This presentation was last reviewed on March 13, 2025, and live streamed online on September 23, 2022, from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm ET.

The 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). While many clinicians want to use CBT to address mental health needs, such as anxiety and OCD in 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. 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.

This workshop explores best practices for integrating lived experience into all facets of mental health service planning, design, implementation, and evaluation, with a particular emphasis on serious mental illness (SMI). Participants will gain practical strategies to ensure meaningful inclusion, moving beyond tokenism to foster true collaboration. The presenter will provide actionable insights for clinicians and administrators, equipping them with concrete methods to incorporate lived experience perspectives in ways that enhance service effectiveness and equity.

Psychotherapists are powerful and often under-utilized allies in engaging our patients in effective use of psychiatric medication. Learn how effective communication between prescribers and psychotherapists can advance “treatment-resistant” patients forward while simultaneously enhancing clinician’s fulfillment in their work. Go beyond discussing neurotransmitters and into the heart of what taking psychiatric medication means to our patients. Address fears of dependency, loss of identity, weakness, and loss of control. Understand how attachment styles, medical trauma, and minority status predict medication side effects. Cultivate in patients an internal locus of control and self-advocacy skills to reduce side effect burden. Learn what information psychiatric medication prescribers really want to hear from psychotherapists and vice versa. Together, we are powerful allies in moving treatment forward. This presentation will help clinicians discuss medications in ways that empower their clients to more effectively engage in psychiatric treatment.

This presentation was originally reviewed on November 19, 2024, and live streamed online on November 22, 2024, from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET.

Contamination OCD is a common but challenging-to-treat form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that represents roughly half of its cases. This program teaches clinicians how to treat contamination OCD using the functional-based Mastery treatment approach, a synthesis of exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and emerging literature on the use of judicious safety behaviors to improve functioning in cases where triggers do not directly habituate. This is a humane and well-tolerated approach that is well suited to contamination OCD cases such as disgust, neurodiversity and more, and has now been taught and implemented at major clinics nationwide. This presentation will teach clinicians how to use the Mastery approach, a functional approach to ERP designed for cases that do not respond to traditional ERP, such as disgust or other non-habituating triggers, neurodiversity, co-morbidities and more.

This presentation was originally reviewed on January 16, 2025, and live streamed online on January 17, 2025, from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET.

This presentation was last reviewed on January 21, 2025, and broadcast live online on December 2, 2022, from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET. 

This presentation was last reviewed on January 21, 2025, and broadcast live online on December 2, 2022, from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET.

This presentation was last reviewed on January 21, 2025, and broadcast live online on November 16, 2022, from 1:00 PM – 4:15 PM ET.