Full Course Description

Module 1 | CBT Fundamentals 

I knew that cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness techniques could help my clients heal from conditions like overwhelming anxiety and crippling depression.  

But the way I was offering them—as relatively standalone interventions—felt incomplete.    

As much as I felt the need for a more grounded and fully rounded approach in my clinical practice, it took my own journey through major depression and chronic illness to reveal to me the full potential of mindful CBT.    

Mindfulness has helped my clients move beyond surface-level, autopilot existing, and to fundamentally change their relationship with the world and with themselves... while CBT’s powerful tools for shifting unhelpful thoughts and modifying ineffective behaviors gave them specific strategies to reduce symptoms and live better.   

I found that my clients were better able to accept themselves just as they were... to tolerate difficulty and disappointment... and to find a deeper peace that didn't depend on their circumstances.  

Together, mindfulness and CBT form the head (cognitive), hands (behavioral), and heart (mindfulness) of an integrated approach to living well.    

I am excited to share this program with you.   

With warm regards,    

Seth Gillihan  

Program Information

Outline

Module 1: CBT Fundamentals 

You’ll situate yourself as a mindfulness-centered CBT clinician. Dr. Gillihan will debunk common CBT and mindfulness myths and cover the fundamentals of case conceptualization. You’ll learn to set client expectations, develop goals, and confidently guide clients to:   

Engage in gradual exposure with mindful acceptance of discomfort   
Use behavioral activation strategies with mindful awareness 
Apply response prevention with acceptance of anxiety and uncertainty   
See though cognitive distortions and mindfully challenge assumptions

Module 2: Anxiety Disorders and OCD 

You’ll learn how to treat anxiety and OCD by helping clients courageously step into fear and uncertainty while balancing the ability to self-regulate. You’ll be able to offer clients practical tools to:  

Increase willingness to change in the face of extreme fear   
Become an observer of worries and obsessive urges instead of acting on them   
Utilize behavioral experiments to tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty   
Interrupt patterns of avoidance and relax better

Module 3: Trauma and PTSD  

You’ll learn how to help clients anchor to the present while visiting the past and feel safe, even when triggers and trauma-related stress emerge. Walk away with effective tools to help clients: 

Foster awareness and acceptance of trauma-related symptoms   
Quiet their overactive sympathetic nervous system  
Observe and address trauma-related thought patterns    
Manage trauma-related stress more effectively

Module 4: Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder  

Automatic thoughts can fuel mood disturbances and leave clients stuck and unmotivated. You’ll learn how to unlock clients’ motivation and self-compassion so they can make progress in therapy. Help clients:  

Become aware of the role of automatic thoughts in fueling mood disturbance   
Find reward when motivation and energy are low   
Identify key risk factors for mood episodes   
Engage in mindful lifestyle changes to support mood stability

Module 5: Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders  

You’ll learn how Mindful CBT can cut through the powerful reward-based systems of substance abuse disorders and rewire the brain for recovery. Feel confident in your ability to teach clients how to: 

Counteract permission-giving thoughts   
Mindfully manage cravings and urges   
Rebuild a highly rewarding life with greater presence and acceptance   
Identify and manage high-risk situations and relapse

Module 6: Personality Disorders  

Help clients with personality disorders develop psychological flexibility and emotional distress tolerance. Manage your own reactions to challenging clients as you employ tools to enable them to:  

Identify right thought/action patterns for flexibility   
Increase their ability to sit with uncomfortable feelings through mindfulness 
Enhance clients’ ability to engage well with novelty and change versus maintaining rigid patterns 
Decrease reactivity in favor of values-based responding

Module 7: Suicidality, Insomnia, and Special Topics

This module will address working with suicidal clients as well as clients experiencing insomnia. You’ll learn how to:

Strengthen your clients’ life-giving relationships
Develop an effective safety plan
Improve sleep behaviors
Promote mindfulness awareness of variability in sleep quality and duration.
Implement culturally responsive clinical tools
Manage your own stress and prevent therapist burnout.

Objectives

Integrate mindfulness, cognitive, and behavioral interventions to improve clinical outcomes  
Evaluate myths of mindfulness for purposes of client psychoeducation  
Execute mindfulness practices for use with clients in session  
Demonstrate how mindful decentering is beneficial in symptom management  
Integrate mindfulness into clients’ everyday activities to improve their functioning  
Appraise existing research on CBT for common psychological conditions  
Complete a mindful CBT assessment of symptoms  
Develop a mindful CBT case conceptualization to guide treatment planning  
Construct a mindful CBT treatment plan to reduce symptoms  
Compose a fear exposure hierarchy for common anxiety conditions  
Conduct gradual exposure with mindful acceptance of discomfort and uncertainty 
Design behavioral activation practices to promote mindful engagement  
Utilize mindfulness-informed cognitive strategies to shift distorted thinking  
Devise two mindfulness-based strategies to interrupt patterns of behavioral and emotional avoidance  
Utilize mindfulness skills to increase clients’ ability to tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty  
Practice mindful presence to reduce anxiety  
Appraise the myth of control and the utility of worry  
Apply mindful CBT techniques to address cognitive distortions and avoidance in social anxiety disorder 
Demonstrate how mindful CBT interrupts the core processes that maintain OCD  
Conduct imaginal, in vivo, and written exposure with mindfulness practices that assist clients in maintaining present orientation while revisiting past trauma  
Perform mindfulness-informed cognitive restructuring for major depressive disorder  
Develop strategies for mindful management of cravings and urges to use substances  
Determine plans for managing triggers to undesired substance use  
Respond mindfully to the rigid thoughts and behaviors that are common in personality disorders  
Employ mindfulness-informed behavioral strategies that release client effort and control contributing to insomnia  
Formulate three mindfulness-informed strategies to reduce suicidal risk  
Integrate mindfulness and relapse prevention techniques  
Utilize mindfulness practice to manage therapist stress

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatric Nurses
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Marriage and Family Therapists

Full Course Description

Module 1 | CBT Fundamentals

Program Information

Module 2 | Anxiety Disorders and OCD

Module 3 | Trauma and PTSD

Module 4 | Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder

Module 5 | Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders

Module 6 | Personality Disorders

Module 7 | Suicidality, Insomnia, & Special Topics