Presented by Dr Jane Gregory

About the event

This in-person workshop has been organised by the Manchester Branch.

Please note: This event is in-person attendance only, there isn’t the option to view online or watch a recording afterwards.

A certificate of attendance will be issued for 6 hours CPD. All hours can be counted as skills development.

Please read the Events Cancellation Policy before booking your place. 

Registration closes – Friday 6 November. Places are limited though, so book early to avoid disappointment!

Event synopsis 

Misophonia is a newly identified phenomenon of auditory over-responsivity, where sounds like chewing, coughing and typing evoke reactions of anger, panic and helplessness. Treatment-seeking individuals report significant distress and impairment in their daily lives, often with co-occurring depression and anxiety symptoms. 

There is evidence that CBT approaches can reduce distress and improve functioning and mental health outcomes for individuals with misophonia. Given the relative infancy of misophonia treatment literature, interventions must be highly individualised and collaborative. Therapist and client develop shared theories about maintaining factors and target those mechanisms using established CBT strategies, continually revising theories to incorporate new information. 

This workshop introduces a CBT framework for formulating misophonia. The “Three Cycles of Misophonia” approach targets the individual’s specific maintenance factors with behavioural experiments and practical strategies. It maps out three interrelated cycles: sensory processing and attention; escalation in response to triggers; problem maintenance between triggers. 

The workshop includes a live Q&A with someone with lived experience, highlighting the importance of awareness and compassion. Attendees will construct a formulation, adapt their existing skills to work with this underserved client group, use self-practice to try specific techniques for helping clients engage with sounds in new ways, and discuss applications of these strategies to low intensity interventions.

Learning objectives 

• Construct an individualised formulation of misophonia identifying maintenance processes
• Distinguish inhibitory learning approaches from traditional exposure
• Design sounds-based experiments using a client-centred framework
• Incorporate sociocultural information into the formulation and treatment design
• Use self-practice/self-reflection tools to prepare for working with client groups that are frequently misunderstood
• Address the challenges of working with this client group in a low-intensity setting

About the speaker

Jane Gregory is a clinical psychologist researching cognitive-behavioural mechanisms of misophonia at the University of Oxford. She set up a pathway for treating misophonia in a national specialist NHS psychology service and provides specialist supervision for a team of therapists seeing individuals and families affected by misophonia. She is in the academic team for the clinical psychology doctorate course at Oxford, leading on curriculum planning for CBT skills and leadership. She is also an advocate for misophonia awareness and author of the book ‘Sounds Like Misophonia: How to stop small noises from causing extreme reactions‘.