Complex Depression: New Developments in Understanding, Assessment, & Psychotherapy
- Topic Areas:
- Depression
- Categories:
- Live Webinar
- Speaker:
- Golan Shahar, Ph.D.
- Course Levels:
- Intermediate
- Duration:
- 7 Hours 30 Minutes
- License:
- Never Expires.
Producer: VPA/Brattleboro Retreat
Description
This full-day CE workshop presents an integrative, evidence-based framework for understanding and treating complex (non-stereotypic, chronic, comorbid, and high-risk) unipolar depression. Drawing on Professor Golan Shahar’s APA-published book Complex Depression: Role of Personality and the Social Ecology, this training introduces the Reformulated Depressive Position (RDP) and the ecodynamic model, which conceptualize depression as a self-perpetuating system linking personality (especially self-criticism), affect regulation, interpersonal schemas, and social contexts.
Credits
Vermont
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists, and is also approved by the Vermont Board of Psychological Examiners to sponsor continuing education for psychologists licensed in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
Continuing education courses sponsored by the Vermont Psychological Association are pre-approved by the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation for continuing education credit for licensed independent clinical social workers in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types;
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
Continuing education courses sponsored by the Vermont Psychological Association are pre-approved by the Vermont Board of Allied Mental Health for continuing education credit for licensed clinical mental health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists in Vermont. This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types:
Ethics: 0
Cultural Competency: 0
Connecticut
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Connecticut accepts these credits for continuing education for psychologists in Connecticut pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-191c(b). This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Veterans' Mental Health: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing educaiton for psychologists. Based on this approval, this course is pre-approved for credit for Connecticut licensed professional counselors under Conn. Agencies Regs § 20-195cc-3(a)(1). This course is intended to qualify for mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
Veterans' Mental Health: 0
Massachusetts
6 CE Credits for Psychologists & LMHCs
7.2 CE Credits for LCSWs
6CE Credits for LMHCs
The Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists accepts credits earned from courses sponsored by APA-approved sponsors as indicated in 251 C.M.R. §§ 4.02, 4.03.
As a course sponsored by an APA-approved CE sponsor, this course qualifies for credit for clinical social workers and certified social workers in Massachusetts under 258 CMR sec 31.04(2)(d).
The Vermont Psychological Association (VPA) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7610. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. VPA is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
New Hampshire
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor live continuing education for psychologists. The New Hampshire Board of Psychologists accepts credits earned from courses sponsored by APA-approved sponsors as indicated in Psyc § 402.01(d)(11). This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated credit types as follows:
Ethics: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education to psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for clinical social workers licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credits:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education to psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for clinical mental health counselors licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). This course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credits:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. As a course sponosred by an organization with such approval, these credits are also accepted by the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice for marriage and family therapists; pastoral psychotherapists; and school social workers licensed in New Hampshire, as provided in Mhp 402.02(b)(1). The course is intended to qualify for the following specialty mandated credit types:
Ethics: 0
Suicide Prevention: 0
New York
6 CE Contact Hours
The Vermont Psychological Association is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0210. This course is intended to qualify for specialty mandated continuing education topics as follows:
Ethics: 0
Professional Boundaries: 0
Other States Accepting Credits from APA-Approved Sponsors
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor live continuing education for psychologists. The Vermont Psychological Association maintains responsibility for its programs and their content. Psychologists and other professionals licensed in states whose respective licensing boards approve continuing education offered by APA-approved sponsors may earn continuing education credits for this course.
Other States Accepting Credits from NBCC-Approved Sponsors
6 CE Credits
The Vermont Psychological Association (VPA) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7610. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. VPA is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Speaker
Golan Shahar, Ph.D. Related Seminars and Products
Professor
Golan Shahar, Ph.D., currently serves as a professor of clinical-health psychology and the Zlotowsky Chair of Neuropsychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and as an affiliated professor at BGU's School of Public Health. He is the founder and director of the Stress, Self & Health (STREALTH) research lab at BGU. In addition, Professor Shahar serves as adjunct professor of child and adult psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.
Professor Shahar received his B.A. (Behavioral Sciences, magna cum laude), M.A. (Clinical Psychology, summa cum laude), and Ph.D. (Psychology, summa cum laude) at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and did his post-doctoral training in psychopathology and developmental research at Yale University's Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry.
Professor Shahar previously served on the faculties of Bar-Ilan University (1999-2000) and Yale University (2002-2004).
His research focuses on stress, psychopathology, and psychosomatics. His research program has been funded by extremely competitive and prestigious research funds in Israel and the USA and has yielded over 200 publications appearing in top publications in psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, pediatrics, and pain medicine. His first scientific book, titled Erosion: The Psychopathology of Self-Criticism, was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press. His second scientific book, titled Complex Depression: Role of Personality and the Social Ecology, was published in 2024 by the American Psychological Association Press (APA).
In addition to his empirical research, Professor Shahar is known internationally as a leading clinical theorist and practitioner, advancing an integrative framework for assessment and psychotherapy in complex psychopathological and psychosomatic conditions. In particular, he integrates psychoanalytic object-relations theory with existential philosophy and psychology and cognitive clinical psychology. Owing to his unique contribution to psychotherapy integration, Shahar was appointed in 2012 as Chief Editor of Journal of Psychotherapy Integration (JPI), the flagship journal of the Society for Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), where he served for five years.
In addition to his academic work and research, for the past 25 years, Professor Shahar has provided clinical psychological assessment and integrative psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and adults suffering from complex clinical conditions.
Professor Shahar also writes and publishes poetry in both Hebrew and English, focusing on issues of mental and physical health, self-development and personal growth.
Course Objectives
Objective 1 Differentiate complex depression from episodic ("simple") unipolar depression with respect to chronicity, comorbidity, symptom heterogeneity, functional impairment, and suicide risk.Objective 2 Explain the core components of the Reformulated Depressive Position (RDP) and the ecodynamic model, including the roles of self-criticism, affect regulation, interpersonal schemas, and social ecology in maintaining depressive cycles.
Objective 3 Assess key indicators of complexity in depressed patients using a structured, multi-domain clinical formulation (personality dynamics, interpersonal patterns, and social-contextual factors).
Objective 4 Apply four evidence-informed intervention strategies--psychoeducation, remoralization, ecodynamic intervention, and techniques for diluting/circumventing rigid depressive self-states--to clinical case material.
Objective 5 Design an integrative treatment plan for a patient with complex depression that incorporates psychodynamic, existential, cognitive-behavioral, and family-systems principles and includes at least one targeted intervention in the patient’s social environment.