Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Free Web-Based Training

Professionals I work with in a Community Mental Health Agency continue to talk about how the future of funding will greatly be determined by outcome measures. What does this mean? It means that reimbursement for the services we provide to our clients will be heavily influenced by improvement (or lack there of) over the course of treatment, as evidenced by outcome measures from various scales.

In order to achieve such outcomes, Community Mental Health Agencies are relying more and more on EBP treatments that are clinically proven to deliver cost-effective results to specific populations. Although  some agencies provide training for their employees to learn how to implement specific EBP's, others do not have the funding nor the resources to do so. For that reason, I wanted to tell my readers about a completely free, web-based training for Trauma-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) offered through The Medical University of South Carolina.

TF-CBT is a very effective therapeutic model specifically for children and their families who have experienced significant emotional and/or behavioral problems due to traumatic events. The training consists of 9 parts, including psychoeducation, stress management, affect expression and modulation, cognitive coping, creating the trauma narrative, cognitive processing, behavior management training, parent-child sessions, and evaluation. Having just completed a CBT 101 class at UCLA this fall quarter, I feel this web-based training is the perfect opportunity to continue my cognitive-behavioral training.

An Insider's Perspective: The Great and Not So Great Things About Community Mental Health

As I'm nearing the close of fall quarter in the second year of UCLA's MSW program, I wanted to take some time to reflect upon my experience interning as a Child and Family Therapist for a Community Mental Health (CMH) Center in Inglewood, CA.

From the moment I started seeing clients, my internship experience accelerated from 0 to 60 faster than I can say "self-care." Between learning agency norms, to deciphering Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) acronyms, to absorbing how to document clinical sessions (writing progress notes), to staying present in 8 hour trainings, I feel as though I'm in a constant state of playing catch-up. Someone important to me recently made an analogy that, in several ways, captures how I feel on a day-to-day basis at my internship. In describing his own experience at a new and very demanding job, he said that, "It often feels like I"m drinking from a fire hose." I too, feel as though information is gushing my way at a tremendous speed. Part of me questions how viable it is for an intern, who only works 20 hours a week, is supposed to absorb all the non-clinical information, all while trying to deliver mental health therapy sessions to a caseload of 7-10 clients?

Despite feeling behind most days, working in a CMH setting is tremendously fulfilling and has validated my decision to transition from the corporate sector to the humanity sector. On the not so great days, I always remember what a privilege it is to provide services to struggling individuals. And while the business of relationships is exhausting, it certainly is worthwhile.

Because I am a big fan of lists, below is a brief list of the great, and not so great things about interning in CMH.

Not So Great:

1. The ungodly amount of paperwork
2. Frequent client cancellations
3. Shortage/lack of resources (includes offices to conduct therapy sessions, office supplies, broken bathrooms, etc.)
4. Being at the mercy of the Department of Mental Health
5. Shortage of trained translation staff

So Great:

1. Clinically fascinating cases
2. Tremendous support from other agency employees (psychiatrists, nurses, other therapists, interns, directors, coordinators, administrative staff, etc.)
3. Client diversity (culture, religion, diagnosis, family dynamics, immigration status, etc.)
4. Number of hours of supervision (5 hours/week or 25% of my time is spent in supervision!)
5. Ongoing learning opportunities (primarily through continuing education seminars and group supervision)