Continuing Education Training for Mental Health Therapists: Standpoint Counseling Services’ Introduction to OCD training
Yellow Hill Education partnered with Pennsylvania-based mental health therapy private practice Standpoint Counseling Services LLC to develop and deliver an introductory eLearning training on obsessive compulsive disorder for clinicians.
This comprehensive, three-hour, six module training on OCD provides an introduction to diagnosing, treating, and understanding OCD and how it differs from other common mental health issues such as anxiety. Clinicians who are tasked with diagnosing mental health conditions unfortunately cannot specialize in everything, and as a result, those who have OCD are often misdiagnosed as having anxiety, or aren’t diagnosed at all. This training helps practicing mental health clinicians to properly recognize the signs of OCD so that they know when they need to provide specific treatments, or when they may need to consider referring their client out to a specialist.
Introduction
The opening of the training, which is in Articulate Storyline 360, is sleek, modern, professional, and accessible. See the video below to watch the first few minutes of the training.
Core Content
The training was created with Articulate Storyline 360 to allow for learner-directed, self-paced, asynchronous clinician education. It incorporates media created with Vyond and ElevenLabs, as well as custom voiceover and video content. The training begins by providing an overview of the diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is used extensively by mental health clinicians in making determinations related to diagnoses.
Animated Video Content
The introduction to the OCD training incorporates a substantial number of original animated informational videos created with Vyond. Below you can watch one such video covering the difference between “reasonable doubt” and “obsessional doubt,” a common theme in OCD treatment.
Case Examples
For each module, the training includes animated case examples so that learners can see the types of interactions that they may have with future OCD clients, and learn from OCD experts what they should look out for in their sessions. Though the interactions are fictional, each case example was written by an expert clinician with years of experience in treating OCD. This follows current best practices in counselor education in which participating and watching role plays of clinician-patient interactions comprises a large part of counselor training.
Learner Interactions
There are frequent learner interactions interspersed throughout the training. It is not a powerpoint style recorded webinar! Learners are given frequent opportunities to test and show their knowledge. Formative assessments respond to learner input and provide review when necessary, or else continue with new material.
Assessments
There is a brief assessment after each module, and a final assessment at the conclusion of the training. As this training is for continuing education credits, the final assessment must be passed in order for credit to be granted.