Practical for Your Practice Podcast

Practical for Your Practice, Season 3

Listen to Episode 12, Season 3: Evolving Our Thinking about Thinking in Psychotherapy
Guest: Dr. Jeff Mann
From the time Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis recognized the importance of addressing unhelpful cognitions and cognitive processes in the treatment of depression in the 1960’s, cognitive behavioral therapy has become a driving force in the world of evidence-based practice. Initially, Drs. Beck and Ellis focused on the content of thoughts as the primary target for psychological interventions. Similarly, modern behavioral psychology has emphasized the importance of addressing cognition as a key aspect of successful psychotherapy. However, B.F. Skinner’s focus on verbal behavior as a generalized operant and modern contextual behavioral scientists’ work on Relational Frame Theory tend to emphasize the importance of addressing contextual factors that influence the function or impact of language over the content of thoughts. In this wide ranging episode, Drs. Jeff Mann, Andy Santanello, and Kevin Holloway discuss places of convergence between these two great traditions and look toward the future of process-based approaches to cognition. Make sure you grab some coffee and a snack: this is a LONG one!

Listen to Episode 11, Season 3: Sharpening our EBP Focus Through the Lens of Military Culture
Guest: Dr. Shannon McCaslin
Cultural competency training is an essential component of all behavioral health training curriculums and often a requirement for continuing education for licensed providers. But how often do those training opportunities include “military service” in the mix of cultural dimensions of identity that influence or shape an individual’s experience? Not often enough. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Shannon McCaslin as we explore the importance of keeping “eyes on” military culture to better understand how it can and should inform our EBP work. Come hear how military culture can influence your patients’ perspectives of their symptoms and treatment options level of, engagement, adherence, and treatment outcomes.

Listen to Episode 10, Season 3: Shifting Perspectives Through Moral Injury to Posttraumatic Growth
Guest: David Dahl
Reactions to trauma vary from person to person. Although Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often a main topic of conversation regarding trauma, two other important post-traumatic trajectories, Moral Injury and Post-traumatic Growth, are gaining recognition. In this episode, Marine Corps Veteran, Social Worker, and Zen priest David Dahl share his unique perspective on trauma recovery, modeling the importance of shared perspective-taking in helping service members in their journey to recovery.

Listen to Episode 9, Season 3: Diamonds in the Rough: Finding and Integrating Evidence-based Apps Into Evidence-based Psychotherapies
Guest: Dr. Greg Reger
Like we’ve heard hundreds of times, “there’s an app for that!” Mobile apps are ubiquitous in modern life. With the proliferation of mental health apps available, it can be difficult to determine which apps have been rigorously tested and validated. Additionally, the mental health app market is largely unregulated, meaning that many apps may make claims about their effectiveness without sufficient evidence to support them. This can be problematic, as using an app without evidence-based support may not only be a waste of time and money but also potentially harmful if it leads to delayed treatment or incorrect self-diagnosis. How is a mental health practitioner to find evidence-based apps to use in therapy? And what are the challenges to NOT considering utilizing mobile apps in clinical work? Join us in a fascinating discussion with Dr. Greg Reger about the current mental health mobile app landscape and you can integrate mobile app use in your clinical practice.

Listen to Episode 8, Season 3: Is There an Elephant in Your Room? What to do When Sociocultural and Political Issues Stomp Into Your EBP
Guest: Dr. Abigail Angkaw
You can sense it coming, feel it before you see it and hear it. The small tremors in conversation that warn you the elephant is incoming. You brace, trying to keep the focus on your agenda, perhaps cling to the familiar safety of your EBP protocol. But the elephant is coming into your clinical space and now you have to decide what to do. In this episode of Practical for your Practice, we roll up our sleeves with Dr. Abigail Angkaw to address the topic of what clinicians can do when sociocultural and political issues stomp into their EBP. More specifically, what to do when we clinicians, as humans, have a strong reaction to those issues. THAT, is the elephant in the room. Tune in for some tips to tune up on areas like disclosure, self-reflection, microaggressions, finding empathy, context and case conceptualization, and what is best for your client and YOU when those elephants won’t leave your room.

