Behavioral Activation
About BA
Behavioral Activation (BA) is a brief evidence-based psychosocial intervention for use in primary care, other health care, and community settings. BA has been studied extensively in a wide range of settings and with a variety of providers and patient populations.
BA teaches depressed and/or anxious patients a set of skills to re-engage in valued life activities that they once found rewarding and enjoyable but have abandoned as they developed depression or anxiety.
Get Trained in BA
The AIMS Center provides training that consists of two online modules introducing BA principles, a 1-hour BA webinar, and a 2-hour live demonstration and Q&A session with an expert trainer, followed by 3 monthly case presentation calls. Clinicians and staff are taught by expert trainers using procedures and standards set by Patrick J. Raue, PhD, Associate Director for Evidence-based Psychosocial Interventions at the AIMS Center. Clinicians will have the opportunity to apply BA to several cases and receive feedback from AIMS Center experts on their application of clinical skills. The training process typically requires about 8 hours of trainee time over the course of 4 months. You can find additional information on this BA Training on the AIMS Center website.
Please note that the New York State Office of Mental Health will subsidize up to 20 trainees to take this course for half of the usual fee. The cost outlined below reflects this.
Training Components
- Online Training: Approximately 2 hours of self-paced learning and a 1-hour recorded webinar
- Live Group Demonstration and Q&A Webinar: 2-hour live session demonstration and Q&A with an expert trainer via Zoom
- Monthly Case Presentation: 1-hour group calls over three months where participants present real cases and discuss challenging and complex cases with the expert trainer
Requirement: Trainees must have an active caseload of at least three patients by the time they begin training.
Cost for New York State trainee: $237.50 (regularly $475.00)
Continuing Education
The University of Washington AIMS Center is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education (CE) for psychologists. The AIMS Center maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Participants are eligible for 5 CE credits. To recieve credits participants must attend the entire course and pass a learning evaluation. The CE credits can be used by most licensed mental health providers, including psychologists, clinical social workers, professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists. Clinicians should check their specific state requirements to confirm that credits awarded by the APA apply to them.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure Information
The following author and planner has indicated they have a relationship to disclose:
Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD
Disclosure: Royalties from Wiley Publishers
This financial relationship has been mitigated.
There are no other relevant financial relationships for anyone who was involved in the planning or who had control of the content of this training.
Registration
To register for this course, please email the AIMS Center Behavioral Health Skills Training team at bhskills@uw.edu to ensure that you receive the subsidized price, if spaces are still available.