DAY 1- FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2019
Presented by: John C. Norcross, Ph.D., ABPP
Title: A New Therapy for Each Patient: Evidence-Based Relationships and Responsiveness
Friday Workshop – 6 CE Credits
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Psychotherapy will maximize its effectiveness by harvesting the most powerful sources of change: the therapeutic relationship and the patient. This workshop provides integrative methods for adapting/tailoring psychological treatments to individual clients and their singular contexts. We begin by reviewing those relationship elements that actually work and those that do not according to the meta-analytic research. Then learn to reliably assess and rapidly apply 5+ evidence-based methods to fit the entire patient: treatment preferences, stages of change, coping style, reactance level, cultural identity, and attachment style. Such transdiagnostic matching demonstrably accelerates the therapy process, reduces premature dropouts, and improves patient outcomes.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Identify at least 4 elements of the therapy relationship that enhance patient success
2. Recognize 3 discredited relationship behaviors
3. Determine a client’s treatment and relationship preferences in ways that improve outcomes
4. Assess reliably a client’s stage of change within one minute and tailor treatment to that stage
5. Tailor therapy to a patient’s reactance level, thereby decreasing dropouts
6. Learn the most potent forms of cultural adaptations in psychotherapy. That is, “personalize” psychotherapy for each patient.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
An internationally recognized authority on behavior change and psychotherapy, John C. Norcross, Ph.D., ABPP, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Scranton, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and a board-certified clinical psychologist. Author of more than 400 scholarly publications, Dr. Norcross has co-written or edited 22 books, most of them in multiple editions. Dr. Norcross has been elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Clinical Psychology, the APA Division of Psychotherapy, the International Society of Clinical Psychology, and the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists as well as on APA’s governing Council of Representatives. Dr. Norcross has also served as a clinical and research consultant to a number of organizations, including the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies. A Fellow of 10 professional associations, he has been honored with APA’s Distinguished Career Contributions to Education & Training Award, the Pennsylvania Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation, the Rosalee Weiss Award from the American Psychological Foundation, and election to the National Academies of Practice. His work has been featured in hundreds of media interviews, and he has appeared dozens of times on national television shows. An engaging teacher and clinician, John has conducted workshops and lectures in 40 countries. He lives in the northeast Pennsylvania with his wife, two grown children, and their two grandkids.
DAY 2- SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2019
Presented by: Christine A. Courtois, Ph.D., ABPP
Title: PTSD Treatment Guidelines and Clinical Care
Saturday Workshop – 3 CE Credits
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The U.S. health care system increasingly utilizes clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) based on stringent systematic reviews of research findings to inform decision-making about care. There are relatively few guidelines, however, that address mental and behavioral health conditions or that include psychological interventions. To address this, in 2010, the American Psychological Association adopted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) standards for clinical practice guidelines and selected the treatment of PTSD as a topic for review. The resultant recommendations, “Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults*,” were accepted in early 2017, to be accompanied by a companion Professional Practice Guideline (PPG). Professional Practice Guidelines are more broad-based documents that rely on reviews of clinical experience and consensus about the treatment of a population and condition. This guideline comes in addition to 4 others that were recently updated and revised.
The recommendations—along with the strengths and limitations--of the PTSD guidelines will be presented and its findings compared. Major recommendations of Professional Practice Guidelines and other authoritative writing for treatment of all forms of PTSD (including the Dissociative Disorders) ** will also be reviewed.
The orthodoxy of the clinical practice guideline process and its resultant ironic limitations for clinical practice will be addressed, the topic of two recently jointly published special issues of the journals Practice Innovationsand Psychotherapy, co-edited by the presenter and Dr. Laura Brown, and including a critique by Dr. Norcross and his colleague Dr. Bruce Wampold (articles will be available on the DPA web site). Increasingly, emphasis is being placed on the significance of the relationship for the treatment of traumatized individuals, especially those who were interpersonally victimized. We will provide an overview of evidence-based relationship (EBRs) elements that are important to the success of treatment and have been largely ignored in the PTSD guidelines, linking them to Dr. Norcross’ findings and discussion of yesterday’s seminar.
Finally, a recent major integrative guideline for complex trauma is about to become widely available that suggests flexible adaptation of treatments to complex trauma cases. Findings will also be discussed, as the document can be considered state-of-the-art.
*Dr. Courtois chaired this panel.
**Dr. Courtois chaired/co-chaired or was a member of a number of these panels.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Attendees will be able to list what treatments for PTSD have an evidence-base at the present time.
2. Attendees will be able to differentiate between a Clinical Practice Guideline and a Professional Practice Guidelines
3. Attendees will be able to list several relational elements that have an evidence base.
4. Attendees will be able to identify several emerging treatments and hybrid models of treatment that are currently available.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified counseling psychologist, recently retired from her clinical practice and now a consultant/trainer on trauma psychology and treatment. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Maryland Psychological Association, and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). She is a charter member and past president of APA Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) and has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). She was the founding Associate Editor of Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy and chaired the recently released APA Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of PTSD in Adults. She has received theAPA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Professional Practice, the ISTSS Sarah Haley Award for Clinical Excellence, and most recently the American Board of Professional Psychology Distinguished Service Award to the Profession of Psychology and the APA Division 56 Lifetime Achievement Award. She has written or co-edited ten books and numerous articles on topics of trauma and its treatment.