Listen to Episode 7, Season 3: The Beginning of the Beginning: What Might be Promising about Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
Guest: Dr. Brian Pilecki
Psychedelic Assisted Therapy. Perhaps reading that phrase brings about word associations like “mushrooms” “LSD” “Molly” “Mescaline” “altered state”, “euphoria” and even “the 60’s”. Or perhaps just seeing those words makes you curious enough to take a listen to this awesome podcast with Dr. Brian Pilecki, a clinician and researcher in the emerging field of integrating psychedelics into the treatment of behavioral health disorders. Listen in and learn as Dr. Pilecki explains some of the ins and outs of psychedelic assisted therapy to include what it is, who might benefit, types of psychedelics that have been most studied, where the research stands, as well as how to get more information.

Listen to Episode 6, Season 3: Is it Really Taboo? Inviting Spirituality into Evidence-Based Practices
Guest: Dr. Andy Santanello
Any guide to “small talk” will tell you that there are just some topics that you shouldn’t broach in most social situations. One of those topics is spirituality. But should spirituality be taboo in psychotherapy? Does the direct discussion of spirituality have a place inside evidence-based practice? In this episode, Andy, Kevin, and Jenna chat about some practical ways to answer these questions and offer ideas for “going there” when spirituality might be a useful domain to explore with your clients.

Listen to Episode 5, Season 3: ACTing on Anger, but in a Good Way
Guest: Dr. John Donahue
Anger is something all humans experience. It can be uncomfortable for us as therapists when it shows up in therapy, whether it is the focus of intervention, or when expressed in session. Indeed, traditional clinical approaches have often focused on managing, preventing, or suppressing anger. But perhaps anger itself isn’t always the problem, but rather aggression or other values-inconsistent behavioral choices. Join us as we discuss being curious about anger and its function from an ACT-informed perspective with our guest, John Donahue, Psy.D.

Listen to Episode 4, Season 3: Practicing Being with Scary Things: Helping Clients Get Better at Being With Their Difficult Stuff
Guest: Mike Twohig
Exposure-based interventions are some of the most powerful tools that therapists can offer to their clients, especially those who struggle with anxiety. However, there are different models of exposure with different proposed mechanisms and different desired outcomes. In this episode, anxiety disorders and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy expert Mike Twohig exposes us to some useful ways to help clients get better at being with their difficult stuff.

Listen to Episode 3, Season 3: If We Just Say All the Right Things, Everyone Will Love This Episode - Talking About the "Just World Belief"
Guest: Dr. Carin Lefkowitz
The Just World Belief (JWB), or the notion that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, is a fundamental and often problematic assumption for both clients and therapists. Believing that doing all the “right things” will lead to the outcome we want doesn’t match up to the realities of life in many cases and can lead to stress and perfectionism. In this episode, Kevin and Andy chat with Senior Military Behavioral Health Psychologist Carin Lefkowitz about the impact of the JWB on clients and therapists and some practical ways to make all the right moves to address it.

Listen to Episode 2, Season 3: Take That Nap! Strategies and Tips for Working with the Sleep Deprived
Guest: Dr. Diana Dolan
When we think of “sleep problems,” most of the time, our brains go to insomnia – that group of people we work with who have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite adequate opportunity to sleep. But what about the opposite side of the sleep coin… or pillow, if you will? What about the group of folks who desperately want sleep, need sleep, crave sleep, AND could sleep if only given adequate opportunity to do so? In this episode, we sit down once again with one of CDP’s sleep experts, Dr. Diana Dolan, to talk about sleep deprivation and the associated functional impairments.

Listen to Episode 1, Season 3: Making Room for Emotions: Emotionally Focused Therapy for Military Couples
Guest: Ms. Liz Polinksy
Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy for couples that helps couples get better understanding and accepting their emotions, to be vulnerable in communicating those emotions to each other, and to get better at validating and supporting their partners. A challenge that therapists often face when working with military clients who are in committed relationships is deciding when to address relationship issues in individual therapy and when to refer your client to couples therapy. In this episode, certified EFT therapist Liz Polinksy share some actionable intel related to her work with military couples.

This podcast is produced by the Center for Deployment Psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Uniformed Services University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government. In addition, reference to any specific company, products, processes, or services does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement by the Uniformed Services University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.

