Business Now Closed effective October 1 2025

Unfortunately we have come to the end of the road and due to financial reasons we have had to close our business early and cancel our final training. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our trainings in the last 9 years. We are so grateful to have been a part of your clinical journey and to have had to opportunity to witness the great work that you do with patients with psychosis.  

Hopefully this is not the end. We are looking into options to sell our content to a training company that can continue this work and will notify everyone when trainings might be happening again. 

Warmly, Sally 

CBT for FEP Training

Online material goes live on January 5th, 2026 Live Zoom webinar February 2nd , 9th and 23rd 2026 (skipping February 16th for President’s Day) Registration closes January 19th 2026

This 15 hour training which includes online, on-demand and live webinar material is designed for clinicians working in Early Intervention or First Episode Psychosis Services. CBT for psychosis (CBTp) is an evidence-based treatment, commonly available in Europe, and recommended by best practice guidelines in both the US and the UK in the early intervention for psychosis.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

1. Describe what is psychosis, listing typical symptoms and possible diagnoses that include these

2. Summarize the evidence base for CBT for psychosis, including key critiques

3. Summarize the ABC model of CBT

4. Explain the concepts of delusions and voice hearing as part of the spectrum of normal human experience

5. Demonstrate increased empathy for psychosis by applying at least one empathy generating exercises

6. Describe the concept of “working within a delusional belief system” and be able to recite both one reason why we do it and one technique how we do it

7. Demonstrate the concept of normalizing

8. Set operationalized, patient-centered goals to track progress over time and utilize empirically supported measures to track change

9. List at least five examples of ‘curious questions’

10. Demonstrate how to pull relevant information together into a CBT formulation

11. Summarize the concept of coping skills enhancement

12. Demonstrate interventions for beliefs about voices

13. Differentiate between the three different types of delusions

14. List three ways of generating alternative explanations for delusions

15. Describe the role of homework or action plans in cognitive behavioral skills building

Successful completion to be awarded CE credits

In order to successfully complete this online training and be eligible for CE credits participants must:

  • Review the material from all 14 modules

  • Watch every slide and video to the end

  • Complete all quizzes and evaluations

  • Post comments to discussion where requested

  • Score 75% or higher for evaluation quizzes (maximum 3 attempts)

  • Complete and submit the Continuing Education evaluation and feedback form at the end of the workshop

Course curriculum

    1. A message from Dr. Riggs

    2. How to use this course

    3. Learning objectives

      FREE PREVIEW

    4. Before we begin...

    5. How to download workbook for this course

    6. PDF Workbook for this training

    7. How to download transcript for this course

    8. PDF Transcript for this training

    9. Follow along case example

    1. Module 1: what is psychosis?

    2. What is psychosis? Discussion

    3. What is psychosis?

    4. Which DSM diagnoses include psychosis?

    5. Which DSM diagnoses include psychosis?

    6. Evidence base

    7. The CBT model

    8. ABCs

    9. The CBT triangle

    10. Is it a thought or a feeling? learning quiz

    11. Is it a thought or a feeling?

    12. Follow along case example

    1. Strongly held beliefs exist on a continuum

    2. Plausibility of Beliefs Exercise instructions

    3. Plausibility of Beliefs Exercise

    4. Plausibility of Beliefs Discussion

    5. How common are so called unusual beliefs? Gallup & Newport (1991) Exercise instructions

    6. How common are so called unusual beliefs? Gallup & Newport (1991)

    7. What did you use to determine your answers for the last quiz?

    8. Strongly held beliefs on a continuum

    9. Follow along case example

    1. Hallucinations are also part of normal human experience

    2. Voices simulation

    3. Trail running for beginners

    4. Feedback voice simulation

    5. Prevalence of voice hearing

    6. Pre-quiz Survey

    7. Learning Objectives 1 - 4 Evaluation Quiz

    8. Follow along case example

    1. Empathy enhancement

    2. Key points on empathy

    3. How to express empathy practice quiz

    4. Follow along case example

    1. Working within the belief system

    2. Working within the clients belief system

    3. Clip 1

    4. Lessons from clip 1

    5. Clip 2

    6. Lessons from clip 2

    7. Clip 3

    8. Lessons from clip 3

    9. Video feedback

    10. Why do we work within the belief system?

    11. Thoughts about the concept of Working within the belief system

    12. How do we work within the belief system?

    13. Don’t assume symptom is part of “illness”

    14. Suspend disbelief quiz

    15. Answering the question "do you believe me?"

    16. More on the how

    17. Is this colluding, challenging or working within the belief system? Quiz

    18. Update to answering the question "do you believe me?"

    19. Follow along case example

About this course

  • $1,149.00
  • 161 lessons

Testimonials

  • Wonderful! So well done. Thanks so much for a great experience."

  • "I am impressed with the dashboard, clear instructions, and responsiveness from the trainers and Dr. Gonzales. The small group in live webinars helped my learning. Role plays were helpful."

  • "The simulations that were utilized to help us understand the client experience is a game-changer and something I plan to utilize with my families and staff that work within my program. I did not really see anything that needed improvement, as all the material and the way it was taught not only kept my interest, but immediately began changing the way I worked with clients and families. It taught me what areas I was not exploring that were vital to the therapeutic process and how to find those out."

  • "Really one of the best trainings I've attended. Information is useful and well presented."

  • "Great learning environment combining different learning styles so everyone can benefit from the class."

  • "Exceptional training workshop! It's amazing how much you can learn about CBTp in only a few days when you are encouraged to apply and practice the training materials within the workshop. I enjoyed the practice activities that helped to round out the skills described in each section. I think that this type of engagement with the material helps to facilitate deeper learning."

  • "This training was useful because it gave lots of concrete examples and reminded me of some important principles (curious questions; avoiding adversarial challenges; examining beliefs) that I can use with my current patients."

  • "Really appreciated the interventions - feel like I have some that I could start using right away. This changes my practice in terms of how I do formulations and having more tools in my toolbox."

  • "Lauren was amazing. She was approachable, and helpful. I really appreciated that she didn't validate unhelpful discussions, and she was gentle in her course correction to ensure that we were learning things properly. 10/10. Would take another training from her in a heartbeat."

  • "I thought it was amazing. It was structured well and had a lot of useful information."

Instructor

CBTp trainer Lauren Gonzales

Dr. Gonzales is a licensed clinical psychologist in NY with an interest in working with individuals from diverse populations who experience psychosis and/or extreme psychological states. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from John Jay College and the Graduate Center, the City University of New York (CUNY) with a specialization in forensic psychology. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, and returned to New York City in 2018 where she is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Adelphi University. Her research and clinical work focuses on promoting recovery and quality-of-life for individuals who have received mental health diagnoses, including investigating the influence of stigma and other social and environmental factors upon mental health and well-being. She was trained in CBTp by Dr. Riggs in 2020, was a staff psychologist at NYC CBTp for a year, under Dr. Riggs’s supervision. She now works using group CBTp with people with psychosis at Leiber Recover Clinic in NYC, and was trained as a trainer by Dr. Riggs in 2022.

Financial & commercial disclosure:

Dr. Riggs and Riggs Psychology PLLC and sallyriggs.com receive no financial or commercial support for this online training, the content of this training, and gain no commercial support or benefit from endorsement of products. They also report that in the past 12 months they have had no other financial relationship with a commercial organization that produces healthcare goods or services that could be considered a conflict of interest.