Full Course Description

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for Suicidality: Overcoming Stuck Points and Creating Mental Flexibility

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 suicidal ideation and behaviors that can often accompany PTSD.

Join co-developer of CPT, Kathleen Chard, PhD, where she will address how she approaches suicidality from a CPT perspective based on over 20 years of research around PTSD and suicidality. 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 CPT for suicidality.
Determine common myths around suicidality among those with PTSD that can interfere in treatment and worsen outcomes.
Utilize three cognitive processing techniques to address “stuck points”.

Outline

Explore the evidence for positive results from CPT research studies on suicidality and PTD
Identify common myths around suicidality
Practice 3 CPT interventions useful for suicidal clients

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Case Managers
Physicians
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 09/10/2021

Crisis Response Planning and Lethal Means Counseling to Reduce Military and Veteran Suicide

Treating a client in a suicidal crisis is nerve-wracking enough on its own, but what if you’re working with a client who has access to and advanced knowledge of weapons? This recorded session provides essential information on two effective suicide prevention tools for use with military service members and veterans, Crisis Response Planning and Lethal Means Counseling. You’ll get specific strategies for conducting client-centered narrative assessments of suicide risk and a tailored crisis response plan that prioritizes self-management strategies and reducing access to firearms.

Program Information

Objectives

Conduct a narrative assessment with a suicidal military service member or veteran.
Distinguish the core components of a crisis response plan.
Develop a means safety plan with a suicidal individual.

Outline

Understanding suicidal behaviors in military service members and veterans
Assessment tools that build a collaborative relationship
How to develop a crisis response plan
Have the conversation: Lethal means counseling
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Understanding Military Culture: A Guide for Behavioral Healthcare Providers

Your ability to have a positive impact on military service members and veterans hinges on one simple question – do you understand their culture and how it clashes with elements of the overarching culture of behavioral healthcare? Without understanding military morals, values, and beliefs, you won’t establish effective rapport and create treatment plans that work. This recorded session will give you a deeper look at military culture as concrete strategies for assessment and treatment.

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate the importance of military cultural competence.
Argue a purpose for the customs, traditions, and ethos of the military culture.
Utilize the Cultural Formulation Interview for military members.

Outline

Is there a military culture?
Ethos, military values and beliefs
Tenets and purpose of the military ethos
Culture clash: what happens when military culture meets behavioral health culture?
Diversity in the military
Taking a military history: what (and what not) to ask
Using the Military Cultural Formulation Interview
Military and veteran families
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Covert Grief: Essential Tips for Creating a Healing Space for Military and Veteran Clients

Your military and veteran clients are grieving numerous losses. Throughout service, there are pivotal changes to identity and life trajectory, from combat losses and survivors’ guilt, to change in functioning after injury, to challenges in family relationships, to loss of identity after separation from active service. This recorded session will give you the skills you need to assist your clients with navigating loss in and out of the military and teach them essential strategies to manage grief in its many forms.

Program Information

Objectives

Assess the impact of grief experiences on military service members and veterans.
Utilize two military-centered grief interventions.
Demonstrate strategies to overcoming barriers to grief work.

Outline

Understand layers of grief
- Combat, including survivor’s guilt and what to do to help heal it
- Non-combat: role transitions, relationship challenges, physical changes, and more
Military-centered grief interventions
Overcome barriers to grief work
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Exposure to Burn Pits: Implications for Treating Medical Trauma in Military and Veteran Clients

Respiratory illness. Neurological effects. Cancer. Reproductive toxicity. These are only a few of the problems that your military and veteran clients might be dealing with after exposure to burn pits. And if you’ve been watching the news, you’re aware of the sense of betrayal they’re feeling. In this keynote recording, Michelle Flaum, EdD, LPCC-s will frame these experiences as medical trauma and tell you how you can help.

Program Information

Outline

Ecological Model of Medical Trauma
Client Risk Factors with Emphasis on Military Risk Factors from Burn Pit Exposure
Assessment and Treatment Phase Work with Burn Pit Exposure Clients

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Military Sexual Trauma: How to Heal in the Face of Betrayal

You may be overlooking a major factor in your clinical work with MST survivors – betrayal trauma. For many clients, the multiple layers of betrayal within military culture can often be more traumatizing than the assault itself - and it’s a major contributing factor to the development of PTSD. This recorded training will help you assess how betrayal trauma impacts recovery and develop a roadmap for shifting your clients from victim to survivor to thriver.

Program Information

Objectives

Assess clients’ experience of multiple components of betrayal trauma.
Construct a coping skills plan for clients in early treatment for MST.
Describe narrative therapy techniques that may be used with clients who have experienced MST.

