Workshop 7 - Making CBT Pop (Culture): Supercharging Youth Therapy with Songs, Superheroes, Sports, and More

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a well-established approach for treating a variety of youth mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, and disruptive behaviors. Though broadly effective, there is room to optimize treatment delivery and maximize engagement from youth who rarely self-refer and present across developmental levels and learning styles. CBT clinicians may benefit from learning to creatively and flexibly adapt effective strategies for youth and families while maintaining fidelity to core cognitive-behavioral principles.
This workshop aims to enhance participating clinicians’ abilities to be more culturally responsive and personalized to the interests of child, adolescent, and young adult patients. By definition, pop culture is widely accessible and available. Therefore, this workshop will demonstrate how pop culture references and themes can be harnessed to teach and engage youth throughout their treatment course and across presenting problems. The presentation will demonstrate how pop culture can enhance rapport, destigmatize mental illness, make treatment developmentally appropriate, and help clinicians build an arsenal of creative therapy teaching tools.
More specifically, the presenters will draw from music, sports, superheroes, TV/film, videogames, and other domains in the context of the CBT case conceptualization and while providing multiple examples for key CBT interventions (e.g., psychoeducation, cognitive strategies, behavioral activation, exposures, etc.). The workshop will provide guidance on how clinicians can utilize metaphors, models, in-office, and virtual telehealth props, and pop culture templates across these interventions. Oh and it will be FUN!

Outline:
1. Becoming a Pop Culture Detective and Curator - The latest and most intriguing pop culture references are ever-evolving. While some references are timeless and enduring, some are fleeting and “viral.” What’s hot today quickly becomes yesterday’s news. And, yesterday’s news may become today’s new trend. As CB therapists progress through their careers, they can develop a sharp eye for the classic, trending, catchy, illustrative, psychoeducational, and/or inspirational pop culture references. As such, this presentation will begin with discussing important steps for strengthening a clinician’s ability to identify, adapt, and incorporate cultural references into therapy practice (aka your pop culture detective skills).
2. Implementing Pop Culture Detective and Curator skills – The presenters will demonstrate creative and fun options for using pop culture references to enhance the implementation of core CBT interventions (e.g., psychoeducation, cognitive strategies, behavioral activation, exposures, etc.).
3. Practicing your Pop Culture Detective and Curator skills – The presenters will incorporate experiential skill rehearsal activities (e.g., role play and case examples) to help attendees to practice identifying, adapting, and incorporating pop cultural references into their clinical practice.