Eating disorders have been long stereotyped as disorders associated with thinness, whiteness, affluence, female gender, and youth. Although compelling data indicate that this stereotype is inaccurate and that eating disorders affect many who do not conform to the stereotype, the stereotype both persists and is often believed by health providers and laypersons alike. Importantly, research indicates that individuals who defy the eating disorder stereotype are less likely to be correctly diagnosed by providers and less likely to self-identify as having an eating disorder. The treatment of eating disorders also is commonly viewed as an area of clinical specialty; as such, many CBT practitioners, particularly those who work with populations that defy the eating disorder stereotype, obtain little if any training in the treatment and assessment of eating disorders. Combined, these factors (i.e., powerful inaccurate stereotype and lack of training) set the stage for significant diagnostic error, in particular, overlooked eating disorder diagnoses. Missed eating disorder diagnoses are problematic for numerous reasons. First, research indicates that early identification improves eating disorder clinical outcome. Second, eating disorders are associated with elevated mortality and significant medical morbidity, and failure to diagnose them can worsen medical sequelae and contribute to inappropriate medical treatment. Third, failure to diagnose an existing eating disorder can lead to incomplete and faulty clinical conceptualization and treatment planning. Finally, diagnostic accuracy is linked to the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy. The primary aim of this training is to help clinicians who have minimal eating disorders background understand why clients who they may think are at low risk for an eating disorder (e.g., those who are racially and ethnically minoritized, live in a higher weight body, identify as male, are of older age, are of lower income, identify as LGBTQIA+ etc…) are, in fact, very much potentially at risk. This webinar is also appropriate for those who have eating disorders training and can acknowledge that they, like so many in the eating disorders field, still feel the pull of the stereotype.

According to the CDC, nearly 80,000 people died from opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022 in the US. The opioid epidemic remains an urgent concern that requires continued attention and treatment, particularly by medical and mental health providers. This 90-minute presentation will provide a brief overview of the current state of opioid use within the US along with a review of the best practices to assess, diagnose and treat individuals with opioid use disorders (OUDs). The primary focus will be on the evidence-based treatments including pharmacologic and therapeutic interventions. Ethical considerations and barriers to treatment will be explored in addition to important sociocultural factors and resources available to aid providers in effectively treating individuals with OUD in outpatient settings.

Pediatric anxiety disorders are common, with prevalence rates ranging from 9-20% (Bitsko et al., 2022; Costello, Egger, & Angold, 2005). Excessive symptoms of anxiety that are impairing but do not meet diagnostic thresholds are also common (Costello & Shugart, 1992; Rapee et al., 2012) and the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant increases in anxiety (and other youth mental health problems; Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2021; Castagnoli et al., 2020). Moreover, it is well established that untreated anxiety has a broad range of negative effects on academic, social, and familial functioning (Swan & Kendall, 2016). Despite the high prevalence of impairing anxiety, the majority of these youth remain unidentified and untreated. One approach to address the service utilization gap, is to deliver interventions in schools. School-based interventions improve access to care –especially for youth in rural and under-resourced communities where mental health specialists are sparse. This webinar will present the basic components of school-based interventions for youth with anxiety. The talk will also focus on efforts to enhance the capacity of non-mental health specialists, such as school nurses and teachers, to assist youth with anxiety.

This workshop describes ethical issues in treating suicidal patients and distinguishes between the roles of laws, risk management, and ethics. Using safety planning-type interventions as an example, the presenter will illustrate how psychotherapists can enhance the quality of their interventions by paying particular attention to ethical principles.

Questions of life and living, joy, and thriving beg more of educators and researchers who think and theorize about power, privilege, and oppression. This session confronts living in and against norms that contend for holistic wellness. It will offer recommendations for cultivating habits and creating environments that afford opportunities to affirm affective capacities, specifically, joy as a present and persistent way of being.

This workshop is designed for clinicians with moderate direct clinical experience conducting CBT or ACT with school-aged/teenage youth and caregivers. It’s a universal problem for parents. Their intentions are well-meaning. Their verbally-stated values and personal principles might even be clear and well-reasoned. And yet... in the moment of truth, it can all go wrong. Tempers flare, feelings are hurt, and defensive, angry or avoidant reactions result. How can therapists help parents and caregivers stay true to their values, even when things start to go off course? The current workshop aims to provide a conceptual framework and tools for helping caregivers (a) assess their values, as distinguished from specific goals, and (b) identify common parenting/family interaction traps that impede responding in line with stated values. We will introduce participants to the ACT Matrix (Polk et al., 2016) as a way of assessing, conceptualizing, and illustrating caregivers’ experiences and behaviors as they relate to values. We will provide additional guidance on how to help caregivers articulate their values, using role-plays and experiential exercises. Attendees will then be introduced to common parenting traps (e.g., accommodation cycle; aggressive-coercive cycle; Chu & Pimentel, 2023) and practice using functional analysis to help caregivers identify where they depart from stated values. Finally, we will demonstrate how to integrate values clarification with results from the functional analysis, to present cognitive and behavioral solutions that bring caregivers’ actions back in line with their stated values. The presenters will share worksheets and handouts from Dr. Chu’s newly published text and other sources to illustrate common parent interaction traps and family-based chain analysis. Attendees will also be encouraged to bring local examples for group consultation. Presenters will moderate a discussion of integrating values-based assessment and intervention into their daily practice with families.