Severe Mental Illness : Psychotherapy Resources

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Conducting a Mental Status Examination

with Brad Hagen

How do you get the essential mental status information you need from patients who mistrust your intentions? Featuring two contrasting scenarios, this video offers practical and relational tools you can use to assess patients who are difficult to engage.

DBT with Suicidal Clients: 2-Video Series

with Marsha Linehan

When a suicidal client is sitting across from you, how do you assess risk, negotiate no-harm agreements, and manage borderline reactivity while keeping your seat? In these riveting live demonstrations with DBT originator Marsha Linehan, learn essential strategies for working with distressed clients.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

with Marsha Linehan

Watch Marsha Linehan, founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), in action in this session with a middle-aged man with a significant personality disorder struggling with suicidal depression and anger after being left by his girlfriend.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Clients Vol. 1

with Marsha Linehan

Prepare to be riveted by these live demonstrations with DBT originator Marsha Linehan. From assessing suicidality to negotiating no-harm agreements to maintaining a grounded stance, the formidable clinician offers effective strategies for working with distressed borderline clients.

Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution

with Lucy Winer

Kings Park brings to life our nation’s current crisis in public mental health care and helps us understand the road we traveled to get here. Focusing on the rise and fall of Kings Park State Hospital on Long Island, NY, two story-lines interweave: one of the film director’s journey back to face her commitment there; the second of the century-old asylum itself.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Clients Vol. 2

with Marsha Linehan

Prepare to be enthralled in these riveting live demonstrations with Dr. Marsha Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. From assessing negotiating no-harm agreements to conducting a chain analysis and problem solving techniques, you’ll pick up compelling strategies for working with suicidal, borderline and emotionally dysregulated clients.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

with Otto Kernberg

Preeminent psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg doesn’t back down in this series of three diagnostic Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) sessions with a paranoid client struggling with suicidal depression after being left by his girlfriend.

Evidence-Based Treatment Planning for Bipolar Disorder

with Timothy Bruce, Arthur Jongsma, Jr.

Ten to twenty percent of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder will commit suicide, and 75% of them will not be properly diagnosed within the first three years of treatment. With stakes this high, it’s essential to understand the complexities of Bipolar Disorder. Learn how to build effective, evidence-based treatment plans in this indispensable video.

Families and Mental Illness: Speaking from Experience

with Sane Australia

Hear several caretakers talk candidly about their family members' mental illness and how they have found support in their most challenging times.

Managing Aggression and Delusions

with Brad Hagen

When patients threaten to become verbally or physically aggressive, it takes a special set of skills to work safely and effectively. In this video, watch two health care providers demonstrate how these skills—or the lack thereof—impact their work.

Managing Dementia and Anxiety

with Brad Hagen

In this video, learn to work calmly and efficiently with patients experiencing the severe agitation of dementia or anxiety. Here, two vignettes contrast the differences between inexperienced and experienced providers, including a counterintuitive method for soothing dementia patients.

Managing Depression

with Brad Hagen

What are the most essential skills and techniques for working with severely depressed patients? Find out what to do—and what not to do—in this two-part demonstration of a mental health practitioner interviewing a suicidally depressed hospital patient.

Managing Mania

with Brad Hagen

When working with patients experiencing mania, clear boundaries and goal-oriented communication can help you maintain control. Learn from a pro—and empathize with a novice—in this two-part video demonstrating successful treatment of manic patients.

Mental Health in Hospitals and Treatment Centers: 5-Video Series

with Brad Hagen

What are the most essential skills and techniques for succeeding with patients in hospitals and treatment centers? Discover the difference between novice unskilled and expert work care for a range of severe conditions in this 5-part video series.

Psychiatric Diagnosis and Interviewing

with Jason Buckles

Is it possible to get the diagnostic data you need during the first session in a way that leaves clients feeling like they want to come back for a second session? This video takes a close look at how the DSM-5-TR and the diagnostic process can be used to improve mental healthcare. Through step-by-step clinical demonstrations, you’ll develop client-oriented diagnostic interviewing skills that lay the foundation for a strong therapeutic alliance and successful course of treatment.

Diagnosing Anorexia, Schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder

with Jason Buckles

Schizophrenia, Anorexia, and Borderline Personality Disorder are often challenging for clinicians to treat, and an accurate diagnosis is key to establishing treatment. Through a series of discussions and clinical sessions, you’ll learn specialized skills for gathering information from clients while attending to the therapeutic relationship. By laying the foundation for a strong alliance, you’ll build better outcomes for clients struggling with these difficult disorders.

Thomas Szasz on The Myth of Mental Illness

with Thomas Szasz

Psychiatrist and social critic Thomas Szasz unsettled the psychiatric establishment in the 1960’s, challenging its foundational notions around normalcy, mental illness and treatment. By watching this pair of riveting interviews, Dr. Szasz will challenge you to explore and question your own cherished beliefs around diagnosis, psychotherapy and freedom; deepening your empathy for even the most challenging clients.

For Those Who Care: The Lived Experience of Family Caregivers

with Stephen Snow

Historically, mental illness and those who suffer in its shadow have challenged mental healthcare professionals and family caregivers alike. This video is an essential training tool for clinical practice or classroom teaching and discussion, spotlighting a Drama Therapy-based program of community support for those who care for the severely mentally ill.

Studio Art Therapy Group in a Military Hospital

with Paula Howie

This informative film shows two sessions from an open-ended art therapy group from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. All soldiers in this group were leaving the military and each had to decide and make a personal commitment to attend the group. Paula Howie, HLM, ATR-BC, is the art therapist.

A Brush With Life

with Suzanne Hamel

Filmed over two years, A Brush with Life is the compelling portrait of Diane, a gifted artist struggling to free herself from mental illness through an innovative art therapy program at the Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montréal’s largest psychiatric hospital.

Heather Clague on Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Working with Society's Most Marginalized Populations

Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Heather Clague offers reflections on the difference between private psychotherapy practice and working in the psychiatric emergency room, how prescribing medication broadens psychotherapy, and the joy and heartache of working with those society is "happy to ignore."

Listening for Meaning in the Voices Nursing Home Clients Hear

Learning Center