Strengths-Based CBT for Vulnerable Clients and Chronic

Revised Title
Strengths-Based CBT for Vulnerable Clients and Chronic Issues
Presenters
Christine A. Padesky, PhD with Kathleen A. Mooney, PhD
Workshop Description
Most therapists want to improve clients’ sense of well-being and overall quality of life, in addition to
relieving distress. This is especially true for vulnerable clients with complex issues and those who suffer
social stigma because of chronic mental health problems. For these clients, Strengths-Based CBT (SBCBT) can provide a more positive therapy experience than therapy approaches that are solely problem
focused.
An emphasis on strengths and resilience is a welcome change for clients who may feel worse when
therapy is solely focused on problems, especially when change comes slowly. While SB-CBT methods can
be used with most types of clients, this new workshop by master clinicians Christine A. Padesky, PhD and
Kathleen A. Mooney, PhD places special emphasis on demonstration of SB-CBT with vulnerable clients
and chronic issues.
Learn how to:
• identify client strengths even when clients deny their existence
• help clients build a personal model of resilience
• incorporate strengths-based methods into classic CBT protocols, and
• use the NEW Paradigm approach to address chronic issues
Padesky demonstrates three SB-CBT applications under both ideal and more challenging circumstances.
Each demonstration highlights subtle decision points that guide SB-CBT practice.
For example:
• When and how do you identify client strengths and bring these into client awareness?
• What nonverbal therapist behaviors are essential to foster client resilience and change?
• When and how do you decide to help a client build a personal model of resilience?
• How do you decide when to construct new beliefs and behaviors rather than test the old ones?
This is a “SHOW ME!” Workshop
A “Show Me!” workshop takes you inside a master clinician’s mind during clinical demonstrations, with
plenty of time after to debrief, discuss, and try it for yourself. How often do you watch a master clinician
at work and wonder, “How did she know to ask that?” “Why did she do that?” Past workshop
participants frequently comment that some of the best learning comes from clinical demonstrations.
Listening to this feedback, Dr. Padesky decided to structure a new workshop series around clinical
demonstrations, rather than didactic presentations. In this first workshop of her new “Show Me!” series,
she reveals what is going through her mind during demonstrations of SB-CBT applications with
vulnerable clients.
SB-CBT Page 1
You will have the opportunity to ask questions such as:
• What are the principles of Strengths-Based CBT?
• How do these guide my therapy choices?
• How does this person fit or not fit with what evidence-based practice says to do?
• What if there are many evidence-based paths to take? Or none? How do I decide what to do?
After each demonstration, Dr. Mooney makes comments and asks questions to highlight key aspects.
Following these discussions, guided experiential learning activities offer participants opportunities to
practice and discover gaps in knowledge and skill. Padesky and Mooney answer questions and provide
clarifying demonstrations during these practice periods.
Strengths-Based CBT
Over the past decades, Padesky and Mooney have introduced a number of clinical innovations into
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) including use of constructive language, four stages of Socratic
dialogue, therapeutic use of smiling, positive imagery, and methods to construct new beliefs and
behavioral patterns. These contributions are now integrated into a unified model they call StrengthsBased CBT which has three areas of application.
Three Areas of Application for SB-CBT
1. Integrate strengths within classic CBT
2. Help clients become more resilient using a four-step model
3. Create a NEW Paradigm for clients with chronic problems.
Who Should Attend?
This workshop is suited for therapists of all knowledge levels: novice, intermediate and expert.
Therapists with similar levels of experience will be seated near each other to maximize the learning
value of role play exercises.
If you have attended Drs. Padesky and Mooney’s previous strengths-based workshops (Building
Resilience, Simplifying Personality Disorder Treatment with the NEW Paradigm) you will have
opportunities to refresh and update your skills, compare your clinical use of these models with Dr.
Padesky’s demonstrations, and develop a deeper understanding of Strengths-Based CBT. Join Padesky
and Mooney in Stockholm for this unique learning opportunity to see Strengths-Based CBT in action with
vulnerable clients and chronic issues.
