As demographic trends shift toward an aging population, there is a growing need for improved mental health treatment for older adults. With depression as the leading mental health concern in later life, one of the greatest challenges for treatment providers is the wide variability of life circumstances that accompany depressive symptoms for clients across outpatient mental health, integrated primary care, and inpatient psychiatric settings. This training teaches the culturally responsive practices that target the contexts and drivers/antecedents of depression in middle-aged and older adults. This training reflects continuing international scientific and clinical advances in applying CBT to age-related problems using individual and group formats, with clinician-tested recommendations for telehealth practice.
Our training model has been updated to include options for professional learning communities, and features content from the 2nd edition of Treating Later-Life Depression workbook and clinician guide, offered through the Treatments That Work series published by Oxford University Press. We would be delighted to support the professional development of licensed mental health clinicians. We train a range of professionals including clinicians licensed as an MFT, LCSW, MCSW, LPC, PhD, PsyD, DNP and psychiatric nurses. We offer two levels of training that are both based on a consultative model (i.e., we do not provide clinical supervision). Therefore, we generally accept only licensed clinicians (or groups in which the licensed supervisor is actively part of the consultation group). Our goal is to help agencies and group practices move from reliance on external experts towards building a network of support among colleagues.
We offer two different programs to meet the educational needs of licensed clinicians. Both programs are constructed of two stages. The first stage, shared by both programs, teaches the basics of CBT with Older Adults through a 10-hr video course split into 5 parts. This can be viewed online and free of charge through our partnership with the E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging. Clinicians will be expected to register with E4’s CATCH-ON Online Learning System, take the pre-test, view each of the 5 videos, and pass the post-test following each of the 5 videos with 80% or better test results. Once completed, the clinician will then move on to the second stage, the consultation meetings. We offer two different levels of consultation, dependent on the needs of the agency, group, or clinician. More details about both levels can be found under Training Options below. To be sure there are no misunderstandings, we do require a memo of understanding which specifies the details – what we expect of you, what you can expect of us, and cost and payment terms.
E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging
The Optimal Aging Center is very pleased to announce our partnership with the E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging to bring to clinicians the 5-part video series called Culturally Responsive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Older Adults. Taught by Drs. Dolores Gallagher-Thompson and Ann Steffen, the 10hr lecture series is split into a five-part video course.
E4 Center’s mission is to Engage, Empower, and Educate health care providers and community-based organizations for Equity in behavioral health for older adults and their families across the US. More information about E4 Center can be found at the following links: website, upcoming events, and webinar archive.
Clinicians
- All clinicians should be licensed within their specialty. We provide training and case consultation – not clinical supervision. Please note that limited exceptions are considered for clinicians in the process of becoming licensed when their licensed supervisor is actively involved in the consultation group.
- Purchase and ongoing review of the Treating Later-Life Depression clinician guide and workbook are required expectations for the consultation meetings.
- Both courses, L1-GC and L2-IIC, require successful completion of the E4’s Culturally-Responsive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Older Adults before the Consultation Stage can begin.
- Clinicians should be working with middle aged or older adult clients as they will be expected during the consulting meetings to be using the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Later-Life Depression approach with current and active clients.
- There is some flexibility to negotiate consultation focus and fees depending on your education, experience, setting, and caseload.
Training Options
Level I - Group Consultation: Essential Skills in CBT for LLD
- Provides fundamental training in our CBT for LLD approach
- 90-minute group consultation meetings held over Zoom either once or twice per month (the group’s choice) for a total of 12 sessions
- For a group of 4-8 clinicians from the same agency or group practice
- Consultation sessions each focus on one specific case in detail (~ 45 minutes) and open discussion of common challenges (~45 minutes). Thus, if there are 4 clinicians and 12 consultation meetings, each clinician would have 3 opportunities to present a case(s) in depth.
- Clinicians are expected to fully attend 10 of the 12 sessions in order to receive a certificate of training.
This method is the current standard for the field and has been used successfully by multiple training facilities.
Cost: Total cost for the 12 consultation sessions is $6,000 for 4-8 clinicians.
Level II - Intensive Individual Consultation: Essential Skills for CBT for LLD
This highly customizable option provides intensive training for those who wish to become master clinicians in CBT for LLD. This training is offered by two board-certified geropsychologists – each with over 30 years of clinical experience working in this field.
