Pilot of an acceptance and commitment therapy and schema group intervention for mental health carer's interpersonal problems

The use of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Schema group intervention with the mental health carer population has a strong justification: 1) There is a theoretical rationale for the role of experiential avoidance and negative expectations of relationships (and associated cognitive fusion) in underpinning mental health carers interpersonal problems; 2) Correlational data demonstrates that the processes targeted by ACT (i.e. experiential avoidance) and Schema therapy (i.e. negative expectations of relationships) are associated with mental health carer's experiences of interpersonal problems; 3) Existing studies demonstrate positive results for ACT based interventions with caregiver populations; 4) Multicomponent carer interventions with two conceptually different approaches have achieved more positive outcomes in prior studies. The current study aims to pilot an ACT and Schema group intervention for mental health carers’ interpersonal problems, examining acceptability and conducting preliminary assessment of effectiveness.