Exercise as a Treatment for Mental Health
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Who is this for:
Instructional Level:
Clinicians who are interested in supporting patient progress with lifestyle factors, specifically incorporating exercise into treatment.
Instructional Level:
Intermediate
Why You’ll Love this Course:
Exercise is one of the most evidence-backed alternative interventions for mental health, but most therapists aren’t able to access training that leaves them feeling confident in how to understand and apply it to clinical practice. This course provides strong, evidence-based content on the theory, science, and application of exercise so you can use it with your patients and incorporate it into your practice with confidence.
Course description:
Course description:
This course provides detailed instruction on the profound ways exercise affects the brain, mood, and behavioral functioning. It includes an overview of the research base, scientific theory, and application of exercise as a nuanced treatment tool capable of improving psychological functioning for many diagnoses. Finally, this course offers practical tools for incorporating exercise into mental health care in a manner that is both skillful and consistent with a mental health professional’s scope of practice.
Featuring:
- “Mechanisms of Change for Exercise and Mental Health” Handout
- Movement Break: Exercise Demonstration
- Experiential Exercise: Your Health Beliefs as the Therapist
Educational Objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe at least three research-based biological and psychological mechanisms that make exercise a powerful treatment tool
- Identify at least three diagnosis-specific responses to exercise as an intervention
- Identify at least three psychological benefits of common types of exercise
Katie Arfa, Psy.D.
Katie Arfa, PsyD. is a co-founder and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MindScience Collective. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in California (PSY31016), who specializes in using integrative, evidence-based treatments for health conditions. She is sought after for her particular expertise in the emerging fields of nutritional psychiatry, gut-brain interaction, pain psychology, and lifestyle medicine.
In her private practice, Dr. Arfa focuses on using ACT, CBT, and nervous system approaches to treat families and adults dealing with medical conditions, complex illnesses, or treatment-resistant cases. She provides supervision and consultation to trainees and professionals on the intersection of medical and psychological diagnoses, especially differential diagnosis of complex cases.
Dr. Arfa is the creator of ACT for GI, a group treatment protocol for GI conditions; a psychology education program for fitness professionals; and a postdoctoral training program in integrative health psychology. She completed a fellowship in integrative psychiatry and has a background as a certified personal trainer through National Strength and Conditioning Association. She has also served as adjunct professor at Antioch University.
Patients are referred to Dr. Arfa by some of the most notable healthcare systems in the country, including UCLA Health, Cleveland Clinic, and the Mayo Clinic.
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“MindScience Collective is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. MindScience Collective 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-0312). MindScience Collective maintains responsibility for this program and its content.“
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