Abstract
Mental health difficulties affect 1 in 4 adults, often leading to individuals seeking
psychological support.
Part one of the portfolio focuses on long COVID, an emerging long-term health condition
with increasing prevalence and psychological implications. A thematic synthesis of
individual’s lived experiences of long COVID is presented to understand the psychological
burden of the condition. The synthesised findings of this review suggested that individuals
are experiencing a reduced quality of life and long-term psychological distress complicated
by a loss of previous life and identity, fear and uncertainty around the future trajectory of
symptoms, and lack of support professionally and personally. The review proposed
recommendations for clinical practice to support with managing the psychological burden of
long COVID.
Part two focuses on the increasing use of cannabidiol (CBD) products as an alternative
treatment for alleviating mental health difficulties. With many accessing psychological
treatment for support, the empirical study interviewed eight psychology professionals to
explore their perspectives of working therapeutically with clients who may be self-medicating
with CBD. An inductive thematic analysis approach highlighted that psychology
professionals generally supported the use of CBD for mental health difficulties despite a lack
of knowledge and self-perceived competence. This finding has implications for clinical
psychology with recommendations for support and guidelines to ensure patient safety, reduce
the risk of misinformation and guide therapeutic interventions.