Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Member price: $149.00 including GST (member price will display once logged in)

Non-member price: $298.00 including GST

This 1.5-hour course provides an introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), presented by Associate Professor Monica O'Kelly.

CBT is a school of psychological therapies based on the premise that it is not ‘what happens’ that causes how we feel, but rather how ‘we think about what happens’ that informs our emotional responses.

While this is in some respect a basic concept, it is by no means simple to put into practice through our therapeutic relationships. With a strong empirical base, CBT is emerging as one of the most effective psychological interventions used by therapists and clinicians today.

Based on the approaches of Beck and Ellis, this presentation bridges the gap between theory and practice, by focusing on the core skills associated with the CBT approach.

After outlining the underlying theory, the presentation focuses on putting CBT into action with clients, guiding participants through the key steps in the CBT sequence. The presentation concludes with a demonstration between clinician and client.

Who is this for: This content is best suited to social workers and other allied health professionals specialising in (or interested in specialising in) mental health practice.

Learning objectives

Participants will obtain an understanding of:

• The core principles and underlying model of the CBT approach
• The empirical support for CBT and how to access it
• The importance of structuring a CBT session
• Familiarisation with the CBT sequence.

AASW Credentials: Mental Health (Focussed Psychological Strategies); Clinical

Presenter details

Assoc Prof Monica O’Kelly (B Sc (Hons), Dip Ed, MB Sc, PhD, FAPS (CClin, CEDP)) is the Director of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Australia and the Director of the Australian Institute for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. She is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Psychiatry at Monash University and an Honorary Associate Professor at Melbourne University.

Assoc Prof O’Kelly has trained in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York and is an Associate Fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute. She has also completed the Extramural Training Program at the Beck Institute in Philadelphia and is a Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She is the author of the book CBT in Action: A practitioner’s toolkit and has published many articles and book chapters in the area of CBT, as well as producing demonstration DVDs.

She has worked clinically with children, adolescents and adults for over 40 years. She has trained therapists in CBT for over 20 years throughout Australia and New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Hong Kong. She takes an active learning approach and believes that skills need to be modelled for trainees and that trainees benefit from supervised skills practice.