Practical for Your Practice, Season 1

Listen to Episode 13: "Wide Awake to Talk About Sleep - Common Pitfalls in the Assessment and Treatment of Sleep Disorders"
Guest: Dr. Diana Dolan
While disrupted sleep is one of the number one presenting concerns for military-connected clients, it remains under assessed and mis- or undertreated. In this episode, we pull the covers back to reveal the most common pitfalls for providers when it comes to addressing sleep disorders with CDP’s own sleep guru, Dr. Diana Dolan. There are a lot of ways sleep can go wrong and often sleep problems take on a life of their own and become a primary diagnosis. Come join us for a discussion on how to improve your assessment of sleep problems and hear actionable intel to strengthen your treatment approaches.

Listen to Episode 12: "There’s (already!) an app for that! Utilizing lighter, targeted, ecologically valid tech in EBPs"
Guest: Dr. Peter Tuerk
The future is now. Technology augmentation of the dissemination and implementation of EBPs has never been more widely accepted, from mobile apps to synchronous telehealth to asynchronous post-workshop support. Join us as we geek out with Dr. Peter Tuerk about the merits of technology adoption in EBPs, thinking creatively about using familiar technologies in new ways, provider-crowd-sourcing, and avoiding the trap of insisting that technology solutions must be replications of the old ways of doing things. Come for the tech talk, stay for the “skewmorphs.”

Listen to Episode 11: "Commiting to Consultation: Five Barriers and Tips for Facing Them"
Guest: Dr. Andrew Sherrill
Almost all of us clinicians agree that consultation helps us to be better at our jobs. Committing to the consultation can be another story. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Sherril of the Emory University Prolonged Exposure Consultant Training Program shares some actionable intel on facing, and overcoming, five common barriers to committing to consultation.

Listen to Episode 10: "Manifesting the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing in the Context of EBP"
Guest: Dr. Onna Brewer
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a style of communication that can be useful in many different clinical situations. Maintaining the spirit of MI while practicing EBP presents a challenge. In this episode, Dr. Onna Brewer shares some actionable intel that will help you to listen with an ear for connection and change talk and to do what comes naturally (or maybe NOT so naturally) in practicing EBPs.

Listen to Episode 09: "Making Common Factors Common in EBP Practice"
Guest: Dr. Michael Jones
When learning a protocol for evidence-based psychotherapy, the question commonly arises about common factors: “Why do I need to learn this protocol if most of the change in psychotherapy can be traced back to common factors?” or conversely “If I follow the steps on this protocol checklist, I don’t have to worry about common factors at all like therapeutic alliance, right?” Join us as we discuss the interplay of common factors and EBP protocols, how they are not mutually exclusive, and how to make sure you are attending most to the real person and the real relationship with you in the room while applying EBP techniques.

Listen to Episode 08: "Angry Again: Tips on Managing Emotions to Reduce Aggression"
Guest: Dr. Shannon Miles
Anger is the most highly reported challenge, across disorders, for Service members and Veterans, especially postdeployment. In this episode we get fired up talking about anger, aggression and the role of other secondary emotions such as guilt, shame and fear. Our guest, Dr. Shannon Miles, helps us distinguish between impulsive and premeditated aggression and walks us through the main components of her protocol Managing Emotions to Reduce Aggression.

Listen to Episode 07: "Recognizing and Responding to Microaggressions in Clinical Practice"
Guest: Dr. Ryan C. Warner
Microaggressions are subtle, covert forms of discrimination that impact marginalized populations. In this episode, Dr. Ryan Warner shares his insights on the importance of recognizing and responding genuinely to microaggressions in a clinical context as well as some of his own experiences of microaggressions.

Listen to Episode 06: "Practicing What We Preach - Applying Best Clinical Practices to Caring for Ourselves"
Guest: Dr. Carin Lefkowitz
Provider self-care is an important and ethical responsibility for all providers. Our training as behavioral health providers does not render us immune from stress and even symptoms of mood or anxiety difficulties. Many of us found that some of the self-care behaviors we relied on prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were suddenly unavailable. What can be done? Consider creatively applying the advice we give to our clients to ourselves. Listen as Andy discusses with Dr. Carin Lefkowitz practical adjustments we can make to our self-care routines in the current environment.

