“Discover How to Integrate Evidence-Based Dietary, Lifestyle, and Biological Treatments into Your Psychology Practice!”

Treating depression and anxiety using a multi-targeted approach!

Despite advancements in psychological and pharmacological treatments for mental health conditions, patient outcomes have not improved significantly over the years. This is simply because these treatments do not target many of the causes of mental health problems

Dr Adrian Lopresti, PI Therapy Founder

Online Workshop

This workshop is worth 9 specialised CPD hours

Psychological and pharmacological interventions for people with depression and anxiety are commonly used in clinical practice. While these interventions can be effective for many of our clients, their influence may be abated by many factors.

For example, there is increasing research confirming the importance of diet, nutrients, exercise, and other lifestyle and environmental factors on mental wellbeing. If not acknowledged sufficiently in therapy, they can have detrimental effects on the therapeutic potency of both psychological and pharmacological interventions.

Personalised Integrative Therapy (PI Therapy) is a multi-targeted model that utilises research-driven strategies promoting changes in psychological, dietary/nutritional, lifestyle/environmental, physical/medical, and social/spiritual domains.

In this online workshop (8 to 9 hours of content), you will learn about PI Therapy, how to identify areas influencing your clients’ mental health, and how to incorporate integrative strategies to complement your psychological therapy. In particular, you will learn about the rapidly expanding field of diet, nutritional status, and natural supplementation as an adjunctive treatment for depression and anxiety disorders. This will be at a level suitable for psychologists and other mental-health practitioners.

By identifying possible causes of each client’s mental-health condition and treating these causes, (lifestyle, dietary, and biological, etc.) in conjunction with conventional psychological and pharmacological interventions, you can potentially improve treatment outcomes for your clients.

Click on image to download the workshop flyer

Who is this training for?

This online workshop is for health practitioners who are interested in adopting an integrative approach to mental healthcare, with its specific application to depression and anxiety disorders (in children and adults). Research on psychological, dietary, lifestyle, social, and biological models on mental healthcare will be reviewed, and practical skills for its identification and application with clients will be covered.

Using a Powerpoint slides and informative videos, participants will learn how to integrate PI Therapy into their practice.

This workshop is suitable for health practitioners with novice to advanced knowledge in nutrition, exercise, anatomy, physiology, lifestyle, and environmental interventions.


Learning Objectives:

  • Learn about PI Therapy and how it can expand the scope of your treatments with clients of all ages.
  • Learn how to assess and apply strategies from the five domains of PI Therapy in your clinical practice. These include, psychological, dietary/nutritional, lifestyle/environmental, biological/medical, and social/spiritual domains.
  • Understand the importance of diet and nutrition on depression and anxiety, the mechanisms behind its effects, and how you, as a mental-health practitioner, can facilitate meaningful changes in this domain with your clients.
  • Develop skills to encourage lifestyle and environmental changes with your clients to enhance their mental health.
  • Expand your understanding of physiological factors that impact depression and anxiety. These include the influence of hormones, inflammation, and oxidative stress on mental health. Then, discover how to apply PI Therapy strategies to normalise such processes.
  • Use a tiered intervention where the intensity of strategies varies according to your clients’ individual circumstances, barriers to change, motivation, and your own personal competence.
  • Learn about the safe, adjunct use of evidence-based dietary supplements for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

Workshop Outline:

Video 1 (90 min): Research on efficacy of current treatments; Physiological disturbances associated with depression and anxiety disorders; What is Personalised Integrative Therapy (PI Therapy)?

Video 2 (45min): PI Therapy Domains - Psychological & Social and Spiritual

Video 3 (90min): PI Therapy Domain - Lifestyle and environment (i.e., exercise, sleep, sunlight, technology, toxins, pleasurable activities)

Video 4 (120min): PI Therapy Domain - Diet, nutrition, and natural supplements 

Video 5 (60min):  PI Therapy Domain - Biological and medical (i.e., medical illnesses, sex and thyroid hormones, digestive health, pharmaceuticals)

Video 6 (90min): Developing PI Therapy case formulations and treatment plans based on client and practitioner factors.


Why You Should Use Integrative Treatments in Your Practice

  • Only 40 to 50% of adults with depression achieve full remission from their symptoms following treatment with either CBT or antidepressant medications(1)
  • Temporal trends have indicated that the effects of CBT for depression have declined linearly and steadily since its introduction(2)
  • Patients with depression and anxiety suffer from chronic, low-grade inflammation and increased free radical damage(3)
  • Adults with elevated blood inflammatory markers experience less benefit from CBT or interpersonal therapy compared to adults with lower inflammation (36.3% reduction in depressive symptoms compared to 55.1%)(4)
  • Poor diet, physical inactivity, and sleep problems reduce serotonin levels, increase inflammation, elevate stress hormones, and contribute to neurodegeneration(3)
  • In a randomised, controlled trial, dietary intervention for adults with major depressive disorder was an effective stand-alone treatment for depression(5)

References:

  1. Amick, et al (2015) Comparative benefits and harms of second generation antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapies in initial treatment of major depressive disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 8;351:h6019.
  2. Johnsen & Friborg (2015) The effects of cognitive behavioral therapy as an anti-depressive treatment is falling: A meta-analysis. Psychol Bull, 141(4):747-68
  3. Lopresti et al. (2013) A review of lifestyle factors that contribute to important pathways associated with major depression: diet, sleep and exercise. J Affect Disord. 15;148(1):12-2
  4. Harley J, Luty S, Carter J, et al. (2010) Elevated C-reactive protein in depression: a predictor of good long-term outcome with antidepressants and poor outcome with psychotherapy. Journal of psychopharmacology 24: 625-626.
  5. Jacka, F., et al (2017) A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the 'SMILES' trial). BMC Med. 2017 Jan 30;15(1):23.

About the Presenter

Dr. Adrian Lopresti is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice, managing director of Clinical Research Australia (contract research organisation) and adjunct senior lecturer at Murdoch University, Western Australia. He has 25 years of clinical experience working with children and adults, suffering from a range of mental health conditions. Dr. Lopresti has experience in a range of psychological therapies and has received extensive training in nutritional and lifestyle treatments for mental-health disorders. Dr. Lopresti regularly publishes in peer-reviewed and high-impact journals on the effects of diet, nutraceuticals, sleep, and exercise for the treatment and prevention of depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and bipolar disorder. He has completed several clinical trials investigating the effects of curcumin, saffron, and Ashwagandha for the treatment of anxiety and depression in children and adults. Dr. Lopresti is also the founder of Personalised Integrative Therapy, and regularly conducts workshops both nationally and internationally.

Below are a selection of Dr Lopresti’s peer-reviewed publications:

Workshop Event Details

Location: Online

Cost: $385

Dates: Available after registration

Workshop Times: Access will be available for 6 months after purchase and can be viewed any time

Resources provided: All slides are downloadable and able to be printed. Participants also have access to PI Therapy practitioner resources that can be downloaded and used with clients

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