2-Day: CBT Toolkit for Depressed, Anxious and Suicidal Children and Adolescents

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

David M. Pratt, PhD, MSW Related seminars and products

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David M. Pratt, PhD, MSW, is a New York State Licensed Psychologist with 40+ years’ experience working with children, adolescents and families. Dr. Pratt is in private practice at the Western New York Psychotherapy Services in Amherst, NY. He is presently on faculty with the University at Buffalo, School of Social Work, Office of Continuing Education and a member of New York State, Office of Mental Health Advisory Board on Evidence-Based Treatments for Youth. He was the Principal Psychologist at the Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University at Buffalo and Adjunct Professor/Lecturer, University at Buffalo Counseling, School and Educational Psychology department. Dr. Pratt has conducted numerous trainings in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at local, state, national and international forums. He is the author of CBT Toolkit for Depressed, Anxious and Suicidal Children and Adolescents (PESI Publishing, Inc., 2019) and Advanced CBT Toolbox for Children and Adolescents: Promoting Resilience, Positive Emotions and Personal Growth (in press, PESI, Publishing, Inc.).

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. David Pratt maintains a private practice. He has an employment relationship with the University at Buffalo. He receives a speaking honorarium and recording and book royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. David Pratt serves on the advisory board for the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Objectives

1. Integrate “First and Second Wave” CBT skills with more recent “Third Wave” (mindfulness) advances with youth.
2. Formulate strategies to develop a therapeutic alliance that engage children and adolescents in easy, creative, and effective therapeutic cognitive-behavioural activities.
3. Practice effective collaboration with youth and parents toward targeted, mutually defined treatment goals.
4. Apply, practise, and integrate evidence-based CBT techniques to modify and change maladaptive behaviours.
5. Utilize CBT psychoeducation to elicit “buy-in” from most difficult clients.
6. Analyze, challenge, and replace negative self-talk, thoughts, assumptions and core beliefs.
7. Construct practical skill-building worksheets and structured therapeutic activities to clarify and teach complex CBT skills for child and adolescent depression, anxiety, and self-harm prevention.
8. Employ fundamental and advanced evidence-based CBT skills to help your young clients manage depression, anxiety, and self-harm behaviours.
9. Develop a deep understanding of recent advances in the neuroscience of stress and how to re-train the distressed brain.
10. Evaluate exposure therapy techniques including imagino and in-vivo exposure to resolve anxiety.
11. Utilize evidence-based suicide risk assessment, safety planning to prevent suicide and self-harm behaviour.
12. Assess effective parental involvement in the treatment process while maintaining client confidentiality to mitigate depression, anxiety, and self-harm risk.

Outline

Therapist Guidelines: Keys to Success

• Psychoeducation: Knowledge is power
• Therapy tips: Anxiety and depression
• Introducing CBT to the client and parents
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

Goal Setting and Motivational Counseling: Are You and Your Client Working Together?

• Why goals are important
• SMART goals
• Assessing the consequences of anxiety and depression
• Pros and cons analysis

Mindfulness: Calming the Emotional Brain to Utilize the Rational Mind

• Amygdala hijack & the neuroscience of stress
• The effects of adrenalin & cortisol on the body
• Mindfulness meditation & brain functioning
• Typical stress response vs. desired stress response
• Mindfulness skills for children & adolescents
• Mindfulness practice & monitoring

Mood Monitoring: How to Help Kids Be Aware of Their Feelings

• Feeling awareness games
• Feelings and trigger situations
• Subjective units of distress scale (SUDS)
• Daily and weekly mood monitoring

Behavioural Activation: Let’s Get Active Again!

• The CBT paradigm: Behavioral activation and depression
• Behaviour monitoring: Typical school & weekend day
• Life values and activities
• Identifying and overcoming barriers to healthy activities
• Conduct a behavioural activation experiment

Cognitive Processing: Helping Kids Tune into Their Thoughts

• The CBT paradigm and why thoughts are important
• Different types of stinking thinking
• Identify positive, realistic thoughts 
• Identifying & monitoring my stinking thinking

Cognitive Restructuring: Staying Positive Despite Challenges

• Define cognitive restructuring
• Ambiguous situations…What’s really going on?
• Positive Psychology tools to fight depression

Social Skills Training: Teaching Essential Social Skills

• Teaching effective problem solving
• Appropriately using assertiveness
• Effective communication skills
• Practice non-verbal communication
• Conversation and “chit-chat” skills

Anxiety Treatment & Exposure Therapy: Helping Clients Face Their Fears

• Somatic management skills
• Create an anxiety hierarchy
• Identifying & correcting “catastrophic” stinking thinking
• Social skills to help manage anxiety
• Develop a “Game Plan” to help face anxiety
• Imagino Exposure
• In-Vivo Exposure

Special Topics in Treating Anxiety: Applying Exposure Therapy to Specific Anxiety Problems

• Social Anxiety
• Separation Anxiety
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and chronic worry
• Somatic Symptom Disorder

Manage Self-Harm and Suicidal Urges: Evidence-Based Practices to Prevent Suicide and Self Harm

• Conduct an evidence-based suicide risk assessment
• Develop an evidence-based suicide prevention plan
• Use behavioural chain analysis to prevent future self-harm
• Create a hope box
• Emotional distress tolerance skills to resist self-harm urges
• Future time imaging
• Using acceptance and commitment to improve happiness
• Problem-solving in a crisis
• CBT “coping card” for self-harm prevention

Parent Involvement: Parents are Your Clients Too!

• Parent involvement in the evaluation process and treatment plan
• Confidentiality considerations
• Family behavioural activation, problem-solving, & contracts
• Parent support & stress management

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Case Managers
• Mental Health Professionals
• School Guidance Counselors
• School Psychologists
• Educators
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Speech-Language Pathologists