In-Congress Workshops
In-congress workshops are half-day workshops and will take place during the main congress, on Thursday 4th, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th September 2025.
Workshop

Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety and Anhedonia
Michelle Craske, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Threat and reward sensitivity are fundamental processes that become dysregulated in the context of vulnerability to, or expression of, anxiety and depression. Treatments have traditionally targeted reductions in threat sensitivity with limited effects upon reward mechanisms. Investigation of reward sensitivity is essential for our understanding of psychopathology and for targeted treatment approaches. These findings led us to develop a treatment that specifically targets reward hyposensitivity, termed Positive Affect Treatment, which we have shown to be more effective than conventional cognitive behavioral therapy for anxious and depressed individuals. I will present the evidence from randomized controlled trials. Then I will present the step by step details of Positive Affect Treatment, accompanied by video demonstrations. The content will include treatment rationale, positive emotion labelling, behavioural activation with imaginal recounting, cognitive strategies for attending to rewarding stimuli and generosity, loving kindness, gratitude and appreciative joy exercises.
Key learning objectives:
Understand the role of reward hyposensitivity in anhedonia, depression and anxiety
Understand the evidence for the efficacy of Positive Affect Treatment for anhedonia
Gain familiarity with the principles and procedures of Positive Affect Treatment
Brief biography:
Michelle Craske is Professor of Psychology, and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Kevin Love Fund Centennial Chair, Director of the UCLA Anxiety and Depression Research Center, and co-director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge. She has published extensively in the area of fear, anxiety and depression, including over 625 peer reviewed journal articles as well as academic books and therapist guides, and is a Web of Science Most Highly Cited Researcher. She has been the recipient of extramural funding since 1993 for research projects pertaining to risk factors and treatment for anxiety and depression and is currently the lead PI of a P50 Center grant focused on clinical decision making tools for evidence based therapies. She is Editor-in-Chief for Behaviour Research and Therapy. Dr. Craske holds the position of Officer of the Order of Australia.
References:
Craske, M.G., Meuret, A., Echiverri-Cohen, E., Rosenfield, D., & Ritz, T. (2023). Positive affect treatment targets reward sensitivity: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 2023 Mar 9. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000805. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36892884.
Sandman, C. F., & Craske, M. G. (2022). Psychological Treatments for Anhedonia. Current topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, 58, 491–513.
Craske, M.G., Dunn, B.D., Meuret, A.E. et al. Positive affect and reward processing in the treatment of depression, anxiety and trauma. Nat Rev Psychol 3, 665–685 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00355-4
Workshop

OCD Unlocked: Evidence-Based CBT Strategies for Immediate Impact
Lata McGinn, Yeshiva University, US
Based on multiple randomized trials, CBT for OCD, with exposure and response prevention (ERP) as the key ingredient, is a first-line treatment for OCD with a very strong evidence base in the treatment of children, adolescents, and adults. This workshop will offer clinicians with the knowledge and skills to effectively treat obsessive-compulsive disorder across the lifespan using a comprehensive approach to enhance gains.
The workshop will cover how to functionally assess symptoms to set goals and use and refine different strategies, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, cognitive defusion, exposure, and response prevention. Emphasis will be placed on (1) cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to maximize gains, reduce suffering, and increase client willingness to engage in ERP; (2) creation of overall and operational exposure hierarchies; (3) selection of type of exposure based on symptom presentation (4) design, implementation, and motivation and commitment for response prevention to block rituals (5) Use of different treatment formats to enhance and maintain gains (6) Incorporation of families to reduce accommodation and enhance gains. A case vignette will be used to illustrate techniques. Clinicians are encouraged to ask questions and bring in treatment cases to ensure maximal learning
Key learning objectives:
- Participants will learn how to use cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies specific to OCD and learn to conduct effective behavioral experiments.
- Participants will learn how to effectively incorporate cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to help reduce obsessional anxiety, decrease rituals, reduce suffering and increase willingness for EXRP.
- Participants will learn when how to use different types of exposure and learn how to effectively implement exposure and response prevention.
- Clients will learn how to maximize gains in exposure and response prevention by incorporating principles of inhibitory learning.
Brief biography:
Lata K. McGinn, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University and Director of the Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies (CBT) Training Program for Anxiety Disorders, OCD, Trauma, and Depression and is Co-Founder and Co-Director of Cognitive & Behavioral Consultants (CBC), an evidence-based clinical and training Center.
Dr. McGinn’s clinical, training, and research expertise is in CBT for the prevention and treatment of OCD, anxiety disorders, stress, trauma, PTSD, and depression. She has developed and tested a selective intervention to prevent at-risk depression in a NIH funded research study. She has also developed and implemented he Mind-Action-Mood (M&M) Program, a Universal (Tier 1) program in schools to prevent anxiety and depression, build resilience and improve functioning. Her extensive publications span peer-reviewed journal articles, chapters, and her co-authored books, “Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder” and “Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders,” which has been translated into 14 languages.
In addition, Dr. McGinn treats adults and adolescents in her practice, teaches and supervises doctoral trainees, serves on the editorial board of peer-reviewed journals, gives invited keynotes, lectures, master clinician seminars, and workshops, and provides consultation to professionals, consumers, and organizations.
Dr. McGinn is the president of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT) and in that capacity, works with the regional organizations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australasia, and Africa and the World Health Organization to promote evidence-based mental health practices.
In recognition of her achievements. McGinn has earned the titles of Beck Scholar and Fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (ABCT). She was awarded a certificate of appreciation in recognition of her professional contributions on trauma prevention interventions on a Trauma Taskforce following September 11, 2001, and won the ABCT Outstanding Service to CBT award in 2020.
References:
Leahy, R.L., Holland, S, & McGinn, L.K. (2011). Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders. NY: Guilford Press.
McGinn, L.K. (2015). Understanding and Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The Independent Practitioner. 35, 50-57
McGinn, L.K. & Sanderson, W. C. (1999). Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc.
Spencer et al., (2023). CBT for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Psychiatr Clin N Am 46 (2023) 167–180
Workshop

Existential concerns and cognitive-behavioural procedures: Managing death, isolation, identity, freedom and the search for meaning.
Ross Menzies, University of Technology Sydney, Australia