The Role of Spirituality in Mental Health Interventions: A Developmental Perspective

Th is article presents a four-level developmental description of the extent to which clinicians apply spirituality in therapy. At the fi rst level, clinicians begin to sense dissonance regarding their traditional, positivist worldview while conducting conventional psychotherapy, especially in cases involving life-threatening situations or loss. At the second level, clinicians open up to the possibility of the existence of a metaphysical reality and to spiritual/transpersonal beliefs expressed by clients. At the third level, clinicians may cautiously contact this transcendental reality and seek ways to utilize this dimension to access information relevant to therapy. At the fourth level, clinicians actively engage in implementing transpersonal interventions aimed at facilitating change and healing. Th ese levels of integration are delineated along with inherent changes in therapist worldview, perceived professional role, and relevant dilemmas

The current and future role of heart rate variability for assessing and training compassion

The evolution of mammalian caregiving involving hormones, such as oxytocin, vasopressin, and the myelinated vagal nerve as part of the ventral parasympathetic system, enables humans to connect, co-regulate each other's emotions and create prosociality. Compassion-based interventions draw upon a number of specific exercises and strategies to stimulate these physiological processes and create conditions of "interpersonal safeness," thereby helping people engage with, alleviate, and prevent suffering. Hence, compassion-based approaches are connected with our evolved caring motivation and attachment and our general affiliative systems that help regulate distress. Physiologically, they are connected to activity of the vagus nerve and corresponding adaptive heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is an important physiological marker for overall health, and the body-mind connection. Therefore, there is significant value of training compassion to increase HRV and training HRV to facilitate compassion. Despite the significance of compassion in alleviating and preventing suffering, there remain difficulties in its precise assessment. HRV offers a useful form of measurement to assess and train compassion. Specific examples of what exercises can facilitate HRV and how to measure HRV will be described. This paper argues that the field of compassion science needs to move toward including HRV as a primary outcome measure in its future assessment and training, due to its connection to vagal regulatory activity, and its link to overall health and well-being.N/

Differences in the semantics of prosocial words: an exploration of compassion and kindness

The study of prosocial behaviour has accelerated greatly in the last 20 years. Researchers are exploring different domains of prosocial behaviour such as compassion, kindness, caring, cooperation, empathy, sympathy, love, altruism and morality. While these constructs can overlap, and are sometimes used interchangeably, they also have distinctive features that require careful elucidation. This paper discusses some of the controversies and complexities of describing different (prosocial) mental states, followed by a study investigating the differences between two related prosocial concepts: compassion and kindness. For the study, a scenario-based questionnaire was developed to assess the degree to which a student (N = 222) and a community (N = 112) sample judged scenarios in terms of compassion or kindness. Subsequently, participants rated emotions (e.g. sadness, anxiety, anger, disgust, joy) associated with each scenario. Both groups clearly distinguished kindness from compassion in the scenarios on the basis of suffering. In addition, participants rated compassion-based scenarios as significantly higher on sadness, anger, anxiety and disgust, whereas kindness-based scenarios had higher levels of joy. As a follow-up, a further sample (29 male, 63 female) also rated compassionate scenarios as involving significantly more suffering compared to the kindness scenarios. Although overlapping concepts, compassion and kindness are clearly understood as different processes with different foci, competencies and emotion textures. This has implications for research in prosocial behaviour, and the cultivation of kindness and compassion for psychotherapy and in general.N/

Endogenous oxytocin is associated with the experience of compassion and recalled upbringing in Borderline Personality Disorder

Background/Objective The role of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is poorly understood. It is particularly unknown how early experiences with caregivers moderate the action of OT in BPD. Here, we examined the association of plasma OT levels in BPD patients with the experience of compassion and recalled parental behavior during childhood. Methods Fifty-seven BPD patients and 43 healthy controls participated in the study. OT plasma levels were analyzed by radioimmunoassay. Subjects additionally completed questionnaires focusing on fears of compassion (FOC) and recalled upbringing (“Questionnaire of Recalled Parental Rearing Behavior/Fragebogen zum erinnerten elterlichen Erziehungsverhalten,” FEE). Results BPD patients had significantly lower OT plasma levels than healthy controls and differed significantly on all FOC and FEE scales; BPD patients had higher FOC scores (indicating more aversion of being compassionate to themselves and others and receiving compassion from others). They also differed in recalled parenting. In the BPD group, scores of the FOC scale “fear of compassion from others” were significantly negatively correlated with OT levels. Moreover, recalled “emotional warmth” of their parents during childhood was positively correlated with OT plasma levels of BPD subjects. No such correlations were found in the control group. Conclusion Our results corroborate findings from previous studies reporting lower OT levels in patients with BPD. Moreover, peripheral OT seems to be linked with the tolerance of compassionate feelings and early experiences with caregivers. This is consistent with other findings that OT is an important mediator of the experience of emotional warmth from others.N/

Creating Art Together as a Transformative Process in Parent-Child Relations: The Therapeutic Aspects of the Joint Painting Procedure

The relationships between parents and children contain implicit aspects, which are non-conscious and non-verbal, in addition to explicit ones. Both explicit and implicit aspects are central to understanding the dyadic dynamics and are implicated in psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Visual symbolization has a unique value as a channel of expression that can capture the implicit characteristics of relationships. Creating art together goes even further because it allows the presence of implicit representations of the relations in vivo. These representations can then be transformed through the joint process of creation, which has a unique potential to unleash reflective capacities when it is experienced in a playful and safe context. This paper presents a qualitative study that is part of larger mixed-methods research with 87 mother-child dyads (with children 9 to 12 years old). Dyads were administered the Joint Painting Procedure (JPP), which includes dyadic painting by the parent and child on the same paper and is used for evaluation and treatment in the field of parent-child therapy and art therapy. The study’s objectives were to uncover and better understand the unique therapeutic aspects that such method allows and its potential to impact parent-child relationships. The findings of the qualitative study indicated that the JPP enabled several dynamic processes such as pleasure and fun, bi-directionality, mutual regulation, mentalization, and mutual recognition, which together created a salient positive transformation in the relationship. Through the JPP, a new transformative aspect of relations emerges and enables new and different modes of communication and interactions in about half of the dyads and a lesser and partial positive transformation in about a third of them

Interview investigation of insecure attachment styles as mediators between poor childhood care and schizophrenia-spectrum phenomenology

Background Insecure attachment styles have received theoretical attention and some initial empirical support as mediators between childhood adverse experiences and psychotic phenomena; however, further specificity needs investigating. The present interview study aimed to examine (i) whether two forms of poor childhood care, namely parental antipathy and role reversal, were associated with subclinical positive and negative symptoms and schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder (PD) traits, and (ii) whether such associations were mediated by specific insecure attachment styles. Method A total of 214 nonclinical young adults were interviewed for subclinical symptoms (Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States), schizophrenia-spectrum PDs (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders), poor childhood care (Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Interview), and attachment style (Attachment Style Interview). Participants also completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II and all the analyses were conducted partialling out the effects of depressive symptoms. Results Both parental antipathy and role reversal were associated with subclinical positive symptoms and with paranoid and schizotypal PD traits. Role reversal was also associated with subclinical negative symptoms. Angry-dismissive attachment mediated associations between antipathy and subclinical positive symptoms and both angry-dismissive and enmeshed attachment mediated associations of antipathy with paranoid and schizotypal PD traits. Enmeshed attachment mediated associations of role reversal with paranoid and schizotypal PD traits. Conclusions Attachment theory can inform lifespan models of how adverse developmental environments may increase the risk for psychosis. Insecure attachment provides a promising mechanism for understanding the development of schizophrenia-spectrum phenomenology and may offer a useful target for prophylactic intervention

Sleeping out-of-home in a kibbutz communal arrangement: It makes a difference for infant-mother attachment

Wetensch. publicatieFaculteit der Sociale Wetenschappe

Venous-derived angioblasts generate organ-specific vessels during zebrafish embryonic development

open11siFormation and remodeling of vascular beds are complex processes orchestrated by multiple signaling pathways. Although it is well accepted that vessels of a particular organ display specific features that enable them to fulfill distinct functions, the embryonic origins of tissue-specific vessels and the molecular mechanisms regulating their formation are poorly understood. The subintestinal plexus of the zebrafish embryo comprises vessels that vascularize the gut, liver and pancreas and, as such, represents an ideal model in which to investigate the early steps of organ-specific vessel formation. Here, we show that both arterial and venous components of the subintestinal plexus originate from a pool of specialized angioblasts residing in the floor of the posterior cardinal vein (PCV). Using live imaging of zebrafish embryos, in combination with photoconvertable transgenic reporters, we demonstrate that these angioblasts undergo two phases of migration and differentiation. Initially, a subintestinal vein forms and expands ventrally through a Bone Morphogenetic Protein-dependent step of collective migration. Concomitantly, a Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-dependent shift in the directionality of migration, coupled to the upregulation of arterial markers, is observed, which culminates with the generation of the supraintestinal artery. Together, our results establish the zebrafish subintestinal plexus as an advantageous model for the study of organ-specific vessel development and provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms controlling its formation. More broadly, our findings suggest that PCV-specialized angioblasts contribute not only to the formation of the early trunk vasculature, but also to the establishment of late-forming, tissue-specific vascular beds.openHen, Gideon; Nicenboim, Julian; Mayseless, Oded; Asaf, Lihee; Shin, Masahiro; Busolin, Giorgia; Hofi, Roy; Almog, Gabriella; Tiso, Natascia; Lawson, Nathan D.; Yaniv, KarinaHen, Gideon; Nicenboim, Julian; Mayseless, Oded; Asaf, Lihee; Shin, Masahiro; Busolin, Giorgia; Hofi, Roy; Almog, Gabriella; Tiso, Natascia; Lawson, Nathan D.; Yaniv, Karin