Tailored Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Treating OCD for Neurodivergent Children and Adults: ZOOM WORKSHOP PRESENTATION


Registration closes @  9am on 02.03.26

OCD and neurodevelopmental conditions are thought to commonly co-occur with point prevalence rates of autism occurring in 25% of a young people with OCD (Martin et al, 2020) and ranging from 10% to 33% (Masi et al, 2006) for the co-occurence of ADHD and OCD in paediatric samples. There is a similar picture in adults although the level of co-occurrence is unclear due to methodological differences in the research. It is recognised that the comorbidity can have an impact on prognosis and response to treatment with those with a co-occurance of OCD and neurodevelopmental conditions remaining moreimpaired after routine CBT than those with OCD alone . It is therefore necessary to understand the features of neurodiversity that can affect treatment response and to recognise how and when to modify treatment to enhance accessibility and efficacy of intervention. To this end, this workshop will:

Explore how to adapt gold-standard CBT techniques to increase accessibility and effectiveness for autistic and/or ADHD children and adults.

During the day we will cover:

  • an up to date understanding of autism and ADHD characteristics
  • how an understanding of these characteristics will help you make reasonable adjustments to assessment and therapy
  • formulating key overlaps and distinctions between OCD and neurodivergent characteristics
  • building therapeutic engagement with individuals who process the world differently
  • neuroaffirmative problem solving of ‘blocks’ to therapy
  • reasonable adjustments to behavioural experiments and exposure tasks

Certificate of Attendance

A digital certificate that states the hours of live participation in the workshop will be emailed to you after the training event. You must attend the workshop live to receive a certificate.

New: Workshop recording is now available to attendees

By attending this workshop I understand I am giving my consent for the workshop to be video recorded and for this video recording to be available to people attending the workshop live and for it to be sold separately, for the amount of time determined by OCTC and outlined in the purchase agreement. My name, if displayed onscreen, and my image will make up part of this recording. Recordings are the property of OCTC and making copies of these recordings or sharing login details is not permitted. Please do not reveal details which may compromise the anonymity of clients.

The recording will be available to view for a period of three months.

Presenters

Alison Roberts

Alison has worked for the NHS since 1999 in a broad range of clinical settings across the lifespan. After completing a PGDip in CBT at OCTC, she worked for 8 years at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma at the Maudsley Hospital. Most of her clinical work there was for the Highly Specialised Service funded by NHS England, working with people with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Alison now works for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as part of the Adult Neurodevelopmental Service, assessing adults for possible Autistic Spectrum Conditions and providing psychological treatment for adults with ADHD or Tics/Tourette’s Syndrome. Alison also works for Oxford Health Specialist Psychological Intervention Centre Clinic (OHSPIC), providing highly-specialist evidence-based interventions for people struggling with anxiety disorders and trauma. Alison is also an experienced trainer, providing consultation and training to staff on adapting talking therapies to be more accessible for neurodivergent people.

Sasha Walters

Sasha Walters trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Bath between 2012 and 2015 and has worked in specialist anxiety and depression clinics for the majority of her qualified career. Sasha is a BABCP accredited practitioner and specialises in offering evidence-based practice, namely Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, to work with young people and adults experiencing anxiety disorders, OCD and related disorders.

She joined OHSPIC after working for the National and Specialist CAMHS OCD, BDD & Related Disorders clinic at the Maudsley Hospital.

Sasha is passionate about the delivery of effective, evidence-based therapy and extends this passion beyond her own practice by providing supervision and teaching across the country to a wide range of professionals in the NHS, and in local authorities.

Prior to clinical training, Sasha completed a PhD in developmental psychopathology and remains committed to research completing her own work in the area of emetophobia and supervising and collaborating on projects in the areas of paediatric OCD and anxiety.

Additional Information

Cancellation & changes policy

If you cancel more than 14 days prior to your booked event, we will refund your fee minus a charge of 15% to cover our administration costs. We regret that cancellations 14 days or less before the booked event cannot be refunded or changed/transferred.

