2-Day-CBT Toolkit for Depressed, Anxious and Suicidal Children and Adolescents – David M. Pratt

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“I know that it can be difficult to engage children and adolescents in the treatment process. These kids are often very “reluctant doers”. Reaching this population and engaging them in meaningful therapy is quite a challenge indeed. To improve treatment, I developed my own structured therapeutic activities and wasn’t sure what was going to happen when my co-therapist and I introduced them, but we thought it was worth a try. We were surprised, and relieved, to see kids responding so well. They came to group, participated in the activities, and began to self-disclose intimate details of their lives and struggles. By using the evidence-based, structured, therapeutic activities outlined in this program, you can present treatment in a more relatable manner and help kids learn practical skills to manage depression, anxiety, and self-harm or suicidal urges.”

David M. Pratt, Ph.D., MSW

This training parallels Dr. Pratt’s recently published book, CBT Toolkit for Depressed, Anxious and Suicidal Children and Adolescents (PESI, 2019) and brings to life over 100 structured therapeutic activities you can readily use. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your clinical skills and provide the high-quality treatment children and adolescents both need and deserve.

1. Integrate “First and Second Wave” CBT skills with more recent “Third Wave” (mindfulness) advances with youth.
2. Formulate strategies to develop a therapeutic alliance that engage children and adolescents in easy, creative, and effective therapeutic cognitive behavioral activities.
3. Practice effective collaboration with youth and parents toward targeted, mutually defined treatment goals.
4. Apply, practice, and integrate evidence-based CBT techniques to modify and change maladaptive behaviors.
5. Utilize CBT psychoeducation to elicit “buy in” from most difficult clients.
6. Analyze, challenge, and replace negative self-talk, thoughts, assumptions and core beliefs.
7. Construct practical skill building worksheets and structured therapeutic activities to clarify and teach complex CBT skills for child and adolescent depression, anxiety, and self-harm prevention.
8. Employ fundamental and advanced evidence-based CBT skills to help your young clients manage depression, anxiety, and self-harm behaviors.
9. Develop a deep understanding of recent advances in the neuro-science of stress and how to re-train the distressed brain.
10. Evaluate exposure therapy techniques including imagino and in-vivo exposure to resolve anxiety.
11. Utilize evidence-based suicide risk assessment, safety planning to prevent suicide and self-harm behavior.
12. Assess effective parental involvement in the treatment process while maintaining client confidentiality to mitigate depression, anxiety, and self-harm risk.

Therapist Guidelines: Keys to Success

• Psychoeducation: Knowledge is power
• Therapy tips: Anxiety and depression
• Introducing CBT to the client and parents
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

Goal Setting and Motivational Counseling: Are You and Your Client Working Together?

• Why goals are important
• SMART goals
• Assessing the consequences of anxiety and depression
• Pros and cons analysis

Mindfulness: Calming the Emotional Brain to Utilize the Rational Mind

• Amygdala hijack & the neuroscience of stress
• The effects of adrenalin & cortisol on the body
• Mindfulness meditation & brain functioning
• Typical stress response vs. desired stress response
• Mindfulness skills for children & adolescents
• Mindfulness practice & monitoring

Mood Monitoring: How to Help Kids Be Aware of Their Feelings

• Feeling awareness games
• Feelings and trigger situations
• Subjective units of distress scale (SUDS)
• Daily and weekly mood monitoring

Behavioral Activation: Let’s Get Active Again!

• The CBT paradigm: Behavioral activation and depression
• Behavior monitoring: Typical school & weekend day
• Life values and activities
• Identifying and covercoming barriers to healthy activities
• Conduct a behavioral activation experiment

Cognitive Processing: Helping Kids Tune into Their Thoughts

• The CBT paradigm and why thoughts are important
• Different types of stinking thinking
• Identify positive, realistic thoughts 
• Identifying & monitoring my stinking thinking

Cognitive Restructuring: Staying Positive Despite Challenges

• Define cognitive restructuring
• Ambiguous situations…What’s really going on?
• Positive Psychology tools to fight depression

Social Skills Training: Teaching Essential Social Skills

• Teaching effective problem solving
• Appropriately using assertiveness
• Effective communication skills
• Practice non-verbal communication
• Conversation and “chit-chat” skills

Anxiety Treatment & Exposure Therapy: Helping Clients Face Their Fears

• Somatic management skills
• Create an anxiety hierarchy
• Identifying & correcting “catastrophic” stinking thinking
• Social skills to help manage anxiety
• Develop a “Game Plan” to help face anxiety
• Imagino Exposure
• In-Vivo Exposure

Special Topics in Treating Anxiety: Applying Exposure Therapy to Specific Anxiety Problems

• Social Anxiety
• Separation Anxiety
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and chronic worry
• Somatic Symptom Disorder

Manage Self-Harm and Suicidal Urges: Evidence-Based Practices to Prevent Suicide and Self Harm

• Conduct an evidence-based suicide risk assessment
• Develop an evidence-based suicide prevention plan
• Use behavioral chain analysis to prevent future self-harm
• Create a hope box
• Emotional distress tolerance skills to resist self-harm urges
• Future time imaging
• Using acceptance and commitment to improve happiness
• Problem-solving in a crisis
• CBT “coping card” for self-harm prevention

Parent Involvement: Parents are Your Clients Too!

• Parent involvement in the evaluation process and treatment plan
• Confidentiality considerations
• Family behavioral activation, problem solving, & contracts
• Parent support & stress management