Unified Protocol

Abstract

Unified Protocol (UP) is a transdiagnostic treatment aimed at promoting emotion regulation skills in patients with emotional disorders. The approach targets maintaining factors common to many disorders, in line with recent knowledge about broad dimensions of personality underlying various diagnoses. It allows for the simultaneous treatment of comorbid disorders and can simplify training and treatment implementation. Central to emotional disorders is the individual’s negative reaction to their own emotions, and attempts to cope with them through avoidance or suppression. The goal of UP is to strengthen core skills that enable more adaptive ways of dealing with one’s emotions. These skills include understanding emotions, non-judgemental awareness, flexible thinking, the ability to do the opposite of avoidance behaviours, increased tolerance for physical sensations, and the ability to plan and carry out emotional exposure. In this article, we provide an overview of what a UP approach entails and illustrate this through the case of ‘Nadine’. Keywords: psychotherapy, transdiagnostic, Unified Protocol, emotion regulation, emotional disorders