Practical for Your Practice

In both the public and private sectors, demand for behavioral health care is outpacing availability and capacity. The pressure on the behavioral health system necessitates innovation with regards to the methods and models of therapeutic interventions. What can we do when there are just not enough therapy slots available on the calendar to accommodate the need? And how can these needs best be met w...

Clinicians new to EBPs and protocol-driven treatments understandably worry about what to do when something goes wrong. “What if I explain things wrong?” “What if my client gets worse?” Hiccups are the rule rather than the exception, especially when we’re new to a particular model or technique. Carin, Jenna, and Kevin have had their EBP fears come to fruition and are ready to “confess” their past s...

Welcome back for Season 4! Some big changes this season – we are sad to say goodbye to Dr. Andy Santanello who did a phenomenal job as co-host in seasons 1 - 3. Andy has pivoted to new opportunities and we wish him well! In his place, we are happy to introduce Dr. Carin Lefkowitz (long time guest, first time host) as our new Practical for your Practice co-host! Welcome, Carin! In our first episode...

From the time Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis recognized the importance of addressing unhelpful cognitions and cognitive processes in the treatment of depression in the 1960’s, cognitive behavioral therapy has become a driving force in the world of evidence-based practice. Initially, Drs. Beck and Ellis focused on the content of thoughts as the primary target for psychological interventions. Similarly...

Cultural competency training is an essential component of all behavioral health training curriculums and often a requirement for continuing education for licensed providers. But how often do those training opportunities include “military service” in the mix of cultural dimensions of identity that influence or shape an individual’s experience? Not often enough. In this episode we are joined by Dr....

Reactions to trauma vary from person to person. Although Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often a main topic of conversation regarding trauma, two other important posttraumatic trajectories, Moral Injury and Posttraumatic Growth, are gaining recognition. In this episode, Marine Corps Veteran, Social Worker, and Zen priest Dave Dahl share his unique perspective on trauma recovery, modeling t...

Like we’ve heard hundreds of times, “there’s an app for that!” Mobile apps are ubiquitous in modern life. With the proliferation of mental health apps available in app stores, it can be difficult to determine which apps have been rigorously tested and validated. Additionally, the mental health app market is largely unregulated, meaning that many apps may make claims about their effectiveness witho...

You can sense it coming, feel it before you see it and hear it. The small tremors in conversation that warn you the elephant is incoming. You brace, trying to keep the focus on your agenda, perhaps cling to the familiar safety of your EBP protocol. But the elephant is coming into your clinical space and now you have to decide what to do. In this episode of Practical for your Practice, we roll up o...

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy. Perhaps reading that phrase brings about word associations like “mushrooms” “LSD” “Molly” “Mescaline” “altered state”, “euphoria” and even “the 60’s”. Or perhaps just seeing those words makes you curious enough to take a listen to this awesome podcast with Dr. Brian Pilecki, a clinician and researcher in the emerging field of integrating psychedelics into the treatmen...

Any guide to “small talk” will tell you that there are just some topics that you shouldn’t broach in most social situations. One of those topics is spirituality. But should spirituality be taboo in psychotherapy? Does the direct discussion of spirituality have a place inside evidence-based practice? In this episode, Andy, Kevin, and Jenna chat about some practical ways to answer these questions an...

Anger is something all humans experience. It can be uncomfortable for us as therapists when it shows up in therapy, whether it is the focus of intervention, or when expressed in session. Indeed, traditional clinical approaches have often focused on managing, preventing, or suppressing anger. But perhaps anger itself isn’t always the problem, but rather aggression or other values-inconsistent behav...

Exposure-based interventions are some of the most powerful tools that therapists can offer to their clients, especially those who struggle with anxiety. However, there are different models of exposure with different proposed mechanisms and different desired outcomes. In this episode, anxiety disorders and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy expert Mike Twohig exposes us to some useful ways to help c...

