This presentation was last reviewed on February 18, 2026, and live streamed online on February 20, 2026, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.

When learning about ERP for OCD in the “classroom setting,” the treatment can seem deceptively simple. However, the nuance and technical details of delivering high-quality ERP to a specific patient becomes far more complicated “in the therapy room,” leading many therapists to deviate from the prescribed protocol. For many ERP therapists, these alterations to standardized ERP practice can feel like mistakes or poor decisions, leading therapists to avoid discussing them in supervision or consultation. In many cases, therapists pivot away from ERP because of their own discomfort or intolerance of the discomfort of their patients. Yet, at the same time, therapists clinging too tightly to manuals, modules, and protocols may miss important treatment opportunities or patient-specific adjustments that could increase treatment response. These opportunities could reveal treatment needs that extend beyond OCD and/or they could help to access much-needed motivation for targeting core fears with ERP. This talk has two broad aims: 1. To bring the common practice of deviating from prescribed ERP protocol out of the shadows, addressing therapist’s reluctance to admit or discuss their own deviations and 2. To explore the common causes and outcomes of such deviations. Specifically, the workshop will address both therapist and patient factors that lead to deviations during a course of ERP, including examples of helpful and unhelpful deviations.

This one-hour lecture provides a comprehensive introduction to implementing exposure therapy form an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) standpoint for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The lecture begins by outlining the ACT model of OCD and reviewing research that supports a functional contextual approach to its treatment. Participants learn how to conduct ACT-informed assessment, tailor interventions to individual clients, and use differential diagnosis to guide treatment planning. The lecture then focuses on cultivating psychological flexibility through acceptance, cognitive defusion, values clarification, and present-moment awareness—skills that serve as the foundation for exposure work. Building on this base, the session teaches how to design and deliver ACT-based exposures for each disorder, highlighting how exposure in ACT differs from traditional fear-reduction approaches by emphasizing willingness, values-driven action, and openness to internal experiences. Attendees are introduced to strategies for implementing exposures in session and as homework.

This presentation was originally reviewed on January 15, 2026, and live streamed online on January 16, 2026, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.

This presentation will trace the evolution of diagnostic reasoning in psychiatry from the pre DSM III era to the present and examine the implications of current efforts to shift from categorical diagnoses toward more dimensional and transdiagnostic approaches. It will review contemporary conceptual models for assessing anxiety, depression, and trauma to illustrate how different diagnostic frameworks influence prevalence estimates, genetic findings, clinical trial outcomes, and, importantly, the ways we communicate with the public about mental health. Finally, the presentation will introduce a method of case formulation designed to address challenges in current assessment and treatment practices, including the all too common practice of accumulating comorbid diagnoses leading to ‘polytreatment’ approaches.

This presentation was last reviewed on January 23, 2026, and broadcast live online on December 8, 2023, from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET.

This presentation was originally reviewed on December 11, 2025, and live streamed online on December 12, 2025, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.

While ERP is often presented as a standardized, prescriptive 12–15 session protocol, clinicians frequently encounter patients whose recovery is stalled by deep-seated clinical complexities. This problem exists because the "nuts and bolts" of treatment often fail to account for how trauma, all-or-nothing thinking, and "powering through" anxiety can actually function as subtle forms of emotional avoidance. This lecture will provide clinicians with a framework to recognize when the "perfect" execution of treatment has itself become an obsession. By attending, clinicians will learn to move beyond a manualized mindset and gain tools to navigate the complicated human factors—such as perfectionism and informed trauma—that require a more flexible, nuanced application of ERP.

Clinicians working with individuals who experience anxiety about their bodies often face unique challenges in treatment. These challenges arise not only from the physical nature of the client’s experience but also from internalized faulty beliefs about the body and mind, shaped by sociocultural factors and distorted thinking patterns. Without addressing these underlying influences, treatment can be ineffective or even counterproductive. In this presentation, clinicians will learn to identify, conceptualize, and treat body-based obsessions using a transdiagnostic approach. Attendees will gain practical, evidence-based strategies to uncover feared consequences, challenge maladaptive beliefs, and improve treatment outcomes for clients struggling with body-focused anxiety

This presentation was originally reviewed on November 11, 2025, and live streamed online on November 14, 2025, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET.