Translating Science to Practice

Strategies for Treating Rumination

Edward Watkins, Ph.D., interviewed by Jacqueline Persons, Ph.D.

Rumination is a common clinical symptom and can interfere with treatment progress, yet few tools are available for clinicians to target this problem. Edward Watkins, PhD and his colleagues have developed a new model for conceptualizing and targeting rumination with depressed clients - the habit-goal framework of rumination. In this interview, he and Jacqueline Persons, PhD discuss his model, as well as specific clinical strategies that therapists can use to treat rumination.

See Watkins, E. R. & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2014). A habit-goal framework of depressive rumination. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 24-34.

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About Dr. Watkins

Edward Watkins, PhD is Professor of Experimental and Applied Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter. He currently works as a researcher (doing both basic and clinical research), teacher, and practitioner. In addition to conducting research on rumination, Dr. Watkins also studies diet and behavioral change to prevent depression and obesity, the use of e-therapies to prevent depression and anxiety, and the use of innovative trial designs to disentangle the active ingredients of internet-delivered CBT. He has been funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Medical Research Council and has received a European Commission FP7 award and a NARSAD Young Investigators Award. Dr. Watkins also won the British Psychological Society's May Davidson Award in 2004 for outstanding early-career contribution to the development of clinical psychology and is a member of the UK NICE guidelines review board for adult depression.

You can read more about Dr. Watkins at his website by clicking this link.

About Dr. Persons

Jacqueline Persons, PhD is Director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Science Center, a group private practice in Oakland, California, and Clinical Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She has published articles, chapters, and book on the topics of outcome and change processes in cognitive behavior therapy, especially as it is provided in a naturalistic clinical setting, and on the topic of case formulation in cognitive behavior therapy. Dr. Persons has presented training workshops to clinicians on case formulation and other topics in cognitive behavior therapy at numerous national and international conferences. She is a former President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology.