Psychosis treatment

Cognitive Behavioral Therapies for Serious Mental Illness in High-Security Settings

Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center

Speaker: Sarah Kopelovich, PhD

April 22, 2021

Individuals with a serious mental illness are at least three times more likely to be treated in a forensic setting than in a mainstream mental health setting, effectively making high-security settings the primary frontier for serious mental illness treatment. Recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, person-centered, and evidence-based practices can and should be delivered in a way that is responsive to both therapeutics and security. This presentation will provide a brief overview of empirically-supported treatments for forensically-housed individuals with serious mental illness, with a focus on cognitive behavioral therapies.


Learning Objectives:

  • Become familiar with national and international guidelines on the provision of care to individuals with serious mental illness who are housed in high-security settings.
  • Be able to list the evidence-based psychosocial interventions indicated for this population.
  • Hear about empirically-supported benefits of recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, person-centered, and evidence-based care to both the individual and system.
  • Identify core considerations and strategies for delivering person-centered cognitive behavioral therapy to adults with a serious mental illness in high security settings.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis: Understanding the Basics

SMI Adviser

Speaker: Sarah Kopelovich, PhD

February 14, 2019

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic intervention for psychotic symptoms that has been studied in more than 50 randomized clinical trials and more than 20 meta-analyses and systematic reviews. The intervention is a recommended psychosocial intervention in national treatment guidelines for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Nevertheless, CBTp has failed to become the standard of care for individuals with psychosis in the United States. This free webinar will provide clinicians and clinicians-in-training with a brief orientation to the application of cognitive behavioral therapy to psychotic symptoms and disorders, its evidence base, and the core principles and techniques of the intervention. Resources for providers to obtain additional education and/or training in CBTp will also be provided.

Learning Objectives:

  • Articulate the primary goals of a course of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis.
  • Describe the theoretical principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis.
  • List and describe the stages of CBTp treatment.

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