Meet the Moderator: Robert Friedberg, PhD, ABPP
On October 29, as part of the 6th Annual Beck Institute Excellence Summit, Beck Institute will host a virtual panel discussion appropriate for both professionals and the general public titled “Youth Mental Health in 2022: A Discussion About Accountability and Access.” Featuring prominent experts in youth mental health, this important conversation will be moderated by Robert Friedberg, PhD, ABPP.
Dr. Friedberg is a Beck Institute faculty member and the Director and Research Group Advisor at the Center for the Study and Treatment of Anxious Youth at Palo Alto University, where he is also a tenured full professor. He is an international expert in CBT treatment for youth, and teaches, speaks, and writes about the application of CBT to behavioral health care for children and adolescents. We are thrilled to have him moderate our important panel discussion on youth mental health.
Learn more about Dr. Friedberg and what he hopes audience members will take away from the discussion.
How and why did you get into working with children?
As an undergraduate in college, I was fortunate to take classes in developmental psychology from Dr. Nancy Davidson whose knowledge, passion, and creativity ignited my interest in working with children. In graduate school, I was mentored by Dr. Berthold Berg, who taught me that therapy with youth can be fun, and Dr. Connie Dalenberg, who coached me to integrate empirical research findings with clinical interventions.
What do you love most about working with kids?
Working with kids is challenging and fun. Kids tend to be very transparent and in-the-moment. Often, they are uncensored, and all these characteristics make the work very appealing.
Why do you think evidence-based practices, and CBT in particular, are helpful for therapists who work with children and youth?
I tend to not use the term “evidence-based practices” much anymore. Rather, I prefer more accessible terms like “treatments that work.” Treatments that work are crucial because they increase public confidence, foster clinical accountability, enable greater equitable accessibility, and decrease intangible and tangible costs to the public.
What are some of the most interesting advancements made recently in children’s mental health?
Modular CBT with youth is an exciting and very promising approach to children’s behavioral health care, and one of the panelists, Dr. Bruce Chorpita, is a pioneer in this area. Additionally, integrated pediatric behavioral health care is another advancement that is quite compelling.
What do we, as a society, get wrong about kids’ mental health? How can we get it right?
I think the stigma that most behavioral health conditions take a long time to be treated successfully is a mistaken assumption. That is the reason that practitioners should readily embrace “treatments that work” like CBT, DBT, etc.
What do you hope attendees take away from this panel discussion?
I consider all three panelists (Drs. Chorpita, Fristad, and Shatkin) genuine legends and visionaries in the field. Their insights on anxiety, depression, suicide, mood disorders, and conduct problems will prove invaluable. Additionally, their comments on future directions and increasing behavioral health literacy shouldn’t be missed.
If you could ask parents and caregivers to do one thing to help their kids develop resilience, what would that one thing be?
Really, two things come to mind: 1) Help kids productively cope with adversity and 2) eliminate perfectionism.
Beck Institute is pleased to offer this panel discussion free of charge to the public. Learn more and register to attend.