By Norman Cotterell, PhD; Allen Miller, PhD; Beck Institute Staff
Our CBT for Helping Professionals on-demand webinar series offers evidence-based CBT techniques for professionals working in human services positions. Learn more about our Decision-Making Skills webinar and our Listening Skills webinar.
We know that CBT, when delivered correctly and adapted to the individual, helps people get better and stay better. But we also know that financial, cultural, and logistical factors can limit access to effective, evidence-based treatment for people around the world. That is why Beck Institute is rolling out a series of webinars that will teach CBT and other evidence-based techniques to people in the human services field this year.
These “helping professionals” are teachers, case workers, probation officers, drug and alcohol abuse counselors, medical providers, and other individuals working in a human services role. We hope that by equipping more people with CBT skills as taught by Beck Institute, with fidelity to the cognitive model and an emphasis on the flexibility and adaptability of CBT, we will be able to serve our nonprofit mission by extending the benefits of this effective practice to more individuals in need, in a culturally appropriate way.
Our staff recently sat down with Dr. Allen Miller, Director of CBT Programs at Beck Institute, to talk abut what he thinks these trainings will bring to the field. We also chatted with Dr. Norman Cotterell, who is leading our first webinar of this kind on Decision Making Skills later this month.
Dr. Miller
Q: Allen, why do you think it’s important for people in the human services sector to develop CBT skills?
A: People who are not mental health professionals are increasingly being asked to step in and help others who experience stress, need to make difficult decisions, have problems, and want to pursue personal goals. We have a variety of techniques available that can help work supervisors, medical professionals, human service workers, teachers, and others to deliver well-informed, research-supported techniques. There are increased levels of problems being reported, more people seeking professional help and too few mental health professionals to respond to their needs. In consideration of these issues, we—mental health professionals—recognize the potential benefits of having anyone who works with people to be better able to deliver evidence-based support to those in need.
Q: Can you give us an example of CBT being used effectively by people who aren’t clinicians, or who don’t hold postgraduate degrees in mental health?
A: There are many examples provided every day by professionals we have already trained. Supervisors in work settings help their staff members to decide whether to make a job change. Medical staff members help patients participate better in treatment planning. Those in authority positions listen to their teams in ways that allow them to understand real issues of concern. Probation officers help motivate probationers to follow the conditions of their probation.
Q: What should our audience know about these trainings?
A: Anyone who works with people is going to, on occasion, encounter situations that require knowledge and skills that are not taught in school. By continuing their education with Beck Institute, trainees learn a variety of skills that will help them do their jobs every day. Some of the skills covered in these webinars for helping professionals include:
- How to communicate your ideas clearly
- How to listen to others to understand what their main concerns are
- How to provide appropriate assurances about distressing situations
- How to help people make important decisions that will affect their whole lives (e.g., job changes, relationship issues, lifestyle changes, treatment planning, etc.)
- How to motivate others to act in their best interests, and pursue their goals
Q: What do you hope happens as a result of these trainings?
A: As a result of offering these trainings, I hope there will be many more people in the world who can be there to support and give good direction to others. These straight-forward, easy to learn skills will put webinar participants in the best position to help others in a thoughtful, caring, research-based way. The bigger pay-off for this is that we will have healthier and happier communities for everyone to live and work in.
Dr. Cotterell
Q: Norman, what are you most excited for about your upcoming CBT for Helping Professionals: Decision Making workshop?
A: I’m excited by the universality of decision making. It cuts through every aspect of our lives, from the mundane to the complex. I’m fascinated by the diversity of issues that arise in decision making, like:
- How decision making comes in so many different contexts
- How seemingly trivial decisions can have unexpected outcomes
- How we are affected by biases
- How we are affected by group pressure
- How we strive to overcome biases and pressures to improve the quality of our decisions
Q: What are you hoping that people take with them from this training?
A: Decision making unites us with our clients in therapy. They make decisions. We make decisions. And CBT therapy is a collaborative process where we unite to decide upon a course of action to improve the quality of their lives. It’s the same with help