Please note that all registrations have to be paid in full before the event takes place - otherwise you will miss out on receiving the Zoom link (this is usually sent two days before the event takes place). This event will be recorded for all those who are registered on the day. Recording is available for three weeks – the link will be sent after the event.

The discrepancy between need and access to mental health support is incontestable. Due to provider shortages, high treatment costs, and myriad structural barriers, up to 80% of youth and 50% of adults with mental health needs go without services each year. Status-quo mental health systems will never meet population-level needs for support, creating a need sustainable, scalable models of support. Single-session interventions (SSIs) are well-positioned to rapidly increase access to evidence-based supports at precise moments of need, within and beyond formal health systems. SSIs mitigate key treatment access-barriers: many are self-guided (requiring no therapist) or deliverable by non-professionals following brief training; web-based (completable from any location), or offered via telehealth or phone; and 5 to 60 minutes in length, eliminating premature treatment dropout. SSIs are also effective. To date, >400 randomized trials have shown their capacity to reduce mental health problems and increase uptake of further treatment, with sustained positive impacts up to nine months later. This workshop will synthesize recent scientific and clinical advances in developing and evaluating evidence-based SSIs for youth and adults, along with our research team’s multi-sector efforts to disseminate effective SSIs within and outside of traditional healthcare systems. 

Attendees will also receive an introductory training in a therapist-delivered SSI, the Single-Session Consultation (SSC): An evidence-based, flexible program designed to support people with a wide variety of clinical needs. Grounded in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, the SSC is designed for delivery in a single 30-to-60-minute session, that can support people precisely when they reach out for mental health treatment—boosting their motivation for change and buffering against symptom declines while people wait for longer-term care. Within one SSC, clinicians help people identify the tools and capabilities they already possess to solve a problem at hand and to take steps toward a future in which that problem is less influential. In multiple real-world trials, the SSC has prevented (and reduced) mental health problems in teens and adults waiting for longer-term treatment and seeking drop-in services in outpatient, school, and community settings. The SSC can serve as: (1) an immediate offering for people placed on waitlists; (2) an adjunct to intakes, to provide clients with an action plan to address immediate needs; (3) a complement to ongoing services—to improve motivation, to address emergent problems, or as a booster session; (4) a strengths-based safety planning tool; (5) a drop-in service, for people who cannot commit to or do not desire ongoing therapy. This workshop will overview how to deliver the SSC and include recommendations for integrating it into practice settings.

Presenter: Dr Jessica Schleider

​Dr. Jessica L. Schleider (she/her) is the Founding Director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health and Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Pediatrics, and Psychology at Northwestern University. She also serves as Director of Digital Services at Northwestern's Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies. Dr. Schleider completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Harvard University in 2018, along with her Doctoral Internship in Clinical and Community Psychology at Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Schleider's professional mission is to build, test, and disseminate scalable, evidence-based mental health solutions that bridge previously-unfillable gaps in mental health ecosystems, with a focus on single-session interventions (SSIs) for underserved youth. Dr. Schleider has been recognized via numerous national awards for research excellence and innovation, including the NIH Director's Early Independence Award. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and she was previously chosen as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Healthcare.

Dr. Schleider has published >150 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. She has also created or co-created seven open-access, single-session mental health programs, which have reached >100,000 people to date. Based on these programs, Dr. Schleider and her colleagues wrote a self-help workbook, The Growth Mindset Workbook for Teens. She also co-edited the Oxford Guide to Brief and Low-Intensity Interventions for Children and Young People and wrote a nonfiction book, LITTLE TREATMENTS, BIG EFFECTS on how single-session interventions can transform mental health.