Full Course Description

Being the Change: Embracing Antiracism in the Therapy Room

Program Information

Objectives

Assess the clinical implications of racial experiences leading to trauma symptomology.
Evaluate how historical, cultural, and individual trauma may or may not fit into a DSM-5 framework.
Employ interventions that address traumatic experiences with racism in trauma treatment sessions.

Outline

What can well-intentioned people do about racism?
Recognizing racial trauma
Validating experiences of oppression
How to become more comfortable talking about issues related to race

Copyright : 03/12/2020

Using Positive Neuroplasticity for Change That Lasts

Program Information

Objectives

Utilize the neural mechanisms of social-emotional learning to create durable cognitive changes in client stress management.
Teach clients three methods for heightening the neurological internalization of therapeutic experiences.
Mitigate the impact of the brain's negativity bias on mood and anxiety levels.

Outline

Participants will understand why most of what clients experience in psychotherapy has no lasting value
Participants will learn how increase the conversion of passing experiences into lasting changes of neural structure or function
Participants will learn how to apply these general methods to developing key inner strengths in clients such as self-compassion, self-regulation, and positive mood

Copyright : 03/12/2020

How Understanding the Neuroscience of Depression Can Improve Outcomes

Program Information

Objectives

Determine issues for using the “chemical imbalance” explanation of depression.
Analyze challenges with genetic risk for depression.
Appraise scientifically valid models of depression.

Outline

The importance of understanding how the brain is malleable and can be reshaped
The mistakes therapists make when talking about the genetics of depression
The issues with common analogies for depression
Key points in the neuroscience basics of depression

Copyright : 03/12/2020

How Internal Family Systems Therapy is Helping Us Understand the Human Mind & How We Heal

Program Information

Objectives

Effectively integrate IFS conceptualizations with current therapeutic modalities.
Develop a deep understanding of how neuroscience informs therapeutic decisions in IFS therapy.
Integrate the IFS model into your clinical practice and accelerate healing for PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and eating disorders.

Outline

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model in the context of psychotherapy
Recent developments in the Internal Family Systems model
How IFS helps understand the human mind from a neuroscientific perspective

Copyright : 03/12/2020

The Keys Behind How Cognitive Processing Therapy Heals PTSD | Kate Chard

How exactly do people get stuck in traumatic events and PTSD, and how can they recover? Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a rapidly growing model that is showing promising results and has uncovered key cognitive processes that, when addressed, can create lasting healing from PTSD, often without the need to go back and even talk extensively about the traumatic event.

Join co-developer of CPT, Kathleen Chard, PhD, for a fascinating recording that will address many common myths around PTSD recovery and what research has shown helps. Learn the key processes behind this approach to trauma treatment that is endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the empirical evidence supporting the use of Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and related conditions.
Determine common myths around PTSD that can interfere in treatment and worsen outcomes.
Utilize 3 keys from CPT that help clients understand how to overcome “stuck points”.

Outline

Explore the basis for positive results from CPT research
Identify common myths around PTSD recovery
The keys behind how CPT helps clients recover from PTSD

Copyright : 03/12/2020

Helping Clients Live Mighty Lives with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the 6 core processes of ACT.
Determine psychological flexibility (the main goal of ACT).
Utilize at least one metaphor or experiential practise with clients.

Outline

Attendees will learn:

Strategies for teaching clients how to practice acceptance as an alternative to control of internal experiences (emotions, physical sensations, urges)
Strategies for teaching clients to relate to their minds differently so thoughts no longer hold them back from living the lives they want.
How to guide clients in identifying their most deeply held personal values

Copyright : 03/12/2020

What Twentysomethings Really Want from Therapy

Program Information

Objectives

Argue four unique developmental factors that make the twenties a developmental “sweetspot” rather than a developmental downtime.
Extrapolate on why finding work and love is a mental health issue for most “twentysomethings” and how to make it part of their treatment plan.
Determine why "anxiety is the new depression" in this age group as well as delineate three effective ways to address these concerns.

Outline

Help clients actively engage work, love, the brain and the body both in and out of treatment.
Help twentysomethings articulate what "identity capital" they have and how to get the next pieces they need for the workplace.
Learn about "picking your family" or how to help twentysomethings be more intentional about who they date, live with and partner with.
Learn "forward thinking" interventions that help young adult engage with and be kind to their future selves.