Drs. Dolores Gallagher-Thompson and/or Larry W. Thompson will schedule a zoom meeting with you to discuss your training, experience, setting of your clinical practice, kinds of clients you work with, and your goals for the program. Collaboratively, a training plan will be developed that is based on these factors.
Typically, your training plan will include one-hour weekly consultation meetings (conduced over Zoom) for a period of 12 to 24 weeks. During that time, you are expected to discuss at least one middle aged/older adult client you are currently working with. We also require that a minimum of 2 of your sessions be recorded (video or audio) so that we can review your work and give specific feedback for improvement. Additional sessions may need to be recorded in order to meet training goals. A widely-used rating scale, developed at the Beck Institute and modified slightly for use with older adult clients, will be completed on each recording and ratings shared with you, so that you can evaluate your progress.
Cost for this program ranges from $1500 to $3500 per person, depending on training length. Scholarships are available. Upon successful completion of the program, a frameable certificate will be issued to indicate competence in this approach.
For further discussion regarding this option, please consult directly with Dr. Dolores Gallagher-Thompson: email: dolorest@stanford.edu
Meet the Consultants
Dolores Gallagher Thompson, PhD, ABPP, is a nationally recognized trainer in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She is a board certified Geropsychologist with over 25 years of experience, a Stanford University School of Medicine Research Professor Emerita, and former director of the Stanford Geriatric Education Center (SGEC). She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Southern California and intensive training in Cognitive Therapy from Dr. Aaron T. Beck and associates at the Center for Cognitive Therapy. She applied her experience to modify traditional CBT to best benefit older adults. She then extended this newly minted form of CBT to elders of diverse backgrounds. She is a national expert in adapting programing to consider participants’ cultural influences on therapy engagement. Along with husband Larry, she was Co-Director of the Older Adult and Family Research and Resource Center, which was a research and training site for many psychologists at the pre-doctoral and doctoral levels at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Recently Dolores was awarded the M. Powell Lawton Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Applied Geropsychology by the American Psychological Association. As well, she has published numerous books and articles relevant to the field.
Larry Wolford Thompson, PhD, ABPP is a board-certified Geropsychologist with a PhD from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine. Known nationally for his original research on the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with older adults, his were among the very first studies to demonstrate how well older persons can benefit from CBT. Larry has held numerous professional positions – both clinically and in academia. Larry has vast academic and teaching experience gained at Duke University, University of Southern California, Stanford University School of Medicine, and VA Medical Center in Palo Alto. He was recently awarded the M. Powell Lawton Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Applied Geropsychology by the American Psychological Association.
Ann Steffen, Ph.D., ABPP is a professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she has spent her career in teaching, research, supervision, professional training, and direct clinical services focused on the needs of older adults and family caregivers. At UM-St. Louis, she has served as the director of Gerontology programs and as director of clinical training for the APA-approved doctoral program in clinical psychology. Dr. Steffen is a faculty clinician at the UM-St. Louis Community Psychological Service, and is dual board certified in Behavioral & Cognitive Psychology and in Geropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Dr. Ogland-Hand completed her bachelor’s in psychology at the University of Northern Iowa, her doctorate in clinical psychology at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA, and a fellowship in Geropsychology at the Palo Alto VA. She has been practicing geropsychology for over 25 years. After working at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services for 18 years, she started a private practice in 2015 in Grand Rapids, MI. She focuses on family caregiving, mental health issues, and treatment-resistant depression across the adult lifespan. Throughout her career, she has also provided training, supervision, and consultation to mental health professionals.
Before Consulting Calls
We are now accepting applications for group consultation. There are several steps that clinicians are required to take to be prepared to benefit from their consultation experience.
Step 1: Review and work on implementing the information in the Tip Sheets with your clients.
Step 2: Read the Treating Later-Life Depression clinician guide and workbook.
Click on image below to be taken to Amazon.
Step 3: Register for and view the video series on Culturally-Responsive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Older Adults, offered free of charge by the E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging. The complete course must be successfully completed before the date set for the start of the consultation meetings.
- Log onto E4 Center’s learning system.
- Go to CBT tab and start the Culturally Responsive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
- View each of the five videos and successfully pass with an 80% or above each quiz.
Step 4: Complete the online application for our professional consultation and certificate package.
Thank You for Your Interest
If you have any additional questions about this training or possibly customizing
this training to meet your agency’s needs please contact Ann Choryan Bilbrey, PhD at
ann@optimalagingcenter.com