Special Topics in Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Working with Grief in Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Who may attend:  Licensed mental health professionals or those working under a licensed mental health professional who have training in and familiarity with Prolonged Exposure therapy for PTSD.

Date: Friday, September 23, 2022

Time: 2:00pm — 4:00pm EST

Cost: $200.00 per person

Location:  Zoom webinar

Workshop Description: When working with PTSD, some traumas will include the loss of a loved one. In these cases, it can sometimes be difficult to know whether the person is experiencing a PTSD reaction or a grief reaction to the loss. In this special topic workshop, Dr. Sandy Capaldi will discuss this differential diagnosis, reviewing the definitions of bereavement, mourning, and grief; discussing the dual processes and types of grief; reviewing the newly adopted diagnostic criteria for Prolonged Grief Disorder from the DSM-5-TR; and providing tips for therapeutic techniques to incorporate processing grief in PE.

CE Learning Objectives

Following this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify differences between PTSD and PGD
2. Discuss the dual processes of grief
3. Name several adaptations to PE that can be useful in processing grief

About the Presenter: Sandy Capaldi, Psy.D. is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Associate Director, Clinical Director, & Director of Implementation at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA). Beginning her career as a counselor at a Philadelphia rape crisis center in 2001, Dr. Capaldi was initially trained as a study therapist to provide Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD (PE). For the last 15 years, Dr. Capaldi has worked clinically and in research with trauma, PTSD, and other anxiety and related disorders at the CTSA. Her work has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, among others. Dr. Capaldi also currently directs the PE Initiative, which is an implementation project in collaboration with the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), Community Behavioral Health (CBH), and the Evidence-Based Practice and Innovation Center (EPIC), whose goal is to support training, dissemination, and implementation of PE in Philadelphia’s community mental health centers. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who has a variety of clinical experiences with patient populations ranging from children to older adults and is certified by the CTSA as a PE Therapist, Consultant, and Trainer and as an Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD (Ex/RP) Therapist, Consultant, and Trainer. Dr. Capaldi also specializes in cognitive-behavioral treatment for trichotillomania, excoriation disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobias, generalized anxiety, and somatic symptom and related disorders.

Webinar workshop requirements:

• You must have utilities, internet service, phone service, and an appropriately private location at your home or office in order to ensure HIPAA compliance.
  • The private location should be free of noise and distractions. (If you are the parent of young children, appropriate child care arrangements must be in place.)
• You must agree to attend each hour of the video conference and agree to use video of yourself during the video conference in order to track attendance.
• You must agree not to copy or distribute workshop materials provided to you in the course of the workshop and not to audio or video-record the workshop in any form.

You will be asked to affirm the previous conditions and your agreement to them prior to the commencement of the workshop.

Continuing Education

Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Each program provides two (2) hours of CE credits for psychologists. 

PBTA is also an authorized provider for CE credits for Professional Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Clinical Social Workers licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. Each program provides two (2) hours of CE credits.

In order to receive continuing education credits, participants must:

• attend each hour of the workshop (no late arrivals or early departures)
• complete a course evaluation

If both of these requirements are met, you will receive a continuing education certificate after the conclusion of the workshop.

Full attendance is required to obtain CE credits for this program. APA guidelines do not permit PBTA to issue partial CE credits. No refunds are provided for CE programs. No exceptions allowed.

Instructions for Registration

Registrations are due one week in advance and must be completed in full. 

To register, complete the online registration.

If you need to withdraw your application for any reason, please email Dr. Sandy Capaldi. Note that workshop fees are non-refundable after the application due date (one week before the start of the workshop).