Copyright : 03/12/2020

Coming to Our Senses: Trauma & the Embodied Self

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate the varied impacts of trauma across developmental stages.
Apply recent neurobiological research results to the conceptualization of trauma.
Employ dance, movement, play and theatre interventions for the treatment of trauma.

Outline

The breakdown of information processing in trauma
Neuroscience, Trauma, Memory and the Body: the neurobiology of traumatic stress
The role of body-oriented and neurobiological-based therapies to resolve the traumatic past
Alternatives to drugs and talk therapy: EMDR, self-regulation, yoga practices, dance & movement

Copyright : 03/12/2020

Clinical Tools from Somatic Experiencing: How to Rewire Implicit Trauma Memory through Physiology

Program Information

Objectives

Determine the psychobiology of trauma and the survival responses of fight, flight, freeze as it relates to clinical treatment.
Analyze how implicit memory shapes our physiological and psychological responses to trauma and recovery.
Utilize three skills to work with the Autonomic Nervous System. Learn clinical tools about how to access the polyvagal system to increase resilience and rebound from trauma and overwhelm.

Outline

Teaching science and skills of Interoception
How awareness of sensation (interoception via the Insula) can read ANS states
Introduce stabilization skills
Introduce multiple somatic tools that re-wire implicit traumatic memory in the body

Copyright : 03/12/2020

How Interpersonal Neurobiology Can Help Shape our Work and our World

Program Information

Objectives

Support how clinicians can work with their own presence to better support clients in therapy.
Practice with your clients how to integrate body and mind for improved well-being.
Evaluate the latest research on how awareness can shape connections in the brain towards in that includes meaning, connection, and emotional balance.

Outline

Interpersonal Neurobiology: Impact on Psychotherapy
Harnessing the therapists’ presence to improve client outcomes
Awareness: The path toward integration and “rewiring to inspire"

Copyright : 03/12/2020

Safe & Connected: A Polyvagal Guided Path for Re-Imagining our World

Program Information

Objectives

Determine how to use your own autonomic nervous system to create an environment of safety for your clients and others.
Practice how to help your clients listen to their internal state and let go of their problem story.
Analyze how to reliably guide your clients from state to state and enhance their capacity for self-regulations.

Outline

The autonomic nervous system as a basis for creating the optimal environment for communication and healing (autonomic conversation)
Creating a state of co-regulation to overcome differences and face difficult clinical conversations
How polyvagal theory can help us impact not only our clients but our world

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Using the Science of EFT with Individuals: Bringing Your Clients to Life and Restoring Their Ability to Live Well

Program Information

Objectives

Build core emotional experiences to promote emotional balance in your traumatized, anxious, and depressed clients.
Evaluate the EFT model as a secure base for effective therapy with individual clients.
Analyze the three stages of the EFT model as an approach that offers clients a way out of destructive patterns.
Employ evidence-based stages to increase closeness, safe attachment, and connection.
Construct corrective emotional experiences for the individual client that create real forward movement in a single session.

Outline

How to focus your sessions on core defining factors - shape openness and engagement in every session
Use the macro intervention EFT to move clients into change events.
Consolidate new models of self and other and new ways to grow for your clients.

Copyright : 04/12/2020

When the Body Says “No”: Listening to Our Stress & Re-connecting with Our Self

Program Information

Objectives

Determine the neurobiological underpinnings of stress and its effect on the body.
Analyze the three major stressors that exist for humans and their effect on our biology.
Evaluate ways of recognizing stress and preventing it.

Outline

The nature of stress and its physiological consequences
The three major stressors we must know about
How the early environment “programs” us physiologically and psychologically into chronically stressful patterns of feeling and behaviour
Why stress remains hidden in our culture
The stressful work environment: how to recognize it and transform it
How to recognize stress and burnout and prevent it
How the understanding of stress can inform and enhance our work

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Little Treatments, Big Effects: Single-Session Interventions That Create Lasting Change

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze advances in research on single-session interventions (SSIs) for youth mental health problems, including characteristics of effective SSIs that have shown positive effects.
Employ components of SSIs that may help reduce internalizing symptoms and improve likelihood of pursuing mental health treatment.
Determine strategies for evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of SSIs implemented in clinical and/or research settings.

