CBT for Youth Depression: Bring Hope and Healing to Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults with an Evidence-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Approach – David M. Pratt

When depressed young people come to your office it’s often not by choice. Worried parents, unsure if this is just a phase or something more, come to you with kids who feel they’ve been brought against their will. They are frequently angry, alienated, and reject the idea of depression. Fear of treatment related stigma, hopelessness about the future, and distrust can cause clients to withdraw from their therapist, giving you very little to work with and leaving you frustrated and looking for ways to engage them. And even the most seasoned clinician knows the challenges of explaining complicated treatment concepts in a way young people can comfortably understand and willingly incorporate into their lives. It all adds up to a situation in which many depressed youth fail to fully participate in the therapy they so desperately need. And the consequences are real. Left untreated, depressed adolescents are at major risk of engaging in self-harming and suicidal behaviors.

They need your help.

But how do you break down resistance to treatment, build the therapeutic alliance, and instill hope in depressed kids? How do you overcome apathy and lack of motivation to engage them, letting you get down to the crucial work that needs to be done? How do you bring complicated treatment concepts to youth in ways they can easily understand and make them feel normal, in control, and part of the process?

Widely researched, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been confirmed to be an effective approach for treating depression in adolescents.

Key benefits of watching:

• Learn how to motivate and engage your most challenging young clients!
• Translate complex CBT concepts into practical and easy-to-understand skills that can be readily integrated into the lives of adolescents.
• Teach your clients essential coping skills and employ the art of “Socratic Questioning” to help them examine and modify their cognitive distortions.
• Discover how to effectively involve parents in their child’s treatment with real-world methods to enhance family communications, improve problem solving, and find “win-win” solutions to common parent-youth conflicts.
• Master fundamental “Second Wave” evidence-based CBT skills and more recent “Third Wave” advances like Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients relax their minds, practice acceptance and manage stress.
• Structured exercises make what you’ve learned immediately applicable to your practice and instantly useable upon your return to the office.

Transform the lives of your depressed young clients with the power of a proven, skills-based CBT approach!

1. Employ fundamental and advanced evidence-based CBT skills to help your young clients manage depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm behaviors.
2. Combine practical skill building worksheets and structured therapeutic activities to clarify and teach complex CBT skills to depressed youth.
3. Apply effective methods to motivate your most apathetic adolescent clients to engage in their treatment.
4. Develop a CBT oriented case conceptualization and understand how to effectively collaborate with teens and parents toward targeted, mutually defined treatment goals.
5. Master the art of “Socratic Questioning” to help young people examine and modify their cognitive distortions.
6. Engage parents and enhance parent-youth communication and cooperation with problem solving skills and “win-win” solutions to common disputes.

Get Client Buy-In: Engagement and Motivational Enhancement Strategies

• Build a therapeutic alliance with young people
• Collaborative evaluation, treatment planning and case conceptualization
• Identify and build upon strengths
• Motivational counseling with youth
• Identify and work towards goals

The CBT Paradigm: Making it Simple to Understand and Use

• Modify cognitive distortions and build social confidence
• Self-Monitoring: feelings, behaviors and thoughts
• Behavioral activation: get active again
• Cognitive restructuring: learn to be a good “thought detective”
• The art of “Socratic Questioning”
• Problem solving: overcome “learned helplessness”
• Social skills training: build social competence and confidence
• Effective use of CBT homework assignments
• On-office therapeutic structured activities
• Learning CBT skills via hypothetical situations

Advanced CBT Techniques: Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• Mindful meditation practices for youth: relax your mind
• Cognitive processing therapy
• Decipher and manage “ambiguous situations”
• Collaborative empiricism: conducting real-life experiments
• Exposure therapy for behavioral activation and social skill development
• ”Acceptance & Commitment Therapy”: know and be yourself
• Coping plans for stressful situations

Parent Involvement Strategies: Build a Therapeutic Alliance with Families

• Don’t jeopardize your relationship with the client
• Involve parents in:
  • Initial evaluation
  • Treatment planning
  • Case conceptualization
  • Treatment sessions
  • Homework assignments
• Enhance family communication and problem solving skills
• ”Win-Win” solutions for parents and teens

How to Handle Crisis Situations: Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention

• Conduct a behavioral chain analysis
• Self-harm trigger situations
• Validate reasons for self-harm and suicide
• Use distress tolerance and “Third Wave” CBT skills to manage a crisis
• Coping cards for crisis situations
• Develop a CBT skills based suicide prevention safety plan