This workshop will cover psychological models of delusions and CBT skills and techniques for working with delusions.

Background: Recent research suggests that delusions lie on a continuum with normal beliefs, and that their form may be more important diagnostically than their content. Key psychological models of delusions emphasise the importance of unusual experiences in driving delusional explanations, the role of appraisals in determining delusional outcome, as well as the presence of reasoning biases such as a “jump-to-conclusions” reasoning style. Such conceptualisations have led to further refinements in therapeutic techniques for delusions, which are the symptoms most amenable to change with CBT.

Key learning objectives: The key learning objectives are to (i) become aware of therapeutic styles necessary for working with psychotic patients; (ii) have an understanding of key issues to be covered in the assessment of delusions; (iii) have the opportunity to practice doing formulations for individuals with delusions; (iv) learn CBT skills and techniques for changing delusions.

Training modalities: The introduction to current research and psychological models will be primarily didactic. The skills based element of the workshop will be experiential.