The 10 most popular 'open' courses from the APT.

10.

DBT-A: DBT for Adolescents.

A 3-day course.

Instruction in the key components of DBT for those who want to apply DBT to working with adolescents.

DBT brings together a series of skills and techniques which are powerful and well chosen ones, and DBT-A focuses it on working with adolescents. Whether you want to simply learn about DBT and how to apply it effectively, or are thinking of establishing a full DBT service, this course has it covered. The course covers the delivery of effective DBT at its most relevant for adolescents, including: confusion about self, impulsivity, lack of emotional control, interpersonal problems, family problems and dilemmas, high risk behaviors, including suicidal behavior and non-suicidal self-injury.

9.

IPT Essentials (Interpersonal PsychoTherapy).

A 3-day course.

An exposition on Interpersonal PsychoTherapy, in a way that enables and encourages delegates to use it in their practice.

Interpersonal psychotherapy is a brief psychological therapy for depression, which has now been applied to other areas of mental health. Its goals are simple and practical, namely to reduce symptomatology and to improve social functioning. Interpersonal psychotherapy is recommended in NICE guidelines, notably for the treatment of depression. This is only as it should be because IPT hit the headlines as long ago as 1989 in Elkin et al's massive NIMH study which demonstrated the IPT was the only psychological therapy to effect severe depression (in spite of the inclusion of CBT in the study). On spite of this, and in spite of its strong evidence base, IPT is not as widely practiced as perhaps it should be.

This course therefore focuses primarily on teaching delegates how to deliver IPT or, more precisely, how to incorporate the ideas and methods of IPT into their practice, to the degree they wish to. It also covers a little on the background and the evidence base, but its prime focus is to familiarize mental health practitioners with the ideas and methods of IPT.

8.

The DBT Masterclass.

A 4-day course.

By attending the DBT Masterclass you are expected to substantially develop both your knowledge of DBT and your skills. 

The major teaching techniques on this course are case presentation and discussion, video-presentations, and reflective exercises (where you analyze and describe the practice of DBT in your workplace). You will gain most benefit from this course if you leave a gap of several months between attending DBT Essentials / Teaching the Life Skills at the heart of DBT™ and this one, developing your DBT skills in those months so your have material to present and discuss on this course.

7.

Trauma-Focused CBT, for all ages.

A 3-day course.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is literally a life changing disorder. It is famously difficult to treat, yet Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can produce impressive results.

Experiencing a life-threatening event can leave the person with effects including: persistently re-experiencing the event (e.g. intrusive thoughts and images of it), a numbing of general responsiveness (e.g. less interest in significant activities and a feeling of detachment from others), persistent hyperarousal (e.g. difficulty sleeping, irritability, exaggerated startle response) adding up to significant distress or impaired functioning. This course examines effective Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based interventions (a) to ameliorate these effects and (b) to greatly improve the patient's quality of life where some effects cannot be mitigated.

6.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

A 3-day course.

Mindfulness, and, more recently, mindfulness-based CBT, have had a major - and welcome - impact on the therapeutic world.

This course concentrates much more on Mindfulness than it does on CBT. So it explains why Mindfulness meditation is likely help recurrently depressed people, looks briefly at the published evidence that confirms that it can, and the NICE guidelines that commend it, but spends most of the time in experiential exercises and in discussing those exercises. There is a small amount of lecture input, but listening to lectures on Mindfulness is not a sensible pastime so the course focuses on understanding Mindfulness, acquiring the ability to practise Mindfulness meditation, and the ability to convey it to others.

5.

Motivational Interviewing, and how to use it effectively.

A 3-day course.

This course is available 'Open' (where you come to us) or Onsite (we come to you and deliver it to a group of up to 15 delegates).

Based on Miller and Rollnick's latest book, this course describes an organized way of helping people to recognise their problems and to do something about them. Principally it addresses behavior about which the client has mixed feelings: drinking and substance misuse for example, but a suprising array of common mental and physical health problems as well. Issues from taking psychoactive medication through to eating more healthily can all be addressed using motivational interviewing.

4.

ACT Essentials (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy).

A 3-day course.

'Once in a while there is a unique contribution to psychotherapy.'

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) moves away from focusing too closely on ‘symptom reduction’ towards teaching how to live in a stable and rewarding way. So it teaches how to get in touch with your values, how to act in accordance with them, how to be aware of ‘the you that is always there’, how to see your passing thoughts and feelings for just that, how to accept thoughts and feelings you don’t like without over-struggling with them, and so how to live mainly in the present.

3.

Teaching the Life Skills at the heart of DBT™

A 3-day course.

Running skills development groups is an important part of becoming proficient in DBT, and this course provides the coaching and practice to develop such skills.

This course lasts 3 days and is all about learning how to run groups for your clients to help them become skilled in key areas of relevance for them. The rationale is that patients need not only to be motivated, gain insights and knowledge etc, but usually also need to acquire skills in; Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress tolerance.

2.

CBT Essentials (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

A 3-day course.

A favourite introduction to this powerful, evidence-based technique.

Now in its latest form this course has introduced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to thousands of people ever since 1983. It addresses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in a way that you can use after the course. It covers: the history and meaning of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, conceptualising cases in CBT terms, the format of a standard CBT session, and the most important CBT techniques. All in a way that applies it constantly to practical examples.

1.

DBT Essentials.

A 3-day course.

Instruction in the key components of DBT for those who want to add them to their repertoire without necessarily becoming 'a DBT therapist'.

DBT brings together a series of skills and techniques which are powerful and well chosen ones, for working with personality disorder as well as in other areas. Many people want to familiarise themselves with these skills without necessarily becoming a DBT therapist exclusively, and this 3-day course is for you if you are one of those people as well as if you are thinking of taking the first step in becoming a DBT therapist. As well as covering the 'overall concept of DBT', it covers its 'essential elements', namely the concepts of: Validation; Metaphor; Relentless Problem Solving; and Contingency Management, and the skills of: Mindfulness; Distress Tolerance; Interpersonal Effectiveness; and Emotional Regulation.

Open course calendar.

The APT offers a range of 'open' courses for individuals and small groups to attend.

The training is delivered 'online live' via Zoom and a full list of the courses available can be found on our calendar.