Outline

Learn the present state of research on single-session interventions (SSIs) for mental health problems.
Learn how to identify and implement components of SSIs that are important to their clinical utility.
Gain knowledge of and access to a suite of freely available, evidence-based SSIs, for use in future clinical practice.

Copyright : 04/12/2020

The New Exposure Therapy: How Inhibitory Learning Can Improve Outcomes for OCD and Anxiety Disorders

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate exposure and response prevention and its efficacy.
Determine the inhibitory learning model of exposure therapies.
Analyze how exposure works from the perspective of inhibitory learning.
Design and conduct exposure exercises that support inhibitory learning.

Outline

How to structure exposure and response prevention hierarchies and "menus" consistent with inhibitory learning principles
How to support expectancy violation
How to minimize covert avoidance during exposure exercises
How to improve generalization and maintenance

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Clinical Virtual Reality Treatments: A Brief Review of the Future

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze Virtual Reality (VR) and the different ways that people can engage and interact with VR environments.
Distinguish the specific rationales for the use of VR in the assessment and rehabilitation of a wide range of clinical disorders (i.e., ADHD, PTSD, Alzheimer's, Phobias, Stroke, addictions, etc.).
Determine the relevant issues involved in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of virtual environments for use in assessment and rehabilitation.

Outline

Clinical Virtual reality “Ingredients” What is it?
- The Ultimate Skinner Box
- Expose, Distract, Motivate, Measure & Engage
Theoretical Basis & Research Support For Use
- Anxiety, Addiction, & PTSD
- Pain Management & Discomfort Reduction
- Physical/Cognitive Assessment & Rehabilitation - Stroke, Brain/Spinal Injury, Neurological Disorders
Virtual Human Interaction for Clinical Training, Role Playing, and promoting access to healthcare.
Pragmatics & The Future
- Breaking down Barriers to Care
- Faster, Better, Cheaper
Ethical issues: Standard VR Issues + Clinical Guidelines

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: The Psychotherapy Whose Time Has Come

Program Information

Objectives

Appraise research related to psychedelic-assisted therapy and efficacy across diagnostic categories.
Evaluate the growing utilization of mental health professionals in the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies.
Investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of psychedelic facilitation of psychotherapy.

Outline

Review of clinical research and outcomes
Review of neurobiological underpinnings and mechanisms of action
Review of training and utilization of mental health professionals in treatment

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Tapping into our Brains to Break Anxiety Cycles and Other Habits

Program Information

Objectives

Assess how anxiety forms as a habit.
Catalogue how mindfulness affects reward valuation in the brain.
Analyze how mindfulness approaches can help change addictive habit patterns.

Outline

Current treatment paradigms for anxiety
How anxiety forms as a habit
How the brain forms habits in general
Key neuroscientific insights current anxiety treatments may not take into account
How to tap into reward valuation in the brain to affect behaviour change
Clinical outcomes from new research studies of digital therapeutics
Three-step process for overcoming anxiety and other habits

Copyright : 04/12/2020

Psychopharmacology: Essential Updates for Mental Health Professionals

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate the proper role of mental health professionals who treat clients receiving both psychotherapeutic medications and psychotherapy.
Determine the traditional medications used for the treatment of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and medications for insomnia.
Assess recent advances in the medications for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and insomnia.

Outline

Why (and what) you should know about psychopharmacology
Questions you can expect from clients and prescribers and how to answer them
Latest information and newest medications for depression, anxiety, and insomnia

Essential Mindfulness and Meditation Tools for Today’s Stressed World | Donald Altman

In a world facing unprecedented levels of stress, anxiety and depression, clinicians need a set of effective, easy-to-use tools that can help clients create space from the negativity and distraction that are often constant companions in our tech-laden 21st century. In this highly experiential 3-hr. intensive recording, you will learn targeted mindfulness and meditation tools designed to increase emotional regulation, problem-solving skills, and overall wellbeing. These tools, which are designed to be taught and applied in just one session, can help reduce anxious thinking and rumination, enhance present moment awareness, increase one’s locus of control, and build resilience. Based on Donald Altman’s award-winning The Mindfulness Toolbox, 101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience, and his new book Simply Mindful, these research-based tools are easy to use and give clients a set of portable, effective skills to carry with them daily.

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate how to use the breath to quiet down the brain's alert and alarm system.
Support the research behind "security primings" and how it can increase feelings of safety, trust, and building relationships.
Assess the risks of stress at the cellular level and integrate evidence-based experiential exercises to reduce risks.