Outline

Betrayal trauma – the most intense, traumatizing component of MST
Multiple components of betrayal: offender, first disclosure, institution/system, body and self
Difficulties and necessities of addressing betrayal trauma in clinical practice
The impact of early/earlier sexual trauma and potential trauma reactivation over the life span
Healing beyond the sexual assault – moving from victim to survivor to thriver and restoring trust in self and system
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Eating Disorders in Military Populations: Trauma and the Tape

Risk factors for eating disorders are pervasive in military service – from the heightened emphasis on weight and size, to constant demands for physical fitness and stamina, to repeated exposure to potentially traumatizing experiences. This recorded session will give you the skills you need so that you can assess for eating disorders and create effective treatment plans in the context of your clients’ military culture.

Program Information

Objectives

Appraise the impact of military culture on the development of eating disorders.
Assess eating disordered behavior among military servicemembers and veterans.
Utilize exposure and response prevention tools to help clients face fears about returning to “normal eating”.

Outline

Risk factors for eating disorders in military and veteran populations
How to deal with clients’ fear of persecution by peers and leadership
Issues with access to care
Key assessment questions and instruments to screen for eating disorders
Evidence-based interventions for disordered eating
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Trauma-Related Insomnia: Effective Sleep Strategies for Military Personnel and Veterans

Untreated sleep problems wreak havoc on your ability to effectively treat patients, particularly when it comes to trauma-related insomnia in the military service members and veterans. Though contributing factors aren’t well-understood, higher rates of sleep disorders in these populations means that you must be prepared. Learn how to go beyond sleep hygiene – and why you should – to provide your military and veteran clients with simple, evidence-based interventions to improve their sleep.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the three causal factors of chronic insomnia.
Assess the impact of fear of sleep has in traumatized clients.
Utilize three CBT strategies to alleviate symptoms of insomnia.

Outline

Sleep problems in military and veteran populations: possible causes and consequences
Three causal factors of insomnia: low deep sleep drive, body clock input, conditioned arousal
Impact of trauma and trauma symptoms on sleep in military and veteran populations
Cognitive Behavioral Insomnia strategies: stimulus control, sleep scheduling, cognitive therapy
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Occupational Therapists
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

The Chronic Pain Foxhole: Strategies for Treating Pain in the Military and Veteran Populations

Without a fundamental understanding of military culture and how service members and veterans view pain, you’ll be unprepared to help your clients manage the complex issues they face and have the highest quality of life. This recorded session will help you understand the most common causes of chronic pain in the military population, deliver a variety of nonpharmacological strategies to relieve chronic pain, and create an effective interdisciplinary treatment team.

Program Information

Objectives

Assess the prevalence, causes and characteristics of chronic pain in military and veteran populations.
Determine the roles and responsibilities of the mental health provider on an interdisciplinary chronic pain team.
Utilize nonpharmacological strategies to relieve chronic pain.

Outline

The prevalence and epidemiology of pain in active-duty military and veterans
Comparison of military versus civilian pain medicine
Military culture and attitudes toward pain management
The inter-disciplinary treatment pathway and clinic functions used to treat chronic pain
Lessons learned – effective nonpharmacologic methods for alleviating chronic pain
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Concussion and TBI in Military and Veteran Populations: A Toolbox of Interventions to Improve Cognitive Functioning and Quality of Life

Though largely “invisible injuries,” traumatic brain injury and concussion history can severely complicate your treatment efforts. In this recorded session, you’ll learn essential techniques you can use in your practice to rehabilitate cognitive skills that are commonly impaired as a result of TBI. Improve your clients’ self-efficacy and help them take control of their symptoms as you understand how fatigue, mood, anxiety, trauma, and chronic pain affect cognitive performance.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the effect of traumatic brain injury on the structure and function of the central nervous system.
Utilize at least two evidence-based strategies to improve cognitive function following traumatic brain injury.
Design interventions that help clients understand mind-body interactions related to functional neurological symptoms.

Outline

Mechanics and neuropathology associated with traumatic brain injury common in military settings
Evidence-based techniques designed to improve function and performance of common cognitive declines in TBI
Mood, anxiety, trauma and chronic pain matter more than you might think – how to identify and treat functional neurological symptoms
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors 
Social Workers 
Psychologists 
Psychiatrists 
Marriage & Family Therapists 
Addiction Counselors 
Nurses 
Occupational Therapists 
Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Rethinking Addiction: The Integrative Harm Reduction Approach

The truth about illegal drugs is that most people use them for pleasure, connection, enhancing creativity, and coping with life’s many physical and emotional challenges. Of course, drugs have serious inherent risks. But given the prevalence of the “Just Say No” culture, do we really understand the best way to minimize those risks? For many therapists, the answer is no. In fact, therapists are often so uncomfortable dealing with drug use that they’ll immediately refer a client out, despite having established a solid therapeutic relationship. This session offers a psychobiosocial approach that demystifies problematic drug use, as well as an integrative harm reduction approach that provides a road map for helping therapists help their clients rethink their relationship with substances. You’ll explore:

