Study Protocol for Evaluating the Effect of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Yoga Therapy on Stress Management among University Lecturers

This study describes a protocol for a randomized control trial to evaluate the effectiveness of yogacomplemented cognitive behavioural therapy on stress among university teachers. A total of 93 University teachers with moderate to high stress level will be included in the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to Y-CBT (N=46) and waitlist control (N=47) groups. The Y-CBT group will participate in a 2 hours Y-CBT program weekly for a period of 12 weeks. Two instruments- Single Item Stress Questionnaire (SISQ) and Teachers’ Stress Inventory (TSI) will be used to collect data. Data will be collected at baseline; post-test and follow-up evaluations. Means, standard deviations, t-test statistics, repeated measures ANOVA and bar charts will be used to analyze data for the study. A yoga-cognitive behavioural therapy program manual developed by two of the researchers in collaboration with two experts (one in CBT and the other in Yoga) will be used for this study. In developing the manual, CBT strategies are blended with after-session Yoga exercises. The CBT sessions are based on the “ABCDE” model (Antecedent/Activating event, Beliefs, Consequences, Disputing, and Effective new philosophy) to identify, assess, revalidate and change unhelpful absolutistic and irrational beliefs associated with work experiences.