Brief Behavioural Activation (BA) for adolescent depression
Laura Pass
29 Sept 2026
This on-demand event is only available to subscribers
Introduction
Adolescent depression is common and can have wide reaching detrimental impacts on young people’s lives. Engagement in psychological therapy can be challenging, and up to half of young people do not complete treatment. Access to evidence-based psychological treatment can also be limited, and the symptoms of depression themselves can make it difficult for young people to engage in therapy. Brief Behavioural Activation (Brief BA; Pass & Reynolds, 2014) was created in collaboration with young people and their families, adapted from Behavioural Activation for the Treatment of Depression (BATD; Lejuez, Hopko et al., 2011) in adults. Brief BA is a 6-8 session structured treatment designed to be straightforward, engaging and effective. Through Brief BA the clinician and young person work together to identify how the young person is spending their time (activity monitoring), what matters to them (their individual values), and how to do more of what matters (activity scheduling).
The event will be equivalent to 2.3/4hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will provide an overview of Brief BA, and how adolescent depression research informed the adaptation of BATD for young people. The remainder of the workshop will provide practical skills in delivering and supervising Brief BA for adolescent depression, with a key focus on engagement. Specific Brief BA strategies to identify personal values and valued activities will be covered, along with how to work with young people in doing more of what matters to them. Managing conflict between young people and parent/carer’s values, and working with low motivation will be discussed, along with managing the ending of Brief BA. Challenges and opportunities within the clinical work will be illustrated using case examples and example videos.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this half day workshop participants will:
• Understand the theory and overview of Brief BA to treat adolescent depression
• Be able to use Brief BA skills to engage young people with depression symptoms (and their parents, carers or other important adults) in Brief BA
• Be able to help young people identify their personal values using the Brief BA approach
• Learn skills in how to help young people incorporate more valued activities into daily life
Training Modalities
The content will be delivered through a combination of didactic content, video and case examples, and self-experiential components.
Key References
Brief BA manual (including session overviews and worksheets):
Pass, L., & Reynolds, S. (2020). Brief Behavioural Activation for Adolescent Depression: A Clinician's Manual and Session-by-session Guide. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Brett, S., Reynolds, S., Totman, J., & Pass, L. (2020). Brief behavioural activation therapy for adolescent depression in schools: two case examples. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 25(3-4), 291-303.
Lewis-Smith, I., Pass, L., Jones, D. J., & Reynolds, S. (2021). “… if I care about stuff, then other people care about me”. Adolescents’ experiences of helpful and unhelpful aspects of brief behavioural activation therapy for depression. Psychotherapy Research, 31(8), 1067-1078.
Pass, L., Lejuez, C. W., & Reynolds, S. (2018). Brief behavioural activation (Brief BA) for adolescent depression: A pilot study. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 46(2), 182-194.
Pass, L., Sancho, M., Brett, S., Jones, M., & Reynolds, S. (2018). Brief Behavioural Activation (Brief BA) in secondary schools: A feasibility study examining acceptability and practical considerations. Educational and Child Psychology, 35(2).
Watson, R., Harvey, K., Pass, L., McCabe, C., & Reynolds, S. (2021). A qualitative study exploring adolescents’ experience of brief behavioural activation for depression and its impact on the symptom of anhedonia. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94(2), 266-288.
About the presenter
Dr Laura Pass is a Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She is Programme Director for Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) training at UEA. Her research interests include adolescent depression and evidence based low intensity approaches for young people, including in educational settings. Brief BA was developed in collaboration with Professor Shirley Reynolds at the Anxiety & Depression in Young People (AnDY) research clinic at the University of Reading.
Who should attend
Brief BA can be delivered by a range of professionals who are working with young people with depression symptoms (at both a clinical and subclinical level). Brief BA is a low intensity approach, but can be used across a variety of settings and depression severity. It is also suitable for clinicians with previous experience of Behavioural Activation who are looking to learn about an adolescent focused approach.
Low Intensity clinical contact hours survey - BABCP Low Intensity Special Interest Group
Please click below if you are interested in contributing to the survey.
The BACP Low Intensity SIG are interested in the impact of clinical contact hours on Low Intensity/Wellbeing Practitioner wellbeing. This questionnaire contains six multi-choice questions and a free text box for you to share your experiences. The answers to these questions will help the BABCP SIG plan how to meet CPD topics and other developments within the SIG. The SIG hope to produce a write up of the answers to this questionnaire to be shared with SIG members and to be used in training.
This FREE conference is for Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners working in Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression services and is brought to you by Bespoke Mental Health in collaboration with the NHS National PWP Leads Network.
This is a FREE conference for Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioners (or equivalent) working in NHS secondary care. This full day event includes a Keynote Address by Dr Adrian Whittington, National Clinical Lead for Psychological Professions at NHS England, a Panel Discussion, two Clinical Skills Classes, two Research Presentations and an optional 15-minute Q&A Session focusing on BABCP registration and accreditation.