2024-2025 Academic Catalog

MPO 561 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

MPO561 is a foundations course that introduces students to the theory and practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Students will gain the skills necessary (1) to develop and share cognitive behavioral case conceptualizations for treatment planning purposes, (2) to structure a CBT session, enhance patient motivation, and provide psychoeducation, and (3) to utilize basic techniques of CBT to modify maladaptive thoughts, emotions, and/or behaviors. In addition, students will become familiar with and demonstrate usage of the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS) to measure treatment fidelity and to use in the context of cognitive behavior therapy supervision. By the end of the course, students will be able to: 1) Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental theoretical principles of CBT; 2) Show proficiency in the usage of basic CBT skills, i.e., collaborative empiricism, continuous assessment, psychoeducation, session structuring, assigning & monitoring homework, and establishing therapeutic alliance with patients; 3) Generate cognitive-behavioral case conceptualizations to guide with treatment planning; 4) Show basic proficiency in the usage of CBT skills (e.g., Socratic questioning, guided discovery, identification and modification of automatic thoughts and core beliefs, behavioral activation, activity scheduling, coping card construction, and relaxation training); 5) Conduct adherence ratings for psychotherapy research studies utilizing CBT and provide structured supervision, using the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS); 6) Describe the relevance of diversity factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation to the practice of CBT; 7) Demonstrate knowledge of informational technology tools for accessing, interpreting, and expressing knowledge of issues related to CBT.

Credits

4

Prerequisite

MPO546 Foundations of Psychotherapy