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Handling Treatment Failure Successfully

Jacqueline Persons

21 Oct 2026

£40.50
£32.40 for NHS, charities, universities

Introduction

Setbacks and failure are common in psychotherapy, and yet many therapists are not trained to expect them and handle them skillfully.   


The event will be equivalent to 2hrs of CPD.

Content

Dr. Persons will present skills to help psychotherapists prepare for, identify, and cope effectively with symptom deterioration, lack of progress, and failure in psychotherapy. She will carry out with attendees an exercise to guide them in brainstorming ideas for modifying the treatment of one of their current clients who is not making good progress in therapy.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will be able to:

Name a therapist stance about their effectiveness as a therapist that is associated with positive patient treatment outcome
List steps to take to address an episode of a patient setback or failure to respond to psychotherapy
Identify several domains to consider when brainstorming ideas for modifying treatment when the patient is not responding
List steps to take to end a failing treatment in a skillful and responsible and compassionate way when it proves impossible to overcome the failure

Training Modalities

Presentation, self exercises, polls, and Q&A.

Key References

Constantino, M. J., Boswell, J. F., Coyne, A. E., Muir, H. J., Gaines, A. N., & Kraus, D. R. (2023). Therapist perceptions of their own measurement-based, problem-specific effectiveness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 91(8), 474–484. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000813

Padesky, C. A. (2020). Collaborative case conceptualization: Client knows best. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 27(4), 392–404.

Persons, J. B. (2008). The case formulation approach to cognitive-behavior therapy. New York: Guilford.

Persons, J. B., Beckner, V. L., & Tompkins, M. A. (2013). Testing case formulation hypotheses in psychotherapy: Two case examples. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20, 399-409.

About the presenter

Jacqueline B. Persons is internationally recognized for her writings on case conceptualization and widely regarded as an outstanding model of the scientist-practitioner because of her ability to conduct research on the process and outcome of cognitive behavior therapy in her practice setting. Dr. Persons has published nearly 100 articles and chapters and three books. She has presented dozens of training workshops around the world on the case formulation approach to CBT. Dr. Persons is a past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Who should attend

The event is suitable for any psychotherapist who works with adult clients.

Low Intensity clinical contact hours survey - BABCP Low Intensity Special Interest Group

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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.

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View Survey

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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.

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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.

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