Living Through Psychosis Programme

Living through Psychosis (LTP) is a psychology group intervention that addresses the primary issue of emotional dysregulation which is understood to be a significant vulnerability and co-morbidity factor in psychosis. The programme aims to provide emotional regulation, distress tolerance and mindfulness skills for individuals with psychosis (Psychosis, Schizophrenia, Schizo-affective Disorder, Acute psychotic episode and Bipolar affective disorder) to maintain gains made in hospital and to reduce the likelihood of relapse and to support patients to return to social and occupational recovery goals.

LTP has been developed in line with established models of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis which promotes normalising and coping with both positive and negative symptoms. These models have been enhanced by incorporating skills that focus on emotion regulation. Given that each patient is impacted uniquely by psychosis a formulation based approach further informs the content of the programme.

The programme provides teaching on eight skills which have been found to be important factors to better cope with symptoms. Additionally the programme provides a safe environment where the personal impact of psychosis can be explored. Following these eight sessions, each LTP group member is offered a level 2 intervention. This is a longer intervention and combines well established models of cognitive behavioural therapy with an emerging evidence base of Compassion focused therapy.