Training
Registration closes @12 noon on 31.03.25
We all love our stuff. Everyone has possessions that mean something to them that they would not want to part with, but for some people it can be especially difficult to discard things, and items can start to pile up. This can lead to problems and can get in the way of a person living a safe and happy life in their home. Excessive collecting and clutter can cause distress and upset for those struggling with hoarding, and for those around and them.
Hoarding disorder is estimated to affect 2-5% of the population, with increasing demand for psychological services working directly or indirectly with people with significant clutter problems. This workshop is aimed at professionals with some knowledge and experience of using CBT, who wish to develop a deeper understanding of hoarding disorder, its assessment, cognitive-behavioural conceptualisation, and sensitive and supportive treatment.
Participants will gain:
• Insight into acquiring/hoarding problems by reflecting on their own relationships with objects.
• Knowledge of hoarding disorder, its differential diagnosis, and common comorbidities.
• Skills and tools to identify hoarding problems, assess key cognitive and behavioural components, and establish severity and impact.
• Knowledge of factors that might make someone vulnerable to hoarding problems.
• A cognitive model of hoarding disorder and its use to inform CBT treatment.
• Skills in collaboratively formulating acquiring/discarding difficulties.
• Motivational, cognitive, and behavioural interventions that can be used in clinical practice.
• A trauma-informed perspective on hoarding.
• Experiential exercises, opportunities for case discussions, and considerations for clinical practice.
Learning objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
• Understand and empathise with aspects of hoarding disorder through their own experiences with objects.
• Identify, differentiate, and assess hoarding disorder.
• Build an individualised cognitive behavioural formulation (case conceptualisation) of hoarding disorder.
• Work sensitively and collaboratively with someone experiencing hoarding difficulties.
• Facilitate the sensitive involvement of others to support someone with hoarding problems.
• Know how and when to utilise existing CBT knowledge and skills to inform formulation driven treatment for hoarding problems.
• Devise a formulation driven treatment plan for hoarding disorder.
• Use a range of motivational, cognitive, and behavioural interventions to help someone stop acquiring and start decluttering.
• Consider the role of trauma in hoarding disorder and the implications for clinical practice.
References:
How to eat an elephant – Understanding hoarding and how to help | OCD-UK
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.
Presenter
Tom Graham, Counselling Psychologist
Tom Graham is a Counselling Psychologist and CBT Therapist. Tom began using CBT to help people with hoarding problems at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders & Trauma (South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust), one of the few centres in the UK providing individual and group therapy for people with clutter problems. Tom has extensive experience of working with people to tackle hoarding individually, in the clinic and at their homes, in-person and online, and has also run in-person and online hoarding disorder group treatment programmes. Tom previously facilitated a weekly drop-in group for people with hoarding problems in conjunction with the London Fire Service. He has delivered hoarding workshops and training to psychological and occupational therapists, NHS community teams, and third sector organisations such as OCD-UK and Age UK. Tom currently works for Oxford Health Specialist Psychological Intervention Centre, which also offers individual CBT for hoarding disorder.
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.