The Just World Belief (JWB), or the notion that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, is a fundamental and often problematic assumption for both clients and therapists. Believing that doing all the “right things” will lead to the outcome we want doesn’t match up to the realities of life in many cases and can lead to stress and perfectionism. In this episode, Kevin...

When we think of “sleep problems,” most of the time, our brains go to insomnia – that group of people we work with who have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite adequate opportunity to sleep. But what about the opposite side of the sleep coin… or pillow, if you will? What about the group of folks who desperately want sleep, need sleep, crave sleep, AND could sleep if only given adeq...

Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy for couples that helps couples get better understanding and accepting their emotions, to be vulnerable in communicating those emotions to each other, and to get better at validating and supporting their partners. A challenge that therapists often face when working with military clients who are in committed relationships i...

Have you ever thought, “I want to implement EBP’s effectively with my clients, but I’m running into barriers!”. Well, help is here! Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Lisa Cuccurullo, whose job it is to help solve the problems people face every day in their clinical practice. We dig into some clinical barriers, what mechanisms need to be in place administratively to do these treatments with fidelit...

Why are pronouns important when working with your clients? Well, as this week’s guest, Dr. Jacob Eleaz e r, explains, misgendering clients is a form of medical harm, especially for members of the Trans* community. As we all move toward greater awareness and competency when it comes to working with Trans* clients, mistakes will be made. In this episode, Dr. Eleazar provides some practical advice fo...

As behavioral health providers, our jobs often are primarily helping patients heal when their worlds are in turmoil. But we don’t often talk about doing that work while our own world or even the whole world is in turmoil. What can we learn from efforts to support mental health providers working in the heart of real-time geopolitical aggression? Join us as we discuss the experience of CDP’s own Drs...

Two active duty psychologists sit down on a podcast and try to set the record straight about some of the ins and outs of becoming and serving as a military mental health provider. What does it take to serve simultaneously as a mental health provider AND an officer? What opportunities exist in areas such as leadership, prevention (individual and systemic), as a clinician, and training? How might YO...

A common question posed in our PE and CPT consultation groups is, “What do I do if my client is pregnant and has PTSD… ?” To treat or not to treat? That is the question! In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Yael Nillni to discuss the benefits of trauma-focused treatment for women during the perinatal period. Come join us to learn about how clients who enter pregnancy with PTSD are at higher risk...

We’ve all been there–wondering if we measure up to the expectations we have from others and for ourselves. Imposter Syndrome, as its been sometimes called, is almost universal, and yet feels so unique to ourselves. Join us as we discuss imposter syndrome, how it shows up for us in EBP implementation, and how we can make room for it. Dr. Joshua Semiatin, PHD is a clinical psychologist in Baltimore,...

In the context of a global pandemic where every one of us lives daily with uncertainty and barriers to connection with others, these challenges and burdens are magnified in the lives of our immunocompromised clients. From expanding our understanding of who is immunocompromised to empathy for their unique challenges to discussing practical strategies in clinical care, join us as we sit in the uncer...

What is resilience? What is Psychological Flexibility? What are the points of convergence between these two concepts? Practically speaking (and you know we LOVE practical stuff), it turns out that the Psychological Flexibility model may offer a unique pathway to the direct enhancement of resilience. In this episode, we chat with Dr. Wyatt Evans about his exciting insights and research about the ro...

In this episode, Andy, Kevin, and Jenna chat with Dr. Carin Lefkowitz about CDP’s Second Life training assets. Unique affordances of virtual worlds (including some funny mishaps) are discussed along with some practical tips for making the best use of Second Life to improve your practice. Carin M. Lefkowitz, Psy. D. , is a clinical psychologist and Senior Military Behavioral Health Psychologist at...

In this episode, we talk about the ways brain injury, sustained in the context of trauma, can have longer-lasting effects than other mTBI’s, and why mental health providers are in an ideal position to help clients focus on cognitive health by teaching strategies to improve functioning. Join us as Dr. Beth Twamley demystifies how the strategies used in Compensatory Cognitive Training (CCT) and Cogn...