Research

The Conversational Model has an evidence based research platform.

From the beginning Robert Hobson and Russell Meares underpinned their clinical findings with research on what Hobson termed ‘The Conversational Model’.  They recorded and analysed their own psychotherapeutic practice with a group of clients now described as experiencing Personality Disorders and Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders. A model that explains Borderline Personality as a disorder associated with dissociation was published by Meares in 2012.  The model has been manualised, Meares et al 2012b. 

The recently published (2020) randomised clinical trial comparing the Conversational Model and Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT) in patients with borderline personality disorder, is the second largest such trial in the Southern Hemisphere.  The trial found the Conversational Model produces beneficial effects and is a cost-effective treatment for borderline personality disorder.  The research findings will be included in the Cochrane Review of Psychotherapy. Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy, and are internationally recognised as the highest standard in evidence-based health care resources. These reviews investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.

A Conversational Model Adherence Scale has been developed, Halovic et al 2016.

An abbreviated version of the model has been manualised as Dynamic – Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Haliburn 2017.  The Dynamic – Interpersonal form of the model has been shown to be effective in treating depression, in certain psychosomatic disorders and to be cost-effective in treating repeated users of clinic services. The Dynamic – Interpersonal form is useful in reducing repeated episodes of self-harm. 

Published books and papers related to the Conversational Model

2020

Walton, C., Bendit, N., Lewin, T. and Carter, G. (2020) A randomised trial of dialectical behaviour therapy and the conversational model for the treatment of borderline personality disorder with recent suicidal and/or non-suicidal self-injury: An effectiveness study in an Australian public mental health service. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

Meares. R. (2020). The Intimate third: Towards a Theory of Coherence. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 30:1, 1-18 

2017

Haliburn, J. (2017) An Integrated Approach to Short-Term Dynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy: A Clinician's Guide. Karnac Books.

Haliburn, J., Stevenson, J. and Halovic, S. (2017) Integration in the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy of Severe Personaloty Disorders: the Conversational Model. Journal of Personality Disorders, 31 (1), 1-17.

Stevenson, J., Haliburn, J., and Halovic, S. (2017). Trauma, personalisty disorders and chronic depression - the role of the conversational model of psychodynamic psychotherapy in treatment resistant depression. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. 30 (1), 23-41.

2016

Walton, C., Bendit, N., Lewin, T. and Carter, G. A Randomised Clinical Trial comparing DBT and the Conversational Model in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Is being drafted in anticipation of publication in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Presented at the ANZAP Conference, Sydney September 25-26 2016.  Presented at 4th International conference on borderline personality disorder, Vienna, September 8-10  2016.

Halovic, S., Korner, A., McLean, L., Chapman, C., Haliburn, J., Stevenson, J., Butt, D., Graham, P., Malloch, S., Phillips, T., Meares, R. (2016). Development of the CMAS: Conversational model adherence scale. Paper presented at the ANZAP Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Meares, R. (2016). The Poet's Voice in the Making of Mind. Abingdon: Routledge. Note: Comments by Thomas Ogden, Colwyn Trevarthen and Allan Schore.

Stevenson, J., Haliburn, J., Halovic, S. (2016). Trauma, personality disorders and chronic depression- the role of the conversational model of psychodynamic psychotherapy in treatment resistant depression. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 30(1), 23-41.

2015

Haliburn, J. (2015). Attachment, Loss, Trauma and Personality in Resistant Depression. Journal of Psychology and Psychotherapy Research, 2(1), 25-32

Haliburn, J. (2015). Separation Anxiety, the Dread of and the Capacity to Tolerate Aloneness: A Clinical Approach. In C. Rivera (Eds.), Separation Anxiety: Risk Factors, Prevalence and Clinical Management, (pp. 91-118). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Stevenson, J., Hailburn, J., and Halovic, S.  (2015). Trauma, personality disorders and chronic depression – the role of the conversational model of psychodynamic psychotherapy in treatment resistant depression. Nov 2015 · Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

2014

Haliburn, J. (2014). The links between early childhood trauma and major mental illness: Psychiatry's response? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 48(6), 580-581

Haliburn, J. & Baker, A. (2014). What has happened to the practice of short term dynamic psychotherapy in Australia's mental health services? A multidisciplinary training programme in Western Sydney. Australasian Psychiatry, 22(5), 443-446.

2013

Bendit, N. (2013). Reputation and science: Examining the effectiveness of DBT in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Australasian Psychiatry Nov 2013

Haliburn, J. (2013). Traumatic Attachment as Adaptation: The Biopsychosocial Impact. In Thijs Van Leeuwen, Marieke Brouwer (Eds.), Psychology of Trauma, (pp. 1-33). New York: Nova Science Publishers

2012

Meares, R. (2012). A Dissociation Model of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology: (D. J. Siegel & A. Schore Eds.). New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.

