This course focuses on one of the most critical components of treatment success, creating meaningful, measureable goals and action steps that are systemically informed. A case is made for restricting the number of long term goals in order to achieve “laser focus,” which is important to engagement and motivation in the change process. Guidance is provided on how to choose the best focus for the overarching treatment goal and how to structure it so it is most effective. This course demonstrates how to apply the SMART approach to the development of clinical goals in intensive, in-home programs. For development of more achievable action steps, the power of incremental, tiny habits is described and demonstrated. Concrete examples of both clinically sound and unsound goals and action steps are provided.
This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. Explain the rationale for a one-goal treatment plan that flows directly from the case conceptualization
2. Demonstrate how to use the SMART format as a rubric for writing and evaluating clinical goals
3. Describe the principle of “tiny habits” and show how to use it in developing achievable action steps
This course uses an online distance-learning self-paced format. It includes recorded audio, recorded video-based webinars, and selected readings. There are post-tests to ensure comprehension of the material. Participants can communicate with the instructors via the online moodle interface. Real-time communication with the instructor in our online, self-paced distance learning courses is not possible. However, participants can send an email to the instructor via the online moodle interface within the course and expect to receive a response within 48 hours. All course content, including post-tests, should take approximately two hours to complete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Online Course Policies for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.