Chinese Therapists Improve CBT Skills with Intensive Workshop Training
As China undergoes rapid industrialization and urbanization with many citizens from rural, agrarian communities migrating to urban city centers, there are a host of challenges and pressures that are leading to significant mental health problems. Over the next decade, mental health problems will become the number one public health issue in China as these populations continue to increase. To meet this growing need, China must dramatically increase the number of trained mental health professionals in order to treat patients with depression, anxiety, stress, and combinations thereof.
Dr. Edmund Neuhaus and several colleagues from Harvard Medical School delivered a 5-day intensive workshop in May at the Shanghai Mental Health Center to train Chinese therapists in the most current, evidence-based treatments in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—CBT. This is part of a multi-year workshop series that combines comprehensive lectures with hands on training and case supervision for Chinese therapists from top experts in the field. Therapist-participants representing 14 provinces in China are the only professionals in their respective regions who are trained so extensively in CBT. They also receive ongoing skills training to enhance and refine their practice at 6-month intervals.
To bring this multi-year workshop series to China, Dr. Neuhaus, Founder and CEO of Atheneum Learning, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Teaching Faculty and consultant at McLean Hospital, has collaborated with Xu Yong, MD, the Director of Continuing Education at Shanghai Mental Health Center which is China’s largest and most prestigious psychiatric hospital, and the leading teaching hospital in the field.
The May training was the second installment of the Anxiety Disorders Workshop (Part 1 was held in October 2010) teaching therapists how to treat OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In total, anxiety disorders affect over 200 million Chinese citizens today and will continue to increase as the trend of industrialization and urbanization continues.
Neuhaus’ team of world-class experts included, Throstur Bjorgvinsson, PhD, ABPP, Jeff Szymanski, PhD, and Szu-Hui Lee, PhD. The lecture portion of the training was delivered in English and translated for participants, while the hands-on training was led by Dr. Lee who is fluent in Mandarin, which allowed her to provide even more in-depth instruction to the workshop participants. Each workshop generated active involvement among the participants with many questions about the material, how to help specific patients, and invitations to visit other regions of China to provide this type of training.
Dr. Neuhaus and his team are pleased to provide this much-needed training to increase the number of trained mental health professionals in cognitive behavioral therapy who are treating patients with depression, anxiety, stress, and combinations thereof.
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Filed as • Posted by Max Woolf on Wednesday, June 29, 2011