The Benefits of Mental-Health Homework

Guest: Andrés Consoli, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Co-Author of “CBT Strategies for Anxious and Depressed Children and Adolescents: A Clinician’s Toolkit” If your child’s geometry teacher never assigned any homework assignments, you might start to wonder how she’ll ever master concepts like the Pythagorean theorem. Well, the same concept applies to mental health treatment for kids and teens: practice leads to mastery. Going to therapy one hour a week isn’t going to magically heal someone of their depression or anxiety. What happens between sessions is just as important – if not more so. That’s where a new workbook comes in. It’s designed as a handbook for therapists that includes lots of worksheets for kids and teens to do during therapy sessions and at home between meetings.