The Zlepnig CBT webinar, “New Directions in CBT Webinar Series” has been fundamental in increasing my skill and confidence in offering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis to my clients. The appreciation of the complexities of needs, the complexities of symptoms, and the therapeutic process that Dr. Tai and Dr. Turkington have weaved into their presentations has been both inspirational and a breath of fresh air that there is so much more that we can offer to our clients despite struggling with such a difficult disorder. The role plays are an absolutely instrumental part of the training and provide a tremendous amount of depth increasing the understanding of how to apply the skills and techniques to front line practice.

Candice Babbey, M.S.W., R.S.W.
Manager, Haldimand Norfolk ACTT
185 Robinson St, Simcoe, ON.
N3Y 5L6

I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Turkington and Dr. Tai’s CBTp webinars. After participating in numerous CBTp trainings and workshops, I was amazed how different this series, organized by Zlepnig CBT, was from the others I had attended. Doug and Sara’s spontaneous and vivid conversations on the presented topics always made me feel like watching a fascinating talk show. Their sense of humor and the slight differences between their therapeutic styles made these workshops extremely engaging without any typical Zoom fatigue that often comes with longer workshops of a single presenter. And the role plays were very different, too. Here Doug and Sara modelled optimal therapeutic strategies, one of them being the client and the other being the therapist – providing an insider’s view on how these experts work in therapy. I can only recommend these webinars to anyone wanting to further improve their psychosis-specific CBT skills.

Dr. Barna Konkoly-Thege
Clinical Psychologist
Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care & Dpt. of Psychiatry
University of Toronto

Our family dynamic was rocked with our son’s schizophrenia diagnosis.

Getting necessary resources in place was an ongoing struggle.

We recognized the value in CBT, but couldn’t find effective resources to assist, and so we struggled. Fortunately, we came across the New Directions in CBT for psychosis series. It was a lifesaver.

We learned more about psychosis, how it shows up, and how it’s experienced by the person affected. This understanding was critical in developing new and more effective mindsets and approaches in our interactions with our son.

We uncovered key skills to better deal with it, particularly in terms of communications strategies, which profoundly positively impacted on our ability to communicate more effectively with our son to the benefit of all involved.

Perhaps more importantly, as our insights expanded, it gave us hope for a better future (for the first time since his diagnosis).

I highly recommend the program for anyone who deals with someone suffering from psychosis.

Cindy Watson

Dear Ms. Zlepnig, Dr. Turkington, and Ms. Spencer,

On behalf of my family, I thank each of you for presenting this rich body of information and support in this two part family webinar, Schizophrenia and Psychosis: How Can Families Help With the Journey to Recovery?

Our family had become increasingly fragmented as we individually struggled to understand the mental distress of our loved one. Fortuitously, my own GP shared a flyer about your two-part family webinar, and I knew this was exactly what our family needed. When our loved one was in crisis, and hospitalized, she unfortunately chose discharge prematurely, against the wishes of the attending care team. This left family members with no real shared common understanding of her illness, no preparation or guidance as to how to care for our loved one, how to communicate constructively, what to be vigilant for, what to expect…

And, at a time of COVID, we found the wait time between our loved one’s discharge and any follow-up with a therapist in the community took several weeks. With no support.

I know in my hear that the path forward to the best possible future for our loved one will require that we, our family members, arrive at a shared, common understanding of her illness, and that we learn the best ways to be of support to her, as she regains herself.

These 6 hours of rich information, and access to review the content, are already providing a springboard for our family.

I really appreciate the presentation style and partnership between Dr. Turkington and Helen Spencer. It’s friendly, informative, reassuring, and frank. The role-playing is very helpful, as families try to understand and navigate the dos and don’ts of constructive communication.

I appreciated learning about the different types of schizophrenia / psychosis, the respective approaches, and the hope for well-being.

And I appreciate that early in the course of the October 2nd webinar Dr. Turkington said: “Recovery begins at home. The family is crucial to recovery.”

I deeply appreciate Ms. Zlepnig’s frankness and warmth in sharing her own family’s journey. I know it takes courage to open up and speak about mental health and that which is so private, so foundational in one’s life as a family.

Thank you, Ms. Zlepnig, for your deep love for your son, and your deep dive into how best to help him. Thank you for your sensitivity in understanding that families need this support. I am finding that our current health system doesn’t seem to be serving up this support in a timely manner. Thank you for pulling together such excellent, helpful webinars and resources.

I’m glad my GP was aware of your webinars. I have now shared word of them with the Minister at my church.

Thank you for you great generosity in making it possible for the various members of my family to access the webinars, and in their own time. I’m optimistic that the webinars are providing us with the common ground from which we can better pull together as a family and best support our loved one.

With our gratitude,

Rita and family

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