Clinicians inherit a categorical playbook that implicitly treats diagnoses as natural kinds, yet everyday psychiatry is saturated with comorbidity, diagnostic instability, and weak alignment with biology. What’s missing often is a conceptual orientation that acknowledges dimensional, hierarchical, and dynamic structure while remaining usable in clinic. This lecture supplies that orientation: it shows why neo-Kraepelinian assumptions falter, outlines a pluralistic nosology fit for clinic, and illustrates it with contemporary developments.

This presentation was originally reviewed on August 11, 2025, and live streamed online on August 15, 2025, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.

Many clinicians are familiar with Exposure and Response Prevention, an evidence-based treatment designed to dismantle the system of behavioral reinforcement that perpetuates OCD. It can be challenging to translate these principles to mental behaviors, as clinicians and clients alike can struggle find ways to disengage from mental compulsions and rumination without falling into the trap of distraction or thought suppression. This presentation will give clinicians concrete tools to help clients build awareness of mental compulsions and practice a variety of non-engagement strategies.

Maladaptive relationship patterns that are learned in early attachment relationships can be replicated with others in adulthood in predictable patterns referred to as “copy process” in Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT, Benjamin, 2003/2006; 2018). The underlying attachment-based motivations to repeat old patterns can provide barriers to response to standard treatments while also holding the keys to change with even difficult or “stuck” cases. This presentation will provide an overview of IRT principles, including review of empirical evidence supporting their use. Case illustrations will emphasize use of an interpersonal case formulation to tailor treatment for severe and chronic problems involving diagnostic comorbidity and personality pathology. Ultimately, IRT seeks to help patients become aware of copied interpersonal and intrapsychic patterns, and the role they play in maintaining connection with internalized attachment figures. From there, the goal is to help a patient differentiate from the “family in the head” and pursue healthy behaviors and self-concepts.

The first annual Sheppard Pratt and Mid-Atlantic OCD Conference sponsored by Sheppard Pratt and OCD Mid-Atlantic (an affiliate of the International OCD Foundation) is a day of advanced continuing education and destigmatization about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It features professional workshops from experts in the field on topics including pediatric OCD, Tourettic OCD, the use of technology in OCD treatment, and the history and evolution of OCD psychiatry. The day concludes with a lived experience panel featuring individuals affected by OCD who will share about their journeys to manage the condition.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a complex condition that continues to be underrecognized and misdiagnosed. Despite similarities to OCD, BDD presents with unique clinical challenges, including higher overvalued ideation, treatment ambivalence, reliance on cosmetic and dermatological procedures, depression, shame, isolation, and suicidality. Standard evidenced based treatment based for OCD is therefore inadequate to address the full scope of BDD symptomatology. This lecture will explain the cognitive behavioral treatment for BDD and introduce additional strategies to enhance treatment outcome. These include a larger focus on engagement via a shared formulation with the client as well as incorporating a variety of techniques such as: dialectical behavior therapy, perceptual re-training, compassion focused therapy, and attentional training.

This presentation was originally reviewed on May 12, 2025, and live streamed online on May 16, 2025, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.

This presentation will focus on comprehensive evidence-based interventions for youth experiencing school avoidance. Specifically, we will discuss the importance of diagnostic, dimensional, and functional assessment, the critical role of parent education, training, and support, and the benefits of group therapy with other school avoidant youth. In addition, we will address how to identify the appropriate target for exposure therapy, and how to partner with the school-based professionals to design the return to learn process. Lastly, we find that approximately 50% of school avoidant youth present with unidentified issues related to neurodiversity, especially autism and processing speed disorders. We will address the critical differences in the interventions for these youth.

This presentation was last reviewed on March 13, 2025, and broadcast live online on May 5,  2023, from 1:00 PM- 2:30 PM ET. 

This presentation was last reviewed on March 13, 2025, and broadcast live online on May 5, 2023, from 2:45 PM- 4:15 PM ET.