Today's youth are faced with a multitude of stressors that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The social, emotional, behavioral and academic functioning of young people have been dramatically impacted. Dr. Alec Miller and his colleagues’ adaptation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy has become the only well-established evidence-based treatment for adolescents presenting with suicidal behavior along with a variety of emotional and behavioral challenges. DBT teaches youth and their caregivers a variety of acceptance-based and change-based skills to use to cope more effectively in their lives. This webinar will provide participants with an overview on DBT with adolescents as well as a deeper dive into two critical acceptance-based skills used with teens: Mindfulness skills and validation skills. Validation skills might be the most effective tool you will learn to help regulate your client’s emotions (and your own).

Today's youth are faced with a multitude of stressors that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The social, emotional, behavioral and academic functioning of young people have been dramatically impacted. Dr. Alec Miller and his colleagues’ adaptation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy has become the only well-established evidence-based treatment for adolescents presenting with suicidal behavior along with a variety of emotional and behavioral challenges. DBT teaches youth and their caregivers a variety of acceptance-based and change-based skills to use to cope more effectively in their lives. This webinar will provide participants with an overview on DBT with adolescents as well as a deeper dive into two critical acceptance-based skills used with teens: Mindfulness skills and validation skills. Validation skills might be the most effective tool you will learn to help regulate your client’s emotions (and your own).

There real "autism epidemic" is not that one in 36 children are identified with autism (CDC, 2023), but rather that autistic individuals are often unable to access mental healthcare, including Cognitive Behavior Treatment (CBT). Autistic individuals across the lifespan experience higher rates of anxiety, OCD, depression, and other mental health conditions compared to the general population (Braconnier et al., 2022; Maddox et al., 2017). Recent studies show extremely high rates of death by suicide in autistic youth and adults (South et al., 2021), with mental health concerns identified as a top priority of need by the autism community (Benevides et al., 2020). While many clinicians want to use CBT to address mental health needs of autistic clients, they incorrectly believe that CBT's use with autistic individuals is inherently different (vs. a modified/tailored approach), and that treating this population is out of their competency. Research suggests that CBT is efficacious in reducing psychiatric symptoms in those with autism (Benevides et al., 2020, Braconnier et al., in press; Wang et al., 2021, Wood et al., 2020), and the reality is that most CBT practitioners will encounter autistic clients—diagnosed or not— within a therapy setting at some point in their career. This talk will bridge gaps for CBT practitioners who want to increase their knowledge and confidence in working with autistic clients. The intended audience for this workshop are professionals with basic knowledge of autism and direct CBT clinical experience. The talk will explore topics on applying and modifying CBT (e.g. incorporating autistics' experiences into therapy, balancing "good accommodation'' to address autism related needs with not accommodating negative emotions and thoughts/pursuing “opposite action”). Attendees will learn about relevant autism information-processing differences that may impact symptom presentation and treatment, along with some practical strategies and modifications for both behavioral and cognitive interventions of CBT for this population.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common gastrointestinal (GI) disorder seen by primary care and GI physicians, accounts for considerable personal suffering, and is largely refractory to medical therapies. Its physical symptoms (pain, diarrhea and/or constipation) commonly co-occur with other psychological complaints (e. g. GAD, depression) that behavior therapists effectively treat and thus offer a gratifying way of expanding one’s clinical practice. In the absence of any organic cause, IBS is best understood from a biopsychosocial perspective (Van Oudenhove et al., 2016, Gastroenterology) that emphasizes the reciprocal and interactive relationship among a person’s biology (e. g., GI motility, pain sensitivity, stress reactivity), behaviors (e. g., avoidance), and higher order central processes (rigid cognitive style characterized by perseverative thought manifested in restricted coping and perceptual biases to threat) that influence GI symptoms. Clinical trials assessing the efficacy of CBT for IBS have established it as a gold standard psychological treatment, yielding dramatic, rapid, broad, and sustained symptom improvement that compares favorably to pharmacological or dietary treatments (Mayer, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine). After a brief overview of IBS, this workshop will describe the conceptual underpinnings of CBT for IBS, its rationale, goals and technical components using didactic instruction and detailed case examples from actual patients enrolled in a landmark NIH trial (Lackner, Jaccard, et al., Gastroenterology, 2018) that affirmed CBT’s status as the most widely endorsed empirically validated psychological treatment (Black. et al., GUT, 2020) and arguably the most effective behavioral treatment for any chronic pain disorder. Attendees will learn practical strategies to trouble shoot around difficult clinical issues to maximize outcome, patient engagement, and clinician satisfaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated expansion of tele-mental health services. Despite a rapidly burgeoning literature around telehealth’s effectiveness and potential to increase engagement in care for youth with anxiety and related disorders, there is virtually no data on the effectiveness of hybrid approaches to care (i.e., treatment courses that include a mix of both telehealth and in-person services for a single client) nor guidance about what youth characteristics should suggest use of one modality over another. Thus, with increasing resumption of in-person therapy services alongside the continuation of telehealth, clinicians are left with little guidance about how to make recommendations for whether a given client would most benefit from therapy services delivered via telehealth versus in-person versus hybrid. This webinar will offer practice-based recommendations guided by the three-legged stool for evidence-based practice in psychology to aid clinicians in making decisions how and when to proceed via telehealth or not for anxious youth. Webinar content first will review the research evidence for the efficacy of psychotherapy via telehealth services, as compared to in-person services (“leg” 1). Then, content will cover how clinicians’ experiences and expertise can guide decision-making about service modality (“leg” 2) and discuss factors that may shape client treatment preferences for families of youth with OCD and anxiety (“leg” 3). Following this, content will cover how clinicians can integrate these components alongside principles of shared decision-making for youth mental health care to inform clinical recommendations about whether to provide mental health care services to youth with anxiety and OCD via telehealth or in-person. Case examples from community mental health practice will illustrate principles presented.

Transgender and gender diverse clients may experience many hardships, such as discrimination and harassment. While therapists must become aware and informed about these minority stressors, they must also consider the unique ways that transgender and gender diverse clients may experience or embody resilience in the face of life stressors. This webinar will focus on reviewing the research evidence on resilience and coping in transgender and gender diverse communities and how to apply this information to clinical practice. Attendees will learn strategies to promote and bolster resilience and coping in their work with transgender and gender diverse clients.