Live Classes

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an empirically-supported intervention for the treatment of gambling disorder (Nilsson et al., 2020) and one of the most commonly used interventions to treat the disorder. The purpose of this training is to provide a comprehensive overview of CBT for the treatment of gambling disorder. CBT is a broad term with several distinct interventions subsumed under its umbrella. This training focuses on CBT that conceptualizes gambling disorder as a dysfunctional pattern of behavior that represents maladaptive coping responses to the world within and around us. The CBT model presented posits that gambling is a learned behavior that can be altered via cognitive restructuring and behavioral modification and is the intervention described and utilized in several gambling disorder clinical trials (Petry et al., 2006, 2008, 2009).

The workshop will begin with an overview of the general CBT model, including how cultural context and social identity are incorporated within the model. Next, the presentation will review how to conduct a functional analysis leading to a case conceptualization for gambling disorder. The presentation concludes with an outline of the seven skill building modules such as behavioral activation, coping with cravings, and gambling refusal skills tailored towards individuals with gambling disorder. Attendees will work through several gambling-related case studies to familiarize themselves with the ideas and skills presented.