CBT training for school professionals is helping teachers, counselors, and administrators build evidence-based mental health skills right in the classroom. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) isn’t just for clinical settings; it can be adapted as a practical framework that school staff use daily to support students struggling with anxiety, depression, and trauma.

In this interview, Beck Institute Faculty Member Kerrie Smedley, PhD, shares what she’s learned from leading CBT training programs in schools across the country. Dr. Smedley explains who participates, what challenges they face, and why CBT’s flexibility makes it one of the most effective approaches for school-based mental health support, even for professionals with no prior therapy training.

Who Can Benefit from CBT Training in Schools?

We have a great deal of trainees in schools who are not mental health professionals; these include teachers, administrators, and those involved in program development. Most of the mental health professionals working in schools are guidance counselors, behavioral specialists, clinical social workers, and some school psychologists. We’ve encountered a range of experience levels, but most of the non-mental health professionals are really new to CBT and have had little to no formal training. Once I start talking to them and hearing what they’re doing in their classrooms, however, they are often already conducting CBT without knowing it. They use problem solving and social skills with their kids, and it can be validating for them to know that what they are already doing may be considered best practice.

How Does the Mental Health Crisis in Schools Affect CBT Training?

Mental health concerns amongst youth predate the pandemic. Over the past ten years, we have seen an increase in youth with anxiety, depression, general tendencies to worry or panic, higher rates of conditions like OCD, and even more suicide risk. There has been a shift in society in which schools and their staff are being asked to play multiple roles, and they are feeling the pressure to meet their students’ needs in a way they may not feel totally prepared for or supported in.

Many students have been exposed to trauma, and many have experienced significant loss. This presents unique challenges for school settings, as taking on the mental health needs of kids in schools requires a great deal of investment. I start my trainings by explaining that CBT can be a lifestyle choice in a more general sense and is not exclusively for treatment purposes. It can also help adults cope with stressors, manage difficult emotions, and problem-solve effectively.

A female teacher helping high school students

The experience of trauma is not isolated to the students; the trainees themselves have also likely experienced significant trauma and hardship. We understand trauma and the skills CBT practitioners use to cope with it much more effectively when we are using those skills ourselves. In my trainings, I like to emphasize that CBT strategies are really for all of us and can be useful for addressing our own automatic thoughts, habits, and behaviors. I use the participants’ lives as examples in addition to the students’. At the end of my trainings, I teach a self-compassion strategy. The goal here is to use mindfulness skills to become aware of negative self-talk and shift these patterns, substituting them with more helpful ways to talk to ourselves internally.

How Do Regional Challenges Shape School-Based CBT Training?

I conducted a training in a large school district in California at the start of the school year, during a wildfire. Both students and staff were affected physically and mentally – there were air quality issues, health condition flareups, and another layer of uncertainty added on top of going back to school amid the chaos of the pandemic. This was a unique stressor, but across the board, educators around the country have a lot in common. I’m hearing from a lot of my trainees that they are feeling similarly overwhelmed to how they would feel at the end of a normal school year – even though we are only weeks in. There is this incredible cloud of uncertainty that is difficult to push through in order to do one’s daily job or take good care of oneself.

I was a schoolteacher after finishing college, and the reality is that it is a much different job now. Even prior to the pandemic, schools were feeling pressure to fill the gaps missing in our culture. The pandemic has amplified these gaps, and it is important to acknowledge and talk about what kids are anxious about now versus before. The core strategies and interventions, however, do not change all that much.

What Do School Professionals Gain from CBT Training?

What has stuck out to me the most amongst my trainees is their extraordinary commitment to kids; teachers are truly some of the hardest working people in the country. Seeing them take time out of their schedules to attend these trainings, even when they may feel like they are treading water, makes it clear how much they want to understand their students. I also get a lot out of the trainings in terms of what they teach me. There is an impressive range of experiences, and participants often share curricula and other resources that I’ve been able to share with my own practice in turn.

It has also been comforting to see how CBT has become part of our culture and how extensively professionals are drawing on these strategies in their work with students. This is why validating the good work that is already being done in schools is so important. I encourage educators to give themselves a lot of grace – to their students and to themselves. They are aware of what their students are going through in the community because they are often part of that same community, and may be having similar experiences of hardship or grief that they must attend to as well.

Is CBT an Effective Tool Across School Settings?

I would say that it has been so impressive to me to witness firsthand the flexibility of CBT and how it does not always require the same structure to be effective. When I first started leading these trainings, I was nervous to present strategies to such a wide range of professionals. Seeing how much CBT crosses boundaries and doesn’t require a specific setting to bring about positive results has been so exciting.

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