Morgan Hagner, PsyD, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Attending a CBT workshop can be both exciting and slightly anxiety provoking! If you are attending your first Beck Institute workshop—or even your first professional workshop—you may be feeling a mix of anticipation, curiosity, and uncertainty.
Workshops are a great opportunity to learn new skills, network with fellow professionals and students, reconnect with your work, and discover new areas of interest. At the same time, workshops can feel a little overwhelming. They often provide a wealth of new information, concepts, and strategies. Below are a few tips to help you prepare and get the most out of the experience.
Go In with Specific Learning Goals
Before the workshop, review the training description and identify one to three concrete things you’d like to learn or practice. These might include specific clinical skills, conceptual clarifications, or questions you hope to have answered. Having clear goals can help you filter content, stay focused, and notice what is most relevant to your professional development. Clear goals give your attention direction and help you leave the workshop feeling grounded rather than overloaded.
Be Open to Practicing
Practice, especially through role‑plays or experiential exercises, can feel uncomfortable, but it is one of the most effective ways to learn. Try to approach these opportunities with curiosity, remembering that skill development happens through doing, not just listening. At Beck Institute, we prioritize experiential learning and practice because research consistently shows that clinicians are more likely to build confidence and competence when they actively practice skills rather than passively observing them. You’ll find the faculty and your fellow students to be both compassionate and helpful.
Take Notes
Jot down key takeaways, questions, and insights throughout the workshop. You might also note ideas for how a technique could be applied to a specific situation or help a particular client. These notes can serve as valuable reference points when you return to your day-to-day work and can help reinforce all the information you’re taking in. I recommend noting down at least one question, takeaway, and client connection per training section.
Avoid Comparing Yourself to Other Trainees
Everyone in the room is at a different stage of their careers and has different goals for professional development. Instead of comparing yourself to others, use the workshop as an opportunity to calibrate your understanding, assess where you are, clarify your next steps, and identify areas for growth. You’re attending the workshop for your own professional development, to improve your skills, and help your clients progress. Reference your own training goals throughout to help you accurately and fairly assess your progress.
Review and Consolidate What You Learned
After the workshop, take some time to review your notes and materials. Reflecting on what you learned and how you might apply it can help consolidate new ideas, deepen understanding, and boost your confidence as you move forward. After a few days, make a note or set a reminder to practice one or two skills that you learned. It is often most helpful to plan this out ahead of time with a particular client you think could benefit. Additionally, review your highlighted notes one to two weeks after the workshop. Doing so will help reinforce what you learned and what you can continue to practice or discuss in your own supervision sessions.
How to Prepare to Get the Most Out of a Workshop
Before the Workshop
- Spend two to three minutes reviewing the workshop description to orient yourself to the goals, structure, and key topics.
- Write down one to three specific learning goals you’d like to focus on during the training.
- Bring a client or case to mind so you can listen for ideas and interventions that may be useful in your own work.
During the Workshop
- Highlight or jot down key takeaways that stand out as especially relevant or practical.
- Be open to practicing, including role-playing or experiential exercises, even if they feel outside your comfort zone.
- Ask questions. Clarifying concepts in the moment can deepen your understanding and make the material more memorable.
After the Workshop
- Write down your top three takeaways while the material is still fresh.
- Practice one or two new skills within the next three workdays to help translate learning into action.
- Revisit your notes one to two weeks later, focusing on highlighted sections, to reinforce learning and identify what has stuck and what you may want to revisit.
Ultimately, a workshop is not about perfecting everything at once. It’s about taking meaningful steps forward and connecting to your training goals. By setting clear goals, engaging in practice, staying curious, and reflecting afterward, you create the conditions for learning to continue well beyond the training.
Related Programming:
Graduate Student and Early Career Professional Workshop
Build a strong foundation in the essentials of CBT theory and practice alongside colleagues from around the world in this special workshop. Offered only once per year, this live workshop is the perfect first step for graduate students, psychiatric residents, pre-doctoral interns, post-doctoral fellows, and other trainees with an interest in CBT. Clinicians in their first five years of practice and pre-licensed professionals are also welcome to attend.
Read more about CBT training with Beck Institute: