The goal of this course is for you to successfully learn and transfer evidence into your clinical practice. This sounds easy, but it takes intention and strategy to do it successfully. Most weekend courses do not achieve a material change in practice. The short time frame and the lack of opportunity to practice new skills and knowledge in a clinical setting do not facilitate consolidation. That’s why we’ve revisioned a weekend course to take place over several months with structured reflection, regular prompting, high frequency touch points, and a chance to, again and again, engage with the material and transfer it to your clinical practice while being supported by course facilitators and peers.

We guarantee that this course will enhance your practice.

This 6 month virtual learning experience will focus on improving your ability to identify & work with pain related beliefs and distress in your rehabilitation or psychotherapy practice. An individual’s beliefs, thoughts, and emotions will influence their physiology, their experience of their symptoms and how they engage in their unique recovery.Your effectiveness as a practitioner is determined largely by your capacity to intentionally identify and address these factors. However, these are skills that are not taught in most traditional physical rehabilitation programs.

Additionally, mental health professionals aren’t always taught how to support their clients with navigating beliefs and behaviours related to physical sensations like pain.Throughout this course you will have the opportunity to learn and practice techniques from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that will improve your therapeutic relationship with your clients, improve your capacity to help them navigate the distress related to their symptoms, and enhance your impact.

This course is open to all healthcare and wellness professionals interested in enhancing their psychologically-informed practice.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Appreciate the psychological processes influencing recovery in physical rehabilitation settings.
• Help patients to identify the various components of their experience with distressing symptoms (physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, and behaviours).
• Use motivational interviewing techniques to engage clients in pain self-management strategies
• Integrate CBT skills into clinical practice in order to:
• Help clients build skills to calm their bodies & nervous systems.
• Identify unhelpful thinking patterns.
• Introduce countering strategies to evaluate and shift distressing thoughts.
• Develop behavioural experiments & exposure hierarchies to challenge avoidant behaviours rooted in anxiety and interfering with recovery.
• Obtain a foundational understanding of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles & integrate skills to support psychological flexibility into clinical practice.
• Obtain a framework for conceptualizing the private experiences (thoughts, emotions, physical sensations) and behaviours of patients in order to help guide the selection of CBT/ACT strategies
• Pivot & partner with clients when things don’t go to plan!

6 month immersive learning experience From September 23rd to February 22nd, 2025.

Monday, September 23rd - Release of Self-Paced Content Part 1 & Discussion Board Opens
Saturday, September 28th - Kick Off Call 8AM - 9:00 AM PST (Welcome & Orientation)
Saturday, October 19th - 1st Integration Workshop (8 AM - 10:00 AM PST), Release of Self-Paced Content Part 2
Saturday, November 16th - 2nd Integration Workshop (8AM - 10:00 AM PST), Release of Self-Paced Content Part 3
Saturday, December 14th - 3rd Integration Workshop (8 AM - 10:00 AM PST), Release of Self-Paced Content Part 4
Saturday, January 25th - 4th & Final Integration Workshop (8 AM - 10:00 AM PST)
Wednesday February 5th - Case Study Submission Due
Saturday February 22nd - Graduation Call (8 AM - 9 AM PST)

Instructor's Monthly Office Hours - First Friday of every month from 9 AM - 10 AM PST for 1 year

While you are expected to complete the course with this 6 month immersive learning experience, you will have access to the self-paced course modules for 1 year (until September 23rd, 2025).

Meet Lara Desrosiers

This Knowledge Project will be Facilitated by AMP’s Director, Lara Desrosiers. Lara is an Occupational Therapist who has worked in community mental health settings since graduating from McMaster University in 2009. She has a passion for mental health and several years of experience addressing mental illness, trauma, and addiction using occupational therapy frameworks & psychotherapeutic technique.

Lara now operates a private practice, Pelvic Resilience in Ontario where she supports individuals struggling with persistent pain and pelvic health challenges to get back to living life. Lara enjoys supporting multidisciplinary audiences with building impactful psychologically-informed and trauma-informed practices.