Meares, R., Bendit, N., Haliburn, J., Korner, A., Mears, D., and Butt, D. 2012b. Borderline Personality Disorder and the Conversational Model: A Clinicians Manual. The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology: (D. J. Siegel & A. Schore Eds.). New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.

Melkonian, D., Korner, A., Meares, R., Bahramali, H. (2012). Increasing sensitivity in the measurement of heart rate variability: The method of non-stationary RR time-frequency analysis. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 108(1), 53-67.

Meares, R. (2012). The sense of the spirit as a form of conversation. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 5(2), 190-192.

2011

Bendit, N. (2011) Chronic Suicidal Thoughts and Implicit Memory: Hypothesis and Practical Implications Australasian Psychiatry vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 25-29.

Haliburn, J. (2011). From traumatic attachment to somatization disorder. Australasian Psychiatry, 19(5), 401-405.

Haliburn, J. (2011). Why do adolescents return to an acute psychiatric unit? Australasian Psychiatry, 19(2), 181-181

Meares, R., Schore, A., Melkonian, D. (2011). Is borderline personality a particularly right hemispheric disorder? A study of P3a using single trial analysis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(2), 131-139.

Meares, R., Gerull, F., Stevenson, J., Korner, A. (2011). Is self disturbance the core of borderline personality disorder? An outcome study of borderline personality factors. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(3), 214-222.

2010

Meares Russell. Dissociation: Presentation and DVD.  Psychotherapy Think Tank /Grand Rounds 14-4-10.

Korner, A., Bendit, N., Ptok, U., and Butt, D. (2010). Formulation, Conversation and Therapeutic Engagement, Australasian Psychiatry react-text: 50 18(3):214-20

2009

Haliburn, J., Stevenson, J., Gerull, F. (2009). A university psychotherapy training program in a psychiatric hospital: 25 years of the conversational model in the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder. Australasian Psychiatry, 17(1), 25-28

Haliburn, J. (2009). Integration through relatedness in the conversational model: a case study. Australasian Psychiatry, 17(1), 29-33

2008

Brakoulias, V., Langdon,, R., Sloss, G., Coltheart, M., Meares, R., Harris, A. (2008). Delusions and reasoning: A study involving cognitive behavioural therapy. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 13(2), 148-165.

Meares, R., Gerull, F., Korner, A., Melkonian, D., Stevenson, J., Samir, H. (2008). Somatization and stimulus entrapment. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 36(1), 165-180.

Gerull, F., Meares, R., Stevenson, J., Korner, A., Newman, L. (2008). The beneficial effect on family life in treating borderline personality. Psychiatry, 71(1), 59-70.

Korner, A., Gerull, F., Meares, R., Stevenson, J. (2008). The nothing that is something: core dysphoria as the central feature of borderline personality disorder Implications for treatment. American journal of psychotherapy, 62(4), 377-394.

Meares, R. (2008). The One into Many: The concept of dissociation. In Russell Meares & Pauline Nolan (Eds.), The Self in Conversation (Volume VII), (pp. 10-27). Australia: ANZAP books: ANZ Association of Psychologists books.

Meares, R., and Graham, P. (2008). Recognition and the Duality of Self.  International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. 3: 432-446.

Pickering, J. (2008). Being in Love: Therapeutic Pathways through the Psychological Obstacles to Love. Routledge, England

2007

Korner, A., Gerull, F., Stevenson, J., Meares, R. (2007). Harm avoidance, self-harm, psychic pain, and the borderline personality: life in a "haunted house". Comprehensive Psychiatry, 48(3), 303-308

Meares, R. (2007). The Meditative Conversation. In R. Meares ansd P. Nolan (Eds.), The Self in Conversation Vol. VI, (pp. 10- 21). Australia: ANZAP books: ANZ Association of Psychologists books.

Meares, R. (2007). The Meditative Gaze of Pieter Bruegel. In R. Meares ansd P. Nolan (Eds.), The Self in Conversation Vol. VI, (pp. 22-28). Australia: ANZAP books: ANZ Association of Psychologists books.

Meares, R., Robert, H. (2007). The Persecutory Therapist. In R. Meares ansd P. Nolan (Eds.), The Self in Conversation Vol. VI, (pp. 94-112). Australia: ANZAP books: ANZ Association of Psychologists books.

Meares, R., Nolan, P. (Eds). (2007). The Self in Conversation Vol. VI. Australia: ANZAP books: ANZ Association of Psychologists books.

2006

Williams, L., Liddell, B., Kemp, A., Bryant, R., Meares, R., Peduto, A., Gordon, E. (2006). Amygdala-prefrontal dissociation of subliminal and supraliminal fear. Human Brain Mapping, 27(8), 652-661.

