CBT- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Course

Would love to extend my thanks and gratitude to Dr Lai, Dr Gavin and Indranee Liew for making this one-day course at Disted College , Penang a wonderful and knowledgeable experience. Hope it's alright to copy this news report from the Disted College website below just for reading and sharing. Thanks to Disted College for organizing this course.

DISTED COLLEGE NEWS , 17 July 2010
http://www.disted.edu.my/events/10/ev-news-workshop-cbt--SET.htm

Feel good with healthy thinking



Care givers at DISTED attending the Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy workshop organised by the Penang Association of Counselling and Psychology.

To feel good, think positively as thoughts influence emotions which, in turn, impact our behaviour and psychological well-being.

It follows that by modifying our mental approach towards ourselves, other people and situations, we can control disempowering negativity to make an upbeat difference in our lives.

“The way we think affects the way we feel. If we change the way we think, then we change the way we feel. That’s Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in simple terms,” said Dr Gavin Macdonell, DISTED College School of Psychology head.

“CBT focuses on the key role of unhelpful ways of thinking and beliefs in psychological distress.

“The CBT therapist aims to elicit these unhelpful thoughts and beliefs in order to assist his or her client to modify them into more helpful thoughts and beliefs, to relieve the client’s psychological distress,” said the health psychologist.



DISTED School of Psychology head Dr Gavin Macdonell co-facilitated the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy workshop for care givers.

Psychology students are exposed to CBT as it has a wide variety of applications from clinical to corporate settings and is one of the most established and extensively researched psychological therapies.

“During their psychology degree studies, students will learn about CBT and its place among the different psychological therapies," said Dr Gavin, who teaches the Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) programme conducted by DISTED in collaboration with HELP University College.

“CBT is very relevant for students interested in a career in industrial or organisational psychology, where it’ll be useful for helping employees with work and personal problems.

“In social work and child or adolescent psychology, CBT has been adapted to these populations with age-appropriate modifications,” he said.

“For students who are keen to be psychologists, CBT will be the main form of psychological therapy taught to them in any masters programme in professional psychology such as in clinical, counselling and health psychology specializations,” Dr Gavin added.

Penang Hospital consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Lai Fong Hwa explaining the concepts and practical applications of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the workshop.


The workshop participants in a group activity.

A one day workshop held at DISTED on 17 July 2010 elucidated the theory and techniques of CBT.

Organised by the Penang Association of Counselling and Psychology (PACP), the Introduction to CBT training was conducted by Penang Hospital consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Lai Fong Hwa and co-facilitated by Dr Gavin.

“The workshop imparts understanding of the basic concepts and practical applications of CBT as one of the helping models in counselling,” Dr Lai said.

“The participants gain skills in helping clients to identify and rate the intensity of the clients' feelings, and to consider alternatives to maladaptive negative thoughts linked to those emotions,” he said.
DISTED lecturer and PACP web moderator Indranee R. Liew said: “Those attending this training include 32 participants of the 3-month Certificate in Counselling Skills course, which is offered by a consortium of 6 NGOs led by the Penang Hospice Home.”