1.00 CE Credits Available
Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression
by Paula Ravitz, Priya Watson and Sophie Grigoriadis
How do you introduce social efforts into treatment for a condition known for its isolating effects? In this video, three seasoned therapists offer key techniques from Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) that target the most relational symptoms of depression.
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Treating depression requires a breadth of clinical strategies, and resolving a client’s interpersonal issues often tops the list of treatment goals. In this informative video, Drs. Paula Ravitz, Priya Watson, and Sophie Grigoriadis demonstrate essential tools from Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) to address depression’s most relational symptoms. Here, the three Toronto-based clinicians describe several core tools of IPT and, in a set of moving clinical vignettes, demonstrate how to integrate them into treatment for depression.

An empirically supported treatment, IPT is a method grounded in Bowlby’s attachment theory that focuses on relationships and the commonly encountered life stressors of loss, change, or conflict. Ravitz, Waston, and Grigoriadis cover IPT’s techniques, strategies, and goals, and they discuss the interpersonal issues the method targets.

You’ll then see Watson work with Susan, an exhausted mother of two whose recent move from Uganda has driven a cultural wedge between her and her young daughter. Watson’s detailed inquiries about their dispute, along with her empathic holding of its cultural elements, allow Susan to soften and reflect on her values, wishes, and expectations for the relationship. You’ll also watch Ravitz work with Danny, a distraught man mourning his wife’s death from an alcohol-related accident. Ravitz supports Danny in facing the strong emotions underneath his “numb” exterior, and helps him reconnect with family, friends, and a sense of hope.

In both cases, the therapists help their clients brainstorm tasks to support the changes they want to make, and after treatment has concluded, each client reports that the sessions brought them to a new understanding of their condition and empowered them to move forward.

This video is an excellent resource for anyone seeking an IPT primer, tools for working with depression, or an understanding of psychotherapy from an interpersonal standpoint. Be sure to take a look.

What therapists are saying…

"Psychotherapy Essentials To Go is a truly impressive series of videos. Elevating pragmatics over dogma, it is grounded in the wisdom of front-line psychotherapists who adapt the core principles of empirically supported psychotherapies to flexibly address a myriad of clinical issues. No other series of psychotherapy videos is as skillfully concise and yet thorough. It will quickly become a standard reference for teaching and enhancing clinical competence."

-- Zindel V. Segal, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders, University of Toronto–Scarborough; author of The Mindful Way Through Depression
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In this video, Toronto-based IPT experts Paula Ravitz, Priya Watson, and Sophie Grigoriadis demonstrate key interventions from Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), an empirically supported treatment focused on depression’s most relational symptoms. Here, the three clinicians provide a didactic overview of the model and, in a series of clinical vignettes, demonstrate how to support clients through interpersonal disputes, role transitions, and grief.

Ravitz and Watson are shown helping Danny and Susan, respectively—the former unable to move on after losing his wife to an accident a year ago, the latter hurt by her assimilating daughter’s seeming disregard for the family’s African traditions. The therapists’ annotated sessions illustrate the effective use of empathic reflection, clarification and sequencing, the interpersonal inventory, and communications analysis. You’ll also learn how to collaboratively develop homework assignments to support treatment goals, and you’ll get a theoretical review of IPT’s attachment-based origins. In all, these three clinicians present theory, skills, and interventions that you can start using with your clients today

With its rich set of takeaways, this video offers practical tools to support your work with clients suffering from the interpersonal effects of depression. If you’re in search of solid resources on IPT or depression, add this video to your list.

By watching this video, you will:
  • Understand the theoretical foundations of IPT and its application to depression.
  • Learn how to support clients struggling with grief, role transitions, or interpersonal disputes.
  • Discover ways to incorporate empathic reflection, the interpersonal inventory, and communications analysis into your client work.

Length of video: 00:58:15

English subtitles available

Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-517-5

Paula Ravitz, MD, is Associate Professor, Morgan Firestone Psychotherapy Chair, and Associate Director of the Psychotherapy, Health Humanities, and Education Scholarship Division for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, where she leads IPT training. She is also the director of the Mt. Sinai Psychotherapy Institute. Her clinical practice, teaching, and research focus on IPT and attachment-informed psychotherapy.

Priya Watson, MD, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and head of the Divisional Program in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapies. She is also a psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, with a clinical focus in the treatment of children, youth, and families.

Sophie Grigoriadis, PhD, MD, is head of the Women’s Mood and Anxiety Clinic: Reproductive Transitions, a research scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Her academic and clinical work focus on depression and its treatments, particularly in women during the perinatal and perimenopause periods.


Paula Ravitz, Priya Watson and Sophie Grigoriadis was compensated for his/her/their contribution. None of his/her/their books or additional offerings are required for any of the Psychotherapy.net content. Should such materials be references, it is as an additional resource.

Psychotherapy.net defines ineligible companies as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. We ask that all contributors disclose any and all financial relationships they have with any ineligible companies whether the individual views them as relevant to the education or not.

Additionally, there is no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or any employee at Psychotherapy.net who has worked on this educational activity has relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies.

CE credits: 1

Learning Objectives:

  • Explain how the theoretical foundations of IPT apply to the treatment of depression
  • Explain how to support clients struggling with interpersonal conflicts
  • Apply core IPT techniques in your own relational work with clients

Bibliography available upon request

This course is offered for ASWB ACE credit for social workers. See complete list of CE approvals here

© 2013

Course Reviewed January 2024

This Disclosure Statement has been designed to meet accreditation standards; Psychotherapy.net does its best to mitigate potential conflicts of interest and eliminate bias in all areas of content. Experts are compensated for their contributions to our training videos; while some of them have published works, the purchase of additional materials are not required for any Psychotherapy.net training. Each experts’ specific disclosures can be found in their biography.

Psychotherapy.net offers trainings for cost but has no financial or other relationships to disclose.
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