Listen to Episode 05: "Functionally Speaking: Conceptualization with the Head and the Heart"
Guest: Dr. Robyn Walser
In this episode we sit down with Dr. Robyn Walser for a rich discussion on how clinicians can get better at conceptualizing cases on the fly. We talk about moving from technical to functional, from fidelity to competence, the importance of contextual factors, and most importantly, balancing the need to be present with our clients with our hearts as well as our heads. Come hear Dr. Walser’s actionable intel about improving case conceptualization through understanding the purpose of behavior (the clients and ours), the client’s desired trajectory and the importance of understanding the psychological inflexibility processes that keep clients stuck.

Listen to Episode 04: "When Chronic Pain Enters the Room: Responding Effectively when Physical Pain is Reported by Your Clients"
Guest: Dr. Sharon Birman
Physical pain can be tough to address when it is a focus of psychotherapy, and it can be even tougher when it “shows up” unexpectedly like an unwanted guest. In this podcast, our colleague Dr. Sharon Birman shares some practical, evidence-based tips for responding to comorbid physical pain during the course of therapy for other presenting issues. Dr. Birman’s take-home message… don’t be afraid to engage with chronic pain!

Listen to Episode 03: "This IS the Track - How Talking About Afghanistan Doesn't Have to Derail an EBP"
Guests: Drs. Kelly Chrestman and Sonya Norman
The recent events in Afghanistan have left many military-connected clients (and providers!) reeling, creating a sense of anxiety in clinics about how to best provide support. In this episode, we bring lead EBP consultants from VA and DoD together to talk about the importance of examining our own reactions, making room for our client’s grief, anger and other emotions and how to be fully present in the room as our clients struggle to (re)create balance and meaning. We explore how validation serves as the essential substrate across EBP’s, as well as ways providers can support clients to examine values and move with intention through these historical events. Don’t miss this special episode as your colleagues discuss “doom scrolling,” the “EBP police” and much more!

Listen to Episode 02: "Flexing New Muscles When Doing Prolonged Exposure Therapy (and Assigning in vivo Exercises) Amidst a Pandemic"
Guest: Dr. Kelly Chrestman
Masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer, oh my! This week we are joined by Dr. Kelly Chrestman, one of CDP’s Prolonged Exposure mavens, to talk about practical tips for doing in vivo work during the pandemic. We dig into how assigning in vivo items may or may not have changed in the midst of the pandemic and creative ways to maintain momentum. Not doing PE? There is still actionable intel for you on how to collaborate with clients to get them engaged in meaningful activities despite all the barriers of COVID. This is the time to flex new muscles and think outside the box with us as we talk about doing PE (via telehealth) during the pandemic.

Listen to Episode 01: "I Went to the Workshop. Now What? Tips for Improving EBP Skills"
Guests: Drs. Kevin Holloway and Andy Santanello
All of us have been to multiple day workshops to learn new clinical skills. Although we might leave with some enthusiasm, new skills, and new information, that doesn’t always mean that we are proficient in applying new learning. In this podcast, Drs. Holloway and Santanello chat about some of the strategies that they have used as EBP practitioners to improve their skills.

Listen to Episode 00: "The Most Impractical Episode - The Why Behind Practical for Your Practice"
Guests: Drs. Andy Santanello, Jenna Ermold and Kevin Holloway
Three clinical psychologists and trainers from the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University (USU) come together to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of actually implementing Evidence-Based Psychotherapies (EBPs). Practical for your Practice is a bi-weekly podcast featuring stories, ideas, support, and actionable intel to empower providers to keep working toward implementing EBPs with fidelity and effectiveness. In this first episode your hosts Drs. Jenna Ermold, Kevin Holloway, and Andy Santenello share the who, what, where, and why behind this podcast and more importantly how these conversations between colleagues can enhance the work you do.

This podcast is produced by the Center for Deployment Psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Uniformed Services University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government. In addition, reference to any specific company, products, processes, or services does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement by the Uniformed Services University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.