Introduction
Chronic loneliness plays a critical role in the onset, maintenance, and exacerbation of a range of mental health disorders including depression, social anxiety, psychosis and trauma-related disorders. It is also a prominent feature among individuals with neurodiversity and long-term health conditions. The relationship between loneliness and mental health difficulties is often bidirectional, with each reinforcing the other.
Despite its prevalence and clinical significance, loneliness is frequently under-recognised as a specific treatment target in psychological therapy. Instead, it is often regarded as an untreatable consequence of external circumstances. This represents a missed opportunity. Loneliness is driven and maintained by identifiable psychological processes, including negative interpersonal appraisals (e.g., “People don’t like me”), counterproductive behaviour (e.g., avoidance), and cognitive processes (e.g., hypervigilance to rejection).
These psychological processes negatively impact valued social contact, maintaining the perceived mismatch between an individual’s desired and actual social connections. However, they are highly amenable to cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) which provides clinicians with powerful tools to interrupt these cycles and help clients build, recognise and appreciate meaningful, personally fulfilling relationships.
The event will be equivalent to 2.3/4hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will provide a clear, practical, modular CBT framework for addressing the diverse presentations of loneliness across different populations, ages and mental health conditions. Drawing on recent theoretical and clinical developments, participants will learn to conceptualise loneliness within this modular CBT approach, develop effective case formulations, and tailor interventions to meet the specific needs of their clients. Participants will gain skills in identifying and modifying maladaptive cognitions, addressing avoidance behaviours, and using behavioural experiments to help clients reduce loneliness. By viewing loneliness as a critical transdiagnostic process, clinicians will learn how to enhance recovery and optimise outcomes for clients across mental health disorders.
Learning Objectives
1. Differentiate between social isolation and chronic loneliness, and understand how chronic loneliness contributes to the onset and maintenance of a range of mental health disorders.
2. Recognise the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional processes that contribute to and maintain chronic loneliness, and understand their role in various mental health conditions.
3. Conceptualise chronic loneliness within a modular CBT framework to develop effective case formulations.
4. Develop practical CBT skills to address chronic loneliness, including identifying maladaptive cognitions, addressing avoidance behaviours, and using behavioural experiments.
Training Modalities
Video demonstration, didactic content, experiential, and case examples.
Key References
Cawthorne, T., Käll, A., Bennett, S., Baker, E., Andersson, G., & Shafran, R. (2023). The development and preliminary evaluation of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Chronic Loneliness in Young People. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 51(5), 414-431.
Cawthorne, T., Qualter, P., Bennett, S., Käll, A., Andersson, G., & Shafran, R. (2025). Editorial Perspective: How can we develop effective and timely interventions for young people with chronic loneliness?. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 66(5), 767-770.
Käll, A., Shafran, R., Lindegaard, T., Bennett, S., Cooper, Z., Coughtrey, A., & Andersson, G. (2020). A common elements approach to the development of a modular cognitive behavioral theory for chronic loneliness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 88(3), 269.
Käll, A., Backlund, U., Shafran, R., & Andersson, G. (2020). Lonesome no more? A two-year follow-up of internet-administered cognitive behavioral therapy for loneliness. Internet Interventions, 19, 100301.
Hards, E., Loades, M. E., Higson‐Sweeney, N., Shafran, R., Serafimova, T., Brigden, A., ... & Borwick, C. (2022). Loneliness and mental health in children and adolescents with pre‐existing mental health problems: A rapid systematic review. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(2), 313-334.
Mann, F., Wang, J., Pearce, E., Ma, R., Schlief, M., Lloyd-Evans, B., ... & Johnson, S. (2022). Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 57(11), 2161-2178.
About the presenter
Roz Shafran is Emeritus Professor of Translational Psychology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, England and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She has published extensively on the application of CBT across mental health issues, including chronic loneliness, perfectionism, eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. One of the originators of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), her clinical research focuses on transdiagnostic interventions that target underlying cognitive and behavioural processes common to multiple disorders.
She has authored over 400 papers and six books. Roz is a highly regarded speaker and trainer, and founder of the Charlie Waller Institute and co-founder of Bespoke Mental Health. Roz has received numerous accolades for her contributions to the field, including awards for the implementation of research into clinical practice.
Who should attend
This event is suitable for all clinicians working with loneliness. Familiarity with CBT is an advantage.