The Social Work Podcast

Episode 18: Today's podcast is the second of four on pathological gambling. I talk with Jody Bechtold, LCSW about about treatment basics for clinicians who work with pathological gamblers. We start with a quick overview of crisis intervention and then move into some of the techniques and rationales behind behavioral and cognitive treatments. These are brief theoretical overviews. If you are interested in a more in-depth discussion of these approaches, you can find individual podcasts on those subjects at socialworkpodcast.com. We'll end with a discussion of some of the challenges that clinicians often encounter when working with pathological gamblers. A quick disclaimer - this podcast is intended to be a general overview of treatment approaches, rather than a clinical training. If you are currently working with, or intend to work with people with gambling addiction, proper education and training is essential. In the fourth part of this series, Jody and I talk about some of the requirements for obtaining the NCGC-1 - the national certified gambling counselor certification. That podcast is scheduled to air June 11, 2007 and will be available for download from our website at socialworkpodcast.com.

Episode 17: Today's podcast is the first of four looking at the DSM diagnosis of pathological gambling. In today's podcast, Jody Bechtold looks at what it is, what it is not, and what are the similarities and differences between pathological gambling and substance use disorders.

Episode 16: In today's podcast, I talk with Dr. Edward Sites about women in social work. Dr. Sites gives us a historical perspective of the role of women who were born at or before 1900 in the development of social work as a profession in the United States.

Episode 15: In today's podcast we will look at Reality Therapy, developed by Dr. William Glasser. We briefly review the assumptions of choice theory and how those assumptions are translated into Reality Therapy. The majority of today's short podcast comes from the Gerald Corey chapter on Reality therapy in the 7th edition of his text, Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy.

Episode 14: In today's podcast, we're going to talk about the therapies that take a cognitive-behavioral approach to working with people. I review the theoretical assumptions, therapeutic process, techniques, use in culturally competent practice, and strengths and limitations of CBT. This podcast is longer than most because I use a lot of clinical examples and dialogue to illustrate the concepts.

Episode 13: Today we're going to be talking with Kya Conner about stigma. Kya is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of social work and a masters student in the school of public health. She is a Hartford doctoral fellow and a CSWE minority research fellow. Kya is also a licensed social worker who maintains a part-time private practice. Her doctoral dissertation is called, Mental Health Treatment Seeking among older adults with depression: The impact of stigma and race. In today's interview, Kya defines stigma and discusses implications for research, direct practice and public health.

Episode 12: In this lecture, I focus on the concepts of stimulus and response, rewards and punishments, and how these concepts make operant conditioning such a powerful approach to behavior change. Also in this lecture I touch on classical conditioning, social learning theory and cognitive behavior therapy. The role of the therapist, client, expectations for treatment, implications for multicultural treatment, and the strengths and limitations of the approach are covered.

Episode 11: In this podcast I cover the basics of problem definition, developing goals and measureable objectives as well as identifying interventions and strategies. The key to good treatment planning is making sure that there is a clear and logical relationship between your assessment, problem formulation, goals, objectives and interventions.

Episode 10: IPT is a time-limited psychotherapy that was developed in the 1970s and 80s as an outpatient treatment for adults who were diagnosed with moderate or severe non-psychotic, unipolar depression. Over the last 30 years, a number of empirical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of IPT in the treatment of depression. Although originally developed as an individual therapy for adults, IPT has been modified for use with adolescents and older adults, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, bulimia, anxiety disorders and couples counseling. IPT has its roots in psychodynamic theory, but differs from the latter in that it focuses on improving interpersonal functioning in the present. It is similar to CBT in its time-limited approach, structured interviews and assessment tools, but also differs from CBT in that it focuses on the client's affect, rather than cognitions, and the development of a more supportive social network. And whereas nearly all CBTs use homework as a standard part of treatment, although Brief ITP (ITP-B) uses homework, regular IPT may not. In today's lecture I will will focus on some of the key concepts of IPT, the role of the therapist and client, the structure and goals of IPT - specifically focusing on grief, interpersonal role dispute, role transition and interpersonal deficits, and some of the techniques used in IPT. I'll end with a brief discussion of the applications of IPT, its strengths and limitations.

Episode 9: Today we're going to talk about the Gestalt therapy, which is part of the existential-phenomenological tradition. The Gestalt approach can be best summed up by the phrase, "the most important moment in a persons life is right now." Gestalt is an experiential therapy that uses experiments and specific techniques to bring the client into the here and now. Through the experience of the here and now, the client is able to make contact with their environment. Contact is a fleeting experience, but it is during contact that we are in the here and now, and thus are in the process of self-actualizing. During the process of self-actualization we are able to make changes. In today's lecture I will will focus on some of the key concepts of Gestalt, the role of the therapist, the client's experience and some of the innovative techniques attributed to Gestalt therapy. I'll end with a brief discussion of the applications of Gestalt, the contributions and limitations of the approach.