What Actually Works in Therapy: Becoming a Responsive Therapist On-Demand CE Webinar for therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists

 

What Actually Works in Therapy: Becoming a Responsive Therapist - 3 hours


To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

  • CE Hours Included: 3 (please see below for details)
  • Format: On-Demand Webinar (“Asynchronous”, Non-Interactive) ~ At your leisure this recorded video is to be viewed at your own pace. You may pause, rewind, and fast forward at any point during the videos. You are in complete control of how you view this workshop. It also comes with a PowerPoint and references. There is a quiz at the end to ensure viewing and required by all CE approval organizations.
  • Investment: $87 (provides lifetime access!)
  • Presented by: Trevor M. Ahrendt, Psy.D. (see bio below)
  • Date of Recording: August 5, 2026
  • Instruction Level: Intermediate
  • Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists
  • This workshop is not yet available; by pre-registering, you will receive immediate access when it becomes available in August.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this workshop in its entirety, you will be able to:

  • Appraise multiple threads of research that demonstrate how techniques are not the major drivers of change in psychotherapy.
  • Contrast different techniques and approaches, and why they can be helpful for some patients at some times and harmful to other patients at other times.
  • Apply the basics of CMT case formulation to understand how to personalize therapy for each patient.

Workshop Description:

Have you ever wondered how you could become a more effective therapist? Most of us do, and that is an admirable question. However, despite the claims of various promoters of new therapeutic techniques, there is limited evidence supporting the superiority of one technique over another. However, there is ample research data showing that responsiveness to a patient’s particular problems and goals is a strong predictor of effective therapy. In other words, understanding what the patient wants and how they want to use therapy to get it creates more effective outcomes.

Over the past several decades, the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group has developed a theory about how psychotherapy works across theories -- Control-Mastery Theory (CMT). CMT offers an empirically derived method of case formulation – the Plan Formulation Method (PFM) – that serves as a useful guide for decoding the patient’s plan and offers coaching to the therapist as to how to be most effective.

The PFM provides a simple, reliable, and easy-to-learn framework for understanding a patient’s conscious and unconscious goals, the pathogenic beliefs or schemas that prevent the patient from pursuing what they really want, traumatic experiences that contributed to the development of pathogenic beliefs, and how the therapist can optimize responsiveness to the patient’s problems, needs, and goals. The framework points you towards not just 'WHAT to do' but 'HOW to be' a particular person’s therapist; it helps you to personalize your therapy. There is research evidence suggesting that therapists who are trained in PFM and use the formulation to guide their interventions are more responsive to their patients and achieve superior therapeutic results.

You will learn the fundamentals of The Plan-Formulation Method, also known as Control-Mastery Case Formulation, and begin applying it immediately to your cases. You'll learn how to integrate the PFM into your existing manner of working and strengthen the work you're already doing.

Workshop Agenda:

  • Mysteries of Psychotherapy (1 hour, 15 min)
    • What is good therapy
    • Why are there so many therapy techniques?
    • Why doesn’t the DSM guide treatment well?
    • Why are we arguing about the basics still?
    • Why do therapists differ so much?
    • What is responsiveness?
  • Control Mastery Theory (1 hour, 15 min)
    • Origin Story
    • Neuropsych & Evolutionary Underpinnings
    • Structure of the Theory
    • Cultural Humility & Case Specificity
    • How to Formulate Cases
  • Three Cases of GAD (30 min)
    • Case 1
    • Case 2
    • Case 3
    • Conclusion and Discussion

Presented by: Trevor M. Ahrendt, Psy.D.

Trevor M. Ahrendt, Psy.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist working in private practice in San Francisco, where he sees adults and couples, runs group therapy, and provides Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. He received his doctorate from The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. He serves on the board of the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group and previously served on the board of the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Association.
Dr. Ahrendt brings over two decades of specialized expertise in addiction theory, assessment, and treatment to this training. He has taught the California-required 16-hour continuing education course on addiction at the Wright Institute, and has spent 20 years training clinicians in Motivational Interviewing — one of the most empirically supported approaches for working with addictive behavior — across a wide variety of settings, including the San Joaquin County Public Health Department, Options Recovery Services, California Department of Corrections, and graduate and continuing education courses. His applied experience includes hundreds of hours of direct MI intervention and training at Boston Medical Center as part of a federally funded SAMHSA grant, which included follow-up research components. Dr. Ahrendt has served as director of an addiction training clinic for doctoral students, supervised clinicians-in-training in the transtheoretical model of change for over a decade, and has maintained a private practice working with addiction, chemical dependency, and behavioral addictions for more than 20 years. His work with problematic pornography use grows directly from this clinical and academic foundation. Clients presenting with problematic pornography use are a regular part of Dr. Ahrendt’s private practice, and he has also supervised master’s and doctoral-level clinicians in this area.

3 "Asynchronous" CE Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

  • PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
  • COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
    • GA: Counselors in GA will receive 3 Core Hours for completing this course. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • SOCIAL WORKERS: The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, provider #2470, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/14/2026-1/14/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credits.
    • GA: Social Workers in GA will receive 3 Core Hours for completing this course. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: This workshop is approved for 3 Core CE hours through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT), approval # 139-2026. If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

Registration: To register for individual workshops, you may use our online payment option, or to pay by check you may print and complete the Registration Form and mail or fax it to our office. The registration form is available on our website: www.theknowledgetree.org. Registration is permitted until the time the workshop begins, unless otherwise specified.

Multiple Workshop Special: There is a 10% Discount with registration for two workshops. There is a 15% Discount with registrations for three or four workshops. There is a 20% Discount with registration for five or more workshops.

Refund/Cancellation Policy: If you can no longer attend a workshop you have registered for, you can either receive a credit for another workshop or receive a refund if you are within the refund policy period. Refunds will be given for cancellations received at least five days prior to the workshop. More information about refund/cancellation can be found here.

Attendance Policy: 100% attendance, completion of a course evaluation and passing a post-test with a score of 70% or higher (you will have 2 retake opportunities) is required at any asynchronous CE program in order to receive credit for that CE program. No partial credit is given. Certificates of completion will be available in each attendee’s account once these completion requirements have been met.

ADA Requests: We will make every effort to accommodate any reasonable ADA request. Please call or email us at least two weeks prior to the event. Payment and registration are required to fulfill an ADA request.

No Conflict Policy: Neither The Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program. 

System Requirements: Live Interactive Webinars are facilitated via Zoom. System requirements for the Zoom platform are linked at our FAQ page.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.


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The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, offers courses that provide continuing education hours as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and holds Approved Continuing Education Provider/Sponsor status with professional organizations including APA and NBCC. Each licensee should check our detailed CE information page and ensure courses taken meet their specific state board requirements.