Oral 01 | Combining imagery rescripting with psychoeducation among young body-dissatisfied women

Tracks
Track 10
Friday, May 15, 2020
3:40 PM - 5:00 PM

Presenter(s)

Yuan Zhou
Flinders University

Oral 01 | Combining imagery rescripting with psychoeducation among young body-dissatisfied women

3:40 PM - 4:00 PM

Outline

Imagery rescripting has been shown to increase self-compassion among body-dissatisfied young women in previous studies (Pennesi & Wade, 2018; Zhou & Wade, in prep), while having smaller effect size changes on disordered eating and body image itself compared to psychoeducation (Zhou & Wade, in prep). The current study aims to combine the use of psychoeducation, which teaches participants the effect that eating disorders have on the brain and the importance of regular eating, with imagery rescripting to see if both methods are more effective combined than when used alone. Young body-dissatisfied women who demonstrated an elevated risk of developing an eating disorder were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions; imagery rescripting and psychoeducation combined, imagery rescripting only, psychoeducation only, and control. All participants received a brief intervention in the lab, and those who were in the combined or imagery rescripting condition practised imagery rescripting for five minutes each day for a week. Self-compassion and disordered eating behaviours were measured at baseline and 1-week follow up. It was hypothesized that when psychoeducation was used in combination with imagery rescripting, larger effect size changes would be observed in self-compassion and disordered eating compared to when imagery rescripting or psychoeducation was used on its own. The implication of such a combined approach will be discussed in the context of effective psychoeducation choice for young women at risk of developing an eating disorder, and the unique addition of imagery rescripting to enhance the effect of psychoeducation.

Biography

Yuan (Joanne) is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology studying at Flinders University in Adelaide. Her PhD thesis involves investigating the efficacy of imagery rescripting as an adjunct for treating eating disorders. Recently, she was awarded the Peter Beumont Young Investigator Award at the 2019 Australia & New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders conference.
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