Blog posts with the tag "Clinical Skills"

Guest Perspective: Solving Problems Can Enhance Resilience and Improve Adjustment

While conducting workshops for decades around the world for many different types of individuals, both professionals and laypeople, the answer to the question I frequently pose to attendees—“Who here had a week recently devoid of problems?” leads consistently to an absence of raised hands. We all have problems—some small, and unfortunately at times, some being quite overwhelming. Based on this common sense consensus, we would all further agree that it is not abnormal or unusual to have problems. 

Guest Perspective: Targeting suicide risk itself, not psychological disorders, reduces suicidal behavior

This past year our research team published the results of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) testing brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) as compared to treatment as usual (TAU) for the prevention of suicidal behavior among military personnel. BCBT is the first scientifically-supported intervention for preventing suicidal behavior in the military. Soldiers who received the 12-session BCBT were 60% less likely to make a suicide attempt during the 2-year follow-up as compared to Soldiers who received TAU. As the public’s awareness of BCBT grows, there has been considerable interest in understanding more about this treatment. Below I provide answers to some of the most common questions asked about BCBT.

Staff Perspective: Evidence-Based Care: Why Are Providers So Resistant to Treatments We Don’t Know?

Debra Nofziger, Psy.D.

While every provider may experience some initial discomfort with implementing an unfamiliar treatment, I am often surprised with how resistant many mental health providers are toward learning and implementing evidence-based treatments.  An article on this topic by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues demonstrates this resistance, reasons for it, and potential ways to work through it.  I believe providers on all sides of this issue should read this article as a way to both consider another perspective and to clarify their own opinions.

Staff Perspective: Suicide Postvention - Don’t Forget Clinician Survivors

Lisa French, Psy.D.

Clinicians are affected when a patient suicides.  We may all be affected differently.  Some of us may grieve the loss, some of us may question our competence, and some of us may fear seeing future suicidal or high-risk patients.  There are also confounding variables that may arise following the suicide event that can complicate or extend the grief process, including legal/ethical issues, administrative requirements, and clinic procedures to name a few. 

Staff Perspective: Summer Vacation: The Benefits of “Exposure”

For most of us, summer conjures up the idea of vacation. Rather than thinking of vacation as only a time for leaving behind something stressful or routine, I have come to see it as an opportunity for proactively adding to my treasure chest through real life exposures. Yes, the kind we refer to in Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy.

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