By Lisa Muchnick Pote, MSW
Executive Director

Hello, January, and welcome to 2022.

I know a lot of people are ready to put 2021 completely behind us. Like you, 2021 was a year of mixed blessings for those of us at Beck Institute.

We experienced significant challenges and successes last year. We said goodbye to our co-founder, Dr. Aaron Beck; our team, like so many others across the world, struggled with COVID; and we continued working remotely, which was isolating at times. But we also grew in so many ways, especially in our staff. We expanded our team to over 60 employees and 30 faculty. In alignment with our nonprofit mission, we provided over $250,000 in scholarships to trainees, improving their access to our expert faculty. We expanded our virtual trainings to more than 55 live trainings and 6 on-demand courses. The list goes on and on.

And we have so much more ahead of us in 2022.

In the US, the New Year is an opportunity that many use to make a resolution to reset their goals, behaviors, and mindsets. Examples might include “to take better care of myself, to be on time, to keep in touch,” etc. As well-intentioned as we are on January 1, many personal resolutions fall by the wayside even before the end of the month. Our co-founder and President, Dr. Judith Beck, writes about one of the most common pitfalls to keeping resolutions in this great blog post on our new Beck Institute Cares website, where we post information and resources for the general public. As Dr. Beck suggests in her blog, the Beck Institute team is not waiting to start working on the things that align with our values and aspirations.

Our intentions include the following:

  • We will expand trainings to provide best-in-class CBT and CT-R education to more people on more diverse topics.
  • We will build a stronger global virtual community, creating more chances for trainees to connect.
  • We will grow our partnerships to bring CBT and CT-R to diverse populations and settings.
  • We will celebrate the late Dr. Aaron T. Beck’s birthday (July 18) with a special challenge and a worldwide day of action.
  • We will provide educational materials and information on CBT and CT-R to the general public through our Beck Institute Cares website.

All of this work is our attempt to reach a much broader range of people, so we can help bring the benefits of CBT and CT-R to communities across the globe

We hope to do our part to create a more just world for individuals with mental health challenges. And to do that, Beck Institute will continue to explore, experiment, and learn as an organization.