Seven therapeutic tasks for engaging and promoting positive change for clients who struggle with drug use and other risky and addictive behaviors
Harm reduction principles that facilitate healing relational experiences
Approaches to help drug-using clients overcome the shame and guilt that often derails therapy
Mindfulness-based strategies for sitting with uncomfortable urges and feelings

Program Information

Objectives

Justify how the harm-reduction stance is essential to effective treatment across the spectrum of addictive severity.
Catalogue seven therapeutic tasks that combine relational psychodynamic, CBT, and mindfulness interventions to promote positive change with addictive behaviors.
Utilize the Microanalysis to assess how addictive behavior reflects the interplay of biology, meaning, habit, and social context.
Demonstrate Urge Surfing to improve affect acceptance and tolerance.
Demonstrate Unwrapping the Urge to explore the meaning and function of the addictive urge.

Outline

The journey to Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP)
A harm reduction frame as essential to effective helping
Challenges of working with people who struggle with drugs in clinical practice
The maligning of addiction
A re-humanized understanding of problematic substance use
Selected techniques demonstrated

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Other Behavioral Health Professionals

Caring for Self While Caring for Others: Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout in Work with Military and Veteran Clients

Working with military and veteran clients is meaningful and deeply rewarding. But witnessing suffering can result in vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout. This recorded session will give you the tools you need to incorporate self-care in your practice and in your life. You’ll learn to recognize essential signs of therapist stress and explore personal and organizational factors and strategies that help prevent it. Get the support you need to implement an effective self-care plan.

Program Information

Objectives

Assess symptoms of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma.
Utilize two strategies for managing work-related distress from working with military veterans to improve treatment outcomes.
Develop a plan for addressing an organizational factor impacting burnout.

Outline

Burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary/vicarious trauma
Specific occupational stressors related to work with military veterans
Assessment strategies
Person-centered strategies for managing distress
Organizational factors – what they are, what you can do about them
Develop a practical self-care plan
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other mental health professionals

Finding a Faster Way to Treat Trauma: A Neurobiologically Informed Approach

Increasingly, therapists are under pressure to provide short-term treatment for long-term issues. But how can we possibly treat trauma briefly? After all, many trauma treatments focus on helping the client remember and articulate what happened to them. It’s also especially difficult to provide short-term care for clients who exhibit suicidal or self-destructive behaviors, or for dysregulated clients who often find quick methods difficult to tolerate. So, what’s a trauma therapist to do? The answer lies in new, neurobiologically-informed treatments. Rather than treating traumatic events, neuroscience teaches us to treat their effects. In this recording, you’ll discover how to:

Pace the treatment to fit the demands of managed care
Capitalize on the body’s innate capacity to heal
Focus on traumatic effects rather than events
Apply a safe, neurobiologically informed brief therapy model that offers hope to trauma survivors

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate the theory of trauma-related autonomic dysregulation.
Construct a “phase-oriented” treatment of trauma and create treatment tasks for each phase.
Utilize mindfulness-based treatment techniques with traumatized clients.
Practice three (3) somatic and cognitive interventions that directly address the neurobiological effects of trauma.

Outline

Understanding the neurobiological ‘living legacy’ of trauma
- Implicit versus explicit memory
- Survival-related defensive responses
- Autonomic dysregulation
Implications for brief therapy
- Phase-oriented treatment
- Pacing the tasks of treatment for a time-limited model
Tasks of the three phases of treatment
Approaches and interventions appropriate for a short-term model

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Other Behavioral Health Professionals

The Collective Trauma of War

Focusing on the symptoms of PTSD is not enough when working with veterans. We need to help them understand the larger society that wishes to forget the horrors of war and its shared responsibility for them, and how that reinforces their intense feelings of isolation and difficulty integrating back into the civilian world. This recording will offer an innovative way for vets to gain agency and bring a clearer awareness to understanding the emotional burden they carry.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify six common symptoms of the unprocessed collective trauma of war to help the veteran differentiate these symptoms from their own symptoms.
Demonstrate how to help veterans gain agency in their lives by cultivating specific coping skills, such as using attachment to others and breathing techniques to help them stay regulated.
Examine how you may carry the collective trauma of war and the ways this can affect your clients in therapy.

Outline

Identify six common symptoms of the unprocessed collective trauma of war to help the veteran identify these symptoms in others to differentiate it from their own symptoms

Teach veterans common PTSD symptoms of collective trauma
Practice with them quick symptom recognition
Help veterans cultivate specific coping skills, such as using attachment to others and tracking their arousal, to help them stay regulated
Teach veterans the Window of Tolerance model of regulation
Help them identify where they are on the model during therapy sessions

Identify how you carry the collective trauma of war and how it affects your clients

Use personal somatic reflection and triad sharing to identify symptoms
Use personal and group examples to understand the impact on your veteran clients

Target Audience

Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Other Behavioral Health Professionals.