborative studentship. Please read the SeNSS Collaborative Studentship Application Guidance Notes before completing our online application form. The Guidance Notes are available at: http://senss-dtp.ac.uk/applying-for-a-senss-collaborative-studentship/

Deadline:
The deadline applying to the University of Sussex for a place is 23:59 GMT on 21 January 2018. No extensions to this deadline will be permitted.