Intrusive Thoughts Training
You've sat with a client who's made real progress in therapy, yet remain trapped in an exhausting cycle of worry, rumination, or obsessive thoughts.
Managing intrusive thoughts is one of the trickiest problems in clinical practice, because the harder a client tries to push a thought away, the more forcefully it tends to come back.
This continuing education training gives you a clearer way to work with that pattern. Dr. David A. Clark, who trained directly under Aaron T. Beck at the Center for Cognitive Therapy, walks you through the mechanics of why certain thoughts become "sticky" and how to help clients loosen their grip. You'll leave able to help clients re-engineer their mental control paradox and provide genuine relief from the relentless torrent of unwanted spontaneous thoughts.
Intrusive Thoughts Learners Also Develop Skills In
Who This Is For
This training is built for counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychotherapists, marriage and family therapists, addiction counselors, and other mental health professionals who treat clients with OCD, generalized anxiety, or depression involving persistent rumination. Whether you're deep into CBT for intrusive thoughts already or looking to sharpen your case formulation skills, the protocols apply across settings.
What You'll Learn
Reading the Brain's Default Mode
Understand why the brain generates intrusive thoughts in the first place, and how to tell the difference between a passing mental blip and a thought that's on its way to becoming an obsession, a worry spiral, or a rumination loop.
Building a Targeted Case Formulation
Move past generic CBT protocols and learn to pinpoint the specific factors, self-regulation fears, control beliefs, and faulty appraisals that keep a given client's intrusions on repeat.
Applying the Mental Control Paradox
Work with, rather than against, the paradox that makes intrusive thoughts so hard to shake. Dr. Clark's protocols use guided discovery, inferential confusion techniques, and graded mental challenges to help clients stop fueling the very thoughts they're trying to suppress.
Using Step-by-Step Treatment Protocols
Walk away with a 5-step protocol for worry, a 4-step protocol for obsessive thoughts, and a 4-step protocol for rumination, each one built for immediate use in session.
Planning for Relapse Prevention
Help clients build a sustainable, accepting relationship with the reality that intrusive thinking never fully disappears, and give them tools for when it resurfaces.