Meares, R. (2006). Attacks on Value: a New Approach to Depression. Psychotherapy in Australia, 12(3), 62-68.

Korner, A., Gerull, F., Meares, R., Stevenson, J. (2006). Borderline personality disorder treated with the conversational model: a replication study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 47(5), 406-411.

Williams, L., Sidis, A., Gordon, E., Meares, R. (2006). Missing links in borderline personality disorder: loss of neural synchrony relates to lack of emotion regulation and impulse control. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 31(3), 181- 188.

Meares, R. (2006). Re: Recent advances in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie), 51(5), 333-334.

Meares, Russell. (2006). The Conversational Model. In Sidney Bloch (Ed.), An introduction to the psychotherapies. (4th ed).  (pp 287- 305). Oxford University Press, Oxford. PP 289-305

2005

Meares, R., Butt, D., Henderson-Brooks, C., Samir, H. (2005). A poetics of change. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15(5), 661-680.

Meares, R., Melkonian, D., Gordon, E., Williams, L. (2005). Distinct pattern of P3a event-related potential in borderline personality disorder. NeuroReport, 16(3), 289-93.

Stevenson, J., Meares, R., D'Angelo, R. (2005). Five-year outcome of outpatient psychotherapy with borderline patients. Psychological Medicine, 35(1), 79-87.

Korner, A., Meares, R., Stevenson, J., Yee, L., McSwiggan, S. (2005). Persistent hallucinosis in borderline personality disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 46(2), 147-154.

Meares, Russell. (2005) The Metaphor of Play: Origin and Breakdown of Personal Being. 3rd edition. Hove, UK: Rutledge Taylor and Francis Group. Note: Foreword Glen Gabbard

2004

Meares, R. (2004). The Conversational Model: An Outline. American journal of psychotherapy, 58(1), 51-66.

2003

Stevenson, J., Meares, R., Comerford, A. (2003). Diminished impulsivity in older patients with borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(1), 165-166.

Melkonian, D., Blumenthal, T., Meares, R. (2003). High- resolution fragmentary decomposition - a model-based method of non-stationary electrophysiological signal analysis. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 131, 149-159.

Meares, Russell and Nolan, Pauline (Eds), (2003). The Self in Conversation Vol II. ANZAP

2002

Meares, R., Stevenson, J., D'Angelo, R. (2002). Eysenck's challenge to psychotherapy a view of the effects 50 years on. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 36(6), 812- 815.

Meares, Russell and Nolan, Pauline (Eds), (2002). The Self in Conversation Vol I. ANZAP

2001

Meares, R. (2001). A specific developmental deficit in obsessive-compulsive disorder: the example of the wolf man. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 21, 289-319.

Hall, J., Stevenson, J., Meares, R., Caleo,, S. (2001). An economic analysis of psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder patients. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 4, 3-8.

Bahramali, H., Lim, C., Rennie, C., Meares, R., Gordon, E. (2001). ERPs associated with and without an "orienting reflex" in patients with schizophrenia. International Journal of Neuroscience, 108, 163-174.

Gordon, E., Williams, L., Haig, A., Meares, R., Wright, S. (2001). Symptom profile and "gamma" processing in schizophrena. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 6, 7-19.

Lazzaro, I., Gordon, E., Whitmont, K., Meares, R., Clarke, S. (2001). The modulation of late component event related potentials by pre-stimulus EEG theta activity in ADHD. International Journal of Neuroscience, 107, 247-264.

1992-2000

Meares, Russell. (2000). Intimacy and Alienation: memory, trauma and personal being. Routledge Group, London. Note: Foreword Thomas Ogden

Meares, Russell. (2000). Priming and projective identification. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. 64 (1) 76-90

Meares, R,. Stevenson,J., & Comerford, A. (1999).Psychotherapy with borderlinepatients: 1. A comparison between treated and untreated cohorts. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33, 467-472.

Stevenson,J., & Meares, R. (1999).Psychotherapy with borderline patients, Part I: A preliminary cost-benefit analysis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33(3), 473-477.

Meares, Russell. (1998). The Self in Conversation. On Narratives, Chronicles and Scripts. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 8 (6) 875-891

Meares, Russell. (1997) Stimulus Entrapment: On a common basis of somatization. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 17:2. 223-235

Meares, Russell. (1995). Episodic Memory, Trauma, and the Narrative self. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 31:4. 541-556

Meares, Russell. (1992) The Metaphor of Play: on Self, The Secret and the Borderline Experience. 1st edition. Melbourne: Hill of Content Publishing Co Pty Ltd.

Stevenson, J., & Meares, R A. (1992). An outcome study of psychotherapy for patients with Borderline Personality Disorders American Journal of Psychiatry, 149,358-362.