Mini Workshop 14 - Introducing Growth-focused CBT: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Avoidance-based Disorders in Childhood

Sensitive and responsive child and adolescent treatment requires a clear understanding of what constitutes “the problem”. However, as a field, we too often focus on such problems to the exclusion of nurturing and shaping children’s existing abilities to learn and grow. When approaching problems involving avoidance as a primary action tendency, while we emphasize blocking avoidance, it is also critical to shape more effective alternatives to exploring one’s environment. Simultaneously, dissemination of youth psychotherapy is hampered by divisions between similar or like-minded treatment approaches to avoidance-related disorders that contain companionable principles or functionally-equivalent components that can be thoughtfully combined to support optimal growth.

Growth-Focused CBT (G-CBT) is a new evidence-informed contextual approach that integrates a variety of related transdiagnostic and behavior therapies with strong evidence supporting their effects, including youth versions of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Behavioral Parent Training (BPT), and culturally-responsive psychotherapy approaches. An initial treatment goal of G-CBT is to shape a growth mindset that supports lifelong learning in the face of adversity. G-CBT then focuses on identifying and ameliorating obstacles to a child’s flexibility and growth, as well as shaping capacities and skills to support sensitive and flexible emotional and behavioral functioning that optimizes adaptation via brief, pragmatic presentation of selected treatment components.

In this didactic and interactive workshop, presenters will introduce the theoretical framework for G-CBT, provide a clear model for behavioral assessment and development of an idiographic “Growth Plan”. They will describe and illustrate with examples of its core treatment skills in the broad domains of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and contextual growth. Participants can expect to leave the workshop with an overview of transtheoretical strategies and exercises for how to assess young peoples’ strengths and skills deficits, to shape young their capacities and strengths, and support flexible and effective learning in context.

Outline:
The presenters will first introduce the theoretical framework for Growth Focused-CBT.
Presenters will then provide a clear model for behavioral assessment and development of an idiographic “Growth Plan”.
Finally, presenters will describe and illustrate with examples of the program’s core treatment skills in the broad domains of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and contextual growth.