Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy 2007–2022. Integration

Registration and breakfast

Welcome and opening

Graduation ceremony

Graduating from the School of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy takes 4 years of hard work. Students conduct therapy with at least 10 patients, write case reports and record therapy sessions, write a final paper and finally pass an exam. School of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy students can apply for the PACBT certificate, but upon completing the program, they receive a certificate of completion of postgraduate studies. The closing of the anniversary conference is an excellent opportunity to present the certificates to this year's graduates. 693 graduates successfully completed the School of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy over the 15 years of its existence. As psychotherapy specialists, they provided professional research-based therapy to numerous adults, children, and adolescents in Poland.

Process-based CBT

Clinical psychology is in crisis. Although some progress has been made, the efficacy of our therapies and the development of our models have been limited. To overcome this crisis, we need a radical departure from the latent disease model of the current psychiatric nosology of the DSM/ICD and the absurd proliferation of the protocols-for-syndrome approach. Process-based therapy (PBT) offers a new perspective. It focuses on how to best target and change core biopsychosocial processes in a specific situation for given goals with a given client. This approach recognizes that psychotherapy typically involves non-linear (rather than linear), bidirectional (rather than unidirectional), and dynamic changes of many (rather than only a few) interconnected variables. Effective therapy changes the entire system toward a stable and adaptive state. For therapy to be most effective, we, therefore, need to embrace a systematic, assessment-guided, and theory-based approach to understand the relationships of the various problems of a given client. PBT organizes psychological processes of change into six dimensions: cognition, affect, attention, self, motivation, and overt behavior. Several important processes of change combine two or more of these dimensions. Tailoring intervention strategies to target the appropriate processes in a given individual would be a major advance in psychiatry and an important step toward precision medicine. Functional analysis, the foundation of behavior therapy, provides the basis to understand these relationships. PBT acknowledges the complexity, inter-relatedness, and multidimensional levels of the problems in a given client. In essence, PBT offers a new paradigm for clinical science: Gathering high-density longitudinal idiographic data to capture the complexity of psychopathology using a dynamic network approach within the general framework of evolutionary science.

The relationship between rumination, perfectionism and procrastination and how to approach them in therapy

Rumination and perfectionism are two transdiagnostic processes that have attracted considerable clinical and research interest in the last two decades. Procrastination is a common problem behavior that often brings clients to therapy that has increased in recent years. Rumination and maladaptive perfectionism have shown to be both risk and maintaining factors for depression, suicide and other forms of psychopathology. A process-based therapy demands more research on mediating and moderating factors for therapeutic change. In this presentation Professor Keegan will analyze the relationship between rumination, maladaptive perfectionism and procrastination, with an interest in how to approach them clinically, particularly in the context of depressive disorders.

Lunch break and networking

CBT in the treatment of pain and somatic illness

In this lecture, Professor Kuczmierczyk will outline how the psychosomatics and biopsychosocial model has been developed. He will also discuss the following topics: definitions and theories of pain, assessing the patient with chronic pain, cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment, learning to be moderately active, planning entertainment with the patient, managing the fear of pain, raising awareness of the patient's reactions to pain (such as anger or denial), identifying these reactions and their consequences (e.g., running away from problems).

When porn isn't sexy anymore: what did we learn about compulsive sexual behavior and its treatment

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) affects approximately 2 to 6% of the global population. It is currently included in the World Health Organization's forthcoming eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). The last decade of studies on this topic revealed the clinical characteristics of CSBD and its psychological, cultural, and neural mechanisms. The research provided first insights into the effectiveness of specific treatment approaches. During his lecture, Professor Gola will provide an easy-to-understand framework for the conceptualization of CSBD and hints for effective clinical interventions.

Adolescents in the 21st century: living life according to what is important as a different measure of success

Everyone wants to be happy. However, happiness is the most difficult and challenging thing to achieve in the world. Adolescence, in particular, can be a difficult period. Many teens struggle with different challenges and social expectations of being successful. How to live a full life with a sense of purpose while facing all these demanding situations? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can be a useful approach to help adolescents deal with challenges and emotional difficulties. Teenagers, who are more sensitive to hurt and rejection, may be particularly at risk of living their lives trying to avoid difficult feelings and/or striving to perfection. At the same time, adolescents are trying to find out what type of person they are, who they want to become and what kind of life they want to have. ACT may give them the opportunity to address all these challenges with open curiosity, foster their psychological flexibility, and help them achieve success guiding their lives by what is really important.

Discussion: Therapists in times of war and crisis

Providing psychotherapy in uncertain times poses an additional challenge for both the client and the therapist. Given these circumstances, it is substantial to reflect on the issues of boundaries, flexibility, fidelity to the method, cultural differences, beliefs, and sometimes prejudices of both parties.

Integration/Networking

A night with the Stars: Collaborative Case Conceptualization

This workshop demonstrates two simple forms of case conceptualization that can be collaboratively developed in session with clients, using client’s language. Collaborative case conceptualization is designed to enhance client understanding, empowerment, and treatment adherence. The 5-part model can be used with any combination of client issues to broadly describe current difficulties in terms of links among thoughts, behaviors, physical reactions, moods, and environmental/situational factors. A second model called “Box/Arrow In/Arrow Out” helps clients identify triggers and maintenance factors for specific issues of concern. Dr. Padesky details the steps involved in each approach and highlights standard therapist questions and statements that can be used to prompt client engagement in co- construction of these models. Recommended Reading: Padesky, C.A. (2020). Collaborative Case Conceptualization: Client Knows Best. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice [available online 23 July 2020]. Available from the author's website.