Mini Workshop 3 - Basic, Not Boring: How to Develop an Innovative Treatment Program at Any Stage of Your Career by Relying on the CBT Basics

Clinicians and researchers have long established gold standard CBT models of care to address a broad range of mental health challenges. These treatments are highly effective, and yet, do not reach nor benefit everyone in need of care. Clinical program development is a critical means through which mental health professionals can increase access to, acceptance of, and the efficacy of evidence-based treatments, therefore expanding care options across populations.

Consisting of three major components (i.e., program design, implementation, and evaluation), innovative program development can be an intimidating and arduous process. To name a few challenges, clinicians must consider the relevance of and rationale for their ideas, ground their ideas in previous research and evidence, address the unique needs of individuals across diverse communities, identify potential sources of funding and provide proof of concept to those sources of funding. Still, clinical program development remains an invigorating undertaking possible at any career stage, especially when one grounds their design in basic CBT principles and decidedly “starts small” when first implementing a novel program.

In this mini workshop, speakers will draw from their own program development experiences to introduce participants to the major components of the program development process. Speakers’ experiences range from developing intensive group behavioral treatment programs in graduate school to developing outpatient groups and intensive treatment programs at academic medical centers and private practices as early career psychologists, illustrating how program development is possible across career stages. Participants will learn how to generate innovative but feasible program development ideas by identifying gaps in the mental health care landscape, particularly within the clinical environments where they currently work. They will also recognize the importance of grounding innovative ideas in the basic, evidence-based principles of CBT. Finally, participants will walk away with an understanding of why it is important to “start small” when designing and implementing a treatment program, even if that means initially piloting a treatment program with a single patient.

Recommended Reading 1: Hong, N., Herrera, A., Furr, J.M., Georgiadis, C., Cristello, J., Heymann, P., Dale, C.F., Heflin, B., Silva, K., Conroy, K., Cornacchio, D., & Comer, J.S. (2022). Remote intensive group behavioral treatment for families of children with selective mutism. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 8(4), 439–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2022.2062688

Recommended Reading 2: Kuschner, E.S., Morton, H.E., Maddox, B.B., de Marchena, A., Anthony, L.G., & Reaven, J. (2017). The BUFFET program: Development of a cognitive behavioral treatment for selective eating in youth with autism spectrum disorder. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 20, 403–421 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-017-0236-3

Recommended Reading 3: Agras, W.S., Fitzsimmons-Craft, E.E., & Wilfley, D.E. (2017). Evolution of cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 88, 26-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.09.004