If you wish to change/transfer your booking after confirmation we will do our best to accommodate you if you notify us 14 days prior to your booked event, and if there is space to do so. However there will be an administration charge of £15 per change/transfer.

Confidentiality

Workshops often contain clinical material. This is always anonymised as far as possible but delegates are none the less reminded to respect confidentiality.

All that is discussed in your therapy sessions will be treated as confidential, with the following exceptions.
We are required to seek supervision by our professional body (The British Psychological Society or equivalent) as a means of ensuring good practice. We will usually inform your referrer of your progress, but the details that we disclose will be discussed with you. We do have a statutory obligation to break confidentiality under rare circumstances, namely, if we believe that a client is of danger to themselves or to others (under the Mental Health Act, 2001) or if we believe that a child is at actual risk of physical or sexual abuse (The Children Act, Section 47, 1989).

If we felt that it would be helpful to request additional medical, social or legal information, we could only do this with your consent. Similarly, should another medical, social or legal professional request information from us, we would not release this without your consent.

Disclaimer

OCTC makes every effort to ensure that this programme is delivered as advertised. However, should a presenter have to cancel, we will endeavour to find another suitable presenter. We will inform attendees as soon as is reasonably practical and, if requested, will offer a refund. In the rare event that we are unable to substitute a presenter, we may cancel a workshop and refund payments already made by attendees. OCTC will not refund travel and accommodation costs that attendees may incur.
All the workshops in this programme are carried out by highly experienced therapists and trainers. The individual presenter is responsible for the content of the workshop and any views expressed do not necessarily represent those of OCTC.
Although highly informative, none of the open workshops or workshop series confer a formal qualification or assurance of competence in CBT (or a specialist area of CBT) since we are unable to assess attendee competency within the training event. However, credit and award-bearing courses that lead to formal qualifications are offered by OCTC in conjunction with the University of Oxford. More about these courses is available on our website www.octc.uk

Levels of competence

Before booking a place on a workshop, please ensure that it is pitched at the appropriate level of competence for you. The guide to levels is as follows:

Basic

Basic workshops are for people from a variety of backgrounds, who have at least one year’s clinical experience. Cognitive behavioural knowledge is not necessary for attendance at these workshops, though in practice, a number of attendees will have some skills in the area, and are refreshing/updating their knowledge.

Intermediate

Intermediate workshops are directed towards people who already have knowledge of CBT, and experience in using cognitive formulations and treatment methods – for instance, they are able to identify and test automatic thoughts, and design behavioural experiments. Most participants will be using CBT as part of their clinical practice, and may still be acquiring new CBT skills.

Advanced

Advanced courses are directed towards those professionals who use CBT routinely as part of their clinical practice. They have probably undertaken a significant number of training courses and/or workshops, and use a broad range of cognitive behavioural strategies to work with a range of presentations at varying levels of complexity.

Making reservations

Bookings can only be considered confirmed after we have received your online registration or application form and payment (or invoicing details, including an official purchase order document).

The registration closing date for each workshop is shown on the workshop description page.  Please note that no applications received after this deadline will be permitted.

If you are booking a workshop place for someone else, you must complete your own details in the billing field, but ENTER THE WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS NAME/ADDRESS in the shipping field. If you wish to order items using a paper order form instead of online, you can view or download an order form in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. Once downloaded, print it out, fill it in, and send off with your payment [cheque made payable to OXFORD HEALTH NHS FOUNDATION TRUST] to the address on the form.

Refreshments

The cost of the workshops includes hot drinks on arrival, mid-morning and mid-afternoon, but not usually lunch unless stated. However, for workshops that do include lunch, if you have any special dietary requirements please let us know at the time of application.

Accessibility requirements

We welcome applications from diverse backgrounds. If you have any particular needs, please contact us
prior to booking.