Learning Objectives
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Observe the thought processes of a master clinician at work
Practice questions which help vulnerable clients identify strengths
Broaden your abilities to utilize client strengths
Become more aware of your nonverbal communications to clients
Build vulnerable clients’ resilience
Integrate SB-CBT with classic CBT
Elicit positive imagery to promote change
Practice NEW Paradigm methods that address chronic issues
SB-CBT Page 2
Presenter Bios
Christine A. Padesky, Ph.D., is considered one of the leading CBT presenters in the world, appreciated
for her depth of knowledge, compassion, and good-humored warmth. She has presented over 450
workshops to more than 50,000 professionals throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia as
well as 25 workshops with cognitive therapy's founder, Aaron T. Beck, M.D. Her clear, organized and
compelling presentations integrate theory, empiricism, creativity, practical skills, and audience
interaction.
Dr. Padesky is a Distinguished Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and former
President of the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy. In 2002, the British Association
of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) named Dr. Padesky the “Most Influential
International Cognitive-Behavioural Therapist.” In 2003 she received recognition for her Distinguished
Contribution to Psychology from the California Psychological Association. In 2007 the Academy of
Cognitive Therapy honored her with its Aaron T. Beck Award for enduring contributions to the field.
Dr. Padesky provides consultation to mental health professionals, clinics, hospitals and groups
worldwide. She develops audio CD and DVD training materials (described at www.Store.Padesky.com)
that demonstrate cognitive therapy processes and protocols and is a featured therapist in several
award-winning educational films. She is co-author of books translated into 23 languages including
Collaborative Case Conceptualization, Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders, Clinician's Guide to
Mind Over Mood, and Cognitive Therapy with Couples. BABCP voted her best-selling cognitive therapy
self-help book Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think
(www.mindovermood.com) the most influential cognitive therapy book of all time.
Kathleen A. Mooney, Ph.D. is a creative clinician and teacher, conducting CBT workshops in the USA,
Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland and Sweden. Workshop attendees appreciate her
clinical insight, humor, and keen ability to clarify CBT principles
Dr. Mooney is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and has over 25 years of clinical
experience with highly specialized CBT training. Her clinical specialties include generalized anxiety
disorder, health worries, work pressures, relationship issues, lesbian and gay issues, panic disorder, and
other health and anxiety issues. She has worked in emergency inpatient psychiatry, an outpatient
community clinic, physical medicine and rehabilitation, family medicine, and at the Center for Cognitive
Therapy which she co-founded with Dr. Padesky in 1983.
Together, Drs. Mooney and Padesky have introduced many innovations into CBT practice and co-created
Strengths-Based CBT. They co-produce CBT audio and video training materials for mental health
professionals. Dr. Mooney designs and manages three web sites, two exclusively for mental health
professionals (www.Padesky.com and www.Store.Padesky.com) and one for the general public
(www.MindOverMood.com). She also is the volunteer webmaster for the Lawrence County Historical
Society (www.LawrenceCHS.com)
SB-CBT Page 3
Workshop Agenda
Day 1 Morning
Strengths-Based CBT: Foundations
DEMO: Identifying client strengths
Therapist choices & guiding principles
Broadening the definition of strengths
Identifying Strengths: Group Practice
DEMO: When there are challenges to finding strengths
Day 1 Afternoon
Build Vulnerable Clients’ Resilience
DEMO: Constructing a Personal Model of Resilience (PMR)
Best places to look for existing client resilience
Debriefing experiences through a resilience lens
The evidence base for SB-CBT’s resilience protocol
DEMO: Apply the PMR to a problem area
Fostering client practice of resilience
Constructing a PMR: Group practice
Day 2 Morning
Integrating SB-CBT and Evidence-Based Therapies
DEMO: Collaborative case conceptualizations & strengths
Strengths-based treatment plans
Navigating choices in evidence-based practice
When do you consider a therapy focus on positive qualities?
Q & A: Integrating SB-CBT with classic CBT
Day 2 Afternoon
Chronic Difficulties and SB-CBT’s NEW Paradigm
Focus on constructing the NEW: Why and when?
DEMO: Construct the NEW
Words, imagery, kinesthetic experience, memories & metaphor
Group Practice: NEW Paradigm methods
DEMO: In session behavioral experiments
Debriefing experiments through the NEW
The Future of Strengths-Based CBT
SB-CBT Page 4

Download Report