Now enrolling new members! Welcome!

We are a community of therapists whose clients have multiple, complicated, severe problems. Together we learn and use the best of any cognitive behavioral or other evidence-based therapies.  (Although we began with a focus on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), we have expanded to learn and use any approach rooted in science that will help our clients.)   The EBP Learning Community provides a supportive structure to help us openly reflect on and strengthen our practice as therapists who value science and compassion.

You are welcome to join us!  Take a tour (about 7 min.) or read on for more details.
 

How It Works: Connect, Learn, Contribute

1. Become a member of the learning community.
2. View, at your convenience, presentations and podcasts to learn or review key evidence-based practice concepts and strategies.
3. Practice concepts and strategies with exercises easily integrated into work in your team and with clients.
4. Share questions, ideas and resources with other members and the community facilitator, Kelly Koerner, Ph.D.

Become a Member

Enrollment for new members is now open to join for the 2009-2010 period.  The membership fee is $250 from March '09-February '10.  Before you register, please review the consent form to make sure the group will meet your needs.  If you'd like more information, please email Kelly, the community facilitator, or if you already know you'd like to join,  register here.  Please note: Registration is first come, first served and closes February 28, 2009.

(A few student volunteer positions are available, please contact Kelly directly for more information.)  

 

What Learning Topics will be covered in the 2009-2010 EBP Learning Community?

Here are the four themes for this year.

1. Fundamentals
We'll study therapy strategies, protocols and other evidence-based practices that are relevant across client problems.  We'll invite great speakers and keep going with bite-sized mini-lessons and ideas for deliberate practice.

2. Psychotherapy Progress Tracking
Therapists who get feedback on their clients' progress get better outcomes.  Many of us want to monitor outcomes at an individual or program level, but barriers and hassles have us blocked.  To help us overcome the hurdles, we'll have a monthly series of talks on how to actually collect data to inform our practice and build clinical expertise. February 6 Cannon Thomas: Building Clinical Expertise; March 10 Janie Hong: How to Guide Therapy Using Client Data (tentative title).  April (TBD) Shireen Rizvi:  Single Case Design for Therapists.  We'll gather a library of free measures, too.

3. Consultation, Supervision & Clinical Decision Making
We start this theme with Jackie Persons who joins us January 7 for "Handling Treatment Failure Successfully."   Then thanks to Donna Sudak, it looks like Robert Reiser and Derek Milne will share their work on "Enhancing Supervision Using Evidence Based Practices".  Kelly Koerner will share deliberate practice exercises on giving and receiving clinical feedback and improving team consultation.  Others in our group have talents and interests here to share, too, so this will be a rich theme next year.
 
4. Plain ol' Interesting Topics
We'll go where our interests and needs take us. For example, Mike Twohig has agreed to share his work on treatment for problematic use of internet porn.  Special Interest Groups may form on certification issues in DBT, evidence based treatment for kids, and post-partum maternal depression. 

 

What topics are already available in the community?

Here's a partial list of community resources from prior years to give you the flavor:

• Developing Clinical Expertise thru Deliberate Practice and Feedback by Cannon Thomas
• Functional Analytic Psychotherapy by Mavis Tsai
  
• An Acceptance-Based Behavior Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder by Liz Roemer
  
• Values Work in ACT:  Dignifying Treatment of Disordered Eating by Emily Sandoz & Kelly Wilson
  
• Handling Treatment Failure Successfully by Jackie Persons
  
• Combining Medication & CBT by Donna Sudak
  
• Treatment of Shame Series: by Liz Simpson, Shelly Frank, & Shireen Rizvi
  
• Basic DBT topics  by Kelly Koerner and Alan Fruzzetti (e.g., "The First Four Sessions of Individual DBT"; "Case Formulation and Treatment Planning for Stage 1"; "Treating Therapy Interfering Behavior"; "Dialectics"; "Validation"; "The Jazz of Skills Training in Individual DBT"; "Phone Coaching"). 
  
• Great talks on behavior therapy fundamentals like exposure procedures and clinical behavioral analysis from Michael Dougher, Alan Fruzzetti and Kelly Wilson.  Check out either of these free demos - Alan Fruzzetti or Kelly Wilson -  to get a sense of how podcasts might work for you
  

FAQs

"Is any special equipment required?” No. If you have a high-speed internet connection that lets you easily download files and an email account, you’re all set.

“How experienced/knowledgeable should I be?” You should be providing individual psychotherapy and interested in evidence-based practice. Beyond that, this format allows folks to pace their own learning: study to fill-in gaps or skim to refresh your memory; share expertise and jump into conversations of interest.