Welcome to the Blog!
April 2023
Planning trip to Korea in June to the World Congress Of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies.
I’ll be presenting a workshop entitled “Addiction : A motivational problem with a cognitive solution”.
February 2023
About 200 attended my Webinar on CBT applied to addiction. Thanks to BABCP for excellent organisation and support!
March 2022
New publication!
My best effort at applying cognitive neuroscience and other research findings in the addiction field to justify a focus on core therapeutic processes such as reward sensitivity and cognitive control.
Addiction is viewed as a motivational problem ( rooted in changes to reward processing and prioritising) with a cognitive solution ( engaging deliberate controlled cognition to establish other valued goals and pursue them).
September 2021
Bags packed (almost), checked in and boarding pass downloaded. EABCT21 starts in Belfast tomorrow.
May 2021
Looking forward to visiting Belfast September 8-11th to participate in EABCT 2021 – 2021 Annual Congress in Belfast for EABCT, BABCP, IABCP
Submissions open until 17th May: Submission – EABCT 2021
July 2020
I’m delighted to start my new role as Visiting Research Fellow at
London South Bank University! I’ll be teaching and working on research grants (hopefully successfully!)
All my therapy and teaching is now delivered online. Its a new way of engaging with clients, colleagues and students. Some advantages ( e.g flexibility with time and no traveling / commuting) but I miss the social interaction and chat! Therapeutic and learning outcomes seem as good as ever, but I have not done a controlled study!
In February I conducted a webinar on psychological approaches to managing addiction to colleagues in Russian speaking lands such as Ukraine, Belarus and ( of course!) the Russian Federation. About 180 participated and the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive” according to the organisers. Many thanks to them and the translator.
January also signalled the start of a new role as Clinical Tutor on the Clinical Psychology Training course at Royal Holloway, University of London. Great to be facilitating learning with such a talented and enthusiastic group of trainees- the next generation of leaders in Clinical Psychology.
January 1st 2020 began with my appearance ( or at least my voice!) on BBC Scotland on the Kaye Adams show. I was part of a discussion on New Year’s Resolutions and how to maintain the goal in the face of challenges to willpower.
September 2019: I was speaking about The Psychology of Smoking Cessation at the Smoking Cessation & Mental Health Summit at the Royal College of Medicine, London. Here I am ( third from right as you look at picture!) with the other speakers. I spoke about the ways smoking contributes to the development and maintenance of mental health conditions and why it is so important to help people stop using evidence based psychological and pharmacological treatments #stolenyears.
August 2019: The Willpower Workshop was a sell-out at the World Congress in Berlin in July 2019. Participants were from Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, France and Brazil. And here was a book signing afterwards! Photo is me in author mode with colleague from Croatia.
- March 2019. Delighted to take on the role of chair of the British Psychological Society’s Faculty of Addictions. This sits in the Division of Clinical Psychology and aims to promote evidence based approaches and improve understanding and outcomes in the broad field of addiction and substance misuse. Follow on @BPS_Addictions
- February 2019. The Willpower Workshop continues on its Grand Tour! After visits to The Hague, Stockholm, Ljubljana and Sofia it is due in Berlin at the World Congress of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies in 17th -20th July 2019
- January 2019.I was interviewed for this article on willpower and New Year resolutions in the Guardian. Happy New Year!
- December 2018. I was talking about psychosocial interventions in addiction Friday 7th December at the America Square Conference Centre, 1 America Square, 17 Crosswall, London EC3 N 2LB ( Tower Hill Tube) more details: willpower http://www.mahealthcareevents.co.uk/addictions2018 This was a welcome opportunity for update for all health and social care workers, and a chance to meet up with former colleagues.
The Willpower Workshop was well attended in Sofia, Bulgaria at the European Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies annual congress 7th September 2018 : http://www.eabct2018.org/ More details here: http://eabct2018.org/lecturers/frank-ryan
- Next workshop planned for Berlin, July 2019 : http://www.wcbct2019.org
You can download a FREE copy of a book I co-edited by following this link ( now with over 65,000 views!):
https://www.frontiersin.org/books/Reward_Processing_in_Motivational_and_Affective_Disorders/1023
It is based on an innovative approach to understanding the origin and treatment of mental health conditions known as the Research Domains Criteria