Outline

Attendees will learn:

5 proven breathing postures used in a study that reduce levels of perceived stress and lower blood pressure.
A physical grounding practise that helps clients connect with the body and reduce stress.
How to use the Five Steps to G-R-E-A-T Mindful Self-Care as mindful foundations for mental clarity, mood regulation and brain health.
How to experience the 4-Mindful Bite Meditation, which is an eating practice used for managing eating during times of stress.
Various methods of savouring, or focusing attention in a particular way, that enhances positive affect and prosocial identity.
How to utilize an effective selective attention tool for regulating emotions and increasing positive affect called the G.L.A.D. technique.

Getting off the Couch: How to Incorporate Walking Therapy in your Practice

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate the scientific under-pinnings of walking-based format of psychotherapeutic treatment and which clients it may be appropriate for.
Categorize the significant elements that are applied during walk and talk, combining movement, nature, and therapy.
Propose how to conduct a session while outdoors; including seeing others on the trail, handling the various weather conditions, different terrain, and how to use nature to enhance the effectiveness of the therapy.
Apply 2 specific mindfulness-based strategies that can be used during outdoor and walking therapy.

Outline

Combining nature, movement, and therapy. Who has it worked well for?
Origins of Walk-and-Talk Therapy. Background, research, and history of walking therapy. Explanation of the physiological response to movement, and how movement effects mood and anxiety levels.
Demonstration of the approach
Creative and applicable ways to weave nature into the therapeutic process.
Getting started in offering this format of treatment.

Embodying Resilience: Using Movement to Navigate Anxiety and Build Personal Power in Children

Program Information

Objectives

Build client capacity to identify rising anxiety before it becomes overwhelming or debilitating.
Learn to manage escalating emotions and intrusive thoughts with movement practices.
Enhance resilience through simple and accessible personal practices.

Outline

Anxiety and the Brain Body Relationship - What Anxiety is Trying to Tell Us
Reframing the Mental Narrative from the Body Up Practices to Build Internal Safety
Six Resilience and Anti-Anxiety Practices
- Meditation based practices
- Movement based practices
- Breath-based practices

What’s New with Sex?: The Things Your Clients Don’t Talk About (But Want To)

Program Information

Objectives

Apply effective communication skills to manage anxiety around topics of sex and intimacy.
Analyze the history and current field of sex and couple’s therapy understanding and awareness.
Analyze contemporary sexual knowledge and the importance in the role of treatment.
Assess the importance of sexual wellness and how sex-related stereotypes may affect treatment outcomes.

Outline

We will explore:

The new world of artificial intelligence and sexuality and it’s interference and effect on treatment outcomes
Alternative sexual practices including open relationships and non-monogamy, polyamory and community living and innovations in relationship treatment
Various sexual behaviours including kink, BDSM and the world of sextech, teledildonics, virtual reality and sex robots and the potential for clinical intervention in treatment

Trauma Focused DBT Skills for Adolescents

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate the specific traumatic stressors facing many adolescents that mental health clinicians should be aware of and know how to address
Analyze the role of racial injustice and race-based stress and trauma in adolescents
Utilize 3 trauma focused DBT skills for adolescents

Outline

The importance of DBT skills training for adolescents facing traumatic and stressful situations
How race-based trauma specifically impacts adolescent development
DBT strategies for adolescents to cope, thrive and build a life worth living

Beyond Desire: Navigating Sex and Attachment in a Pandemic World

Program Information

Objectives

Determine the differences between spontaneous and responsive desire among couples.
Devise ways to address and resolve difficult feelings and life stressors to strengthen couples’ relationships and rekindle desire.
Assess the relationship between mindfulness practices and enhanced physical sensation.

Outline

The impacts of stress on sexual function and relationships
Models of sexual responsiveness
Resolving the effects of stress on sexuality

Seeking Safety: An Evidence-Based Model for Trauma and/or Addiction

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate three key clinical issues in treating trauma and substance abuse and the linkages between trauma and addiction
Evaluate the four key features of the Seeking Safety model
Utilize at least four resources for learning more about trauma and addiction

Outline

Present versus past-focused treatment, and how to choose between them
How Seeking Safety is implemented
Linkages between trauma and addiction