David Gillanders
Head of Clinical Psychology

Contact details
Address
- Street
-
2.12, Doorway 6, Medical Quad, Teviot Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Background
I graduated from City University in London and trained in clinical psychology at the University of Glasgow, qualifying in 2000. My major research thesis was an experimental study investigating repetitive information processing in depression.
After qualifying I worked for NHS Ayrshire, spending part of the time in a community mental health team and part of the time in a district general hospital treating individuals who had been referred from a wide range of medical specialties and in particular chronic pain services.
I joined the University of Edinburgh in October 2004 and until August 2012 spent half the week working for the University and the other part of the week working for NHS Lothian Chronic Pain Service. I now work full time for the Doctorate Programme in Clinical Psychology, where I lead the teaching, assessment and curriculum aspects of the programme as Academic Director.
My main theoretical interest is in contextual behavioural approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, asid as one word, rather than three letters).
To see me talking about how to apply ACT in Juvenile Ideopathic Arthritis, click here: Arthurs Place
To see me talk about ACT for Depression at a recent Edinburgh Neuroscience / Global Health Academy Public Lecture, click here
To see Sarah Gillanders and I talk about applying ACT with people with Multiple Sclerosis, click here.
I am one of only a handful of Peer Reviewed Trainers in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the UK and can provide training to other organisations in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, through an arrangement via Edinburgh Research and Innovation. Please email me to enquire further.
To see my training materials go to my training page at:
http://contextualpsychology.org/david_gillanders_training_page
You will need to join ACBS to download materials.
Postgraduate teaching
- DClinPsychol, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- DClinPsychol, Research Tutorials
Research summary
I lead a research programme in clinical health psychology, focused on a variety of long term health conditions and investigating different theoretical perspectives on psychological factors in long term conditions. This research strategy supports thesis projects for DClinPsychol students, and PhD students.
These projects have investigated adjustment and accetpance in chronic pain and other long term health conditions, including breast cancer, HIV, diabetes and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This programme of research has investigated relationships between appraisals, acceptance, adjustment, emotion regulation and how these relate to emotional and behavioural function.
In addition I am interested in visual imagery based cognition and its relationship to emotional and behavioural functioning, relative to more verbal forms of cognition, across different psychological problems.
Current research interests
The majority of my research activity comes through the supervision and mentorship of Trainee Clinical Psychologists and PhD students. Many of these research collaborations lead to publication and presentation, for a list of publications and conference presentations see below. Our research programme has two main overlapping strands: living effectively with chronic illness, and theory and measurment in acceptance and commitment therapy. These research themes have led to studies and collaborative projects in the area of chronic pain, cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. In addiiton, we have published a well validated measure of cognitive fusion. A developing area that I am currently working on is the empirical evaluation of ACT training, and the application of ACT to Palliative and Supportive care.-
Perceived validation and criticism in pain: Development of a new measure in chronic pain
In:
European Journal of Pain
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Exploring the links between psychological flexibility, individual wellbeing and relationship quality
In:
Personal relationships
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Unique contribution of compassionate and non compassionate responding
In:
Scandinavian Journal of Pain
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
An exploration of links between psychological flexibility, individual wellbeing, and relationship quality
In:
Personal relationships
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
The Argentinian version of the cognitive fusion questionnaire: Psychometric properties and the role of cognitive fusion as a predictor of pathological worry
In:
Current psychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00767-4
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Moderating effect of IBS acceptance on psychosocial mediators of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
In:
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, vol. 16, pp. 30-36
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.02.004
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Psychosocial adjustment to mild cognitive impairment: The role of illness perceptions, cognitive fusion and cognitive impairment
(21 pages)
In:
Dementia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301219893862
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Self-compassion and depressive symptoms in chronic pain (CP): A 1-year longitudinal study
(11 pages)
In:
Mindfulness
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01292-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Obstacles to social safeness in women with chronic pain: The role of fears of compassion
In:
Current psychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00489-2
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Cutoff scores for the 8-item version of the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ-8) to identify different profiles of pain acceptance patterns, levels of function and behavioral flexibility
(11 pages)
In:
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, vol. 14, pp. 146-156
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.07.006
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)