This month our intensity CBT (LICBT) pilot in California’s Pomona Valley received its 6th and 7th grants, totaling $60,000 of additional support for the program. Three years ago All Things CBT and Uncommon Good, a Pomona Valley California nonprofit, launched the nation’s first LICBT program. LICBT is a global movement that trains lay people to provide cognitive-behavioral therapy to members of their communities. Since its inception, a total of 40 Pomona Valley trainees – or health promotoras – have completed the program. All promotoras are immigrant Latinx women who received 40 hours of LICBT training. If they are currently seeing clients, they also participate in a weekly supervision group with a professional psychologist.
Nancy Mintie, founder and executive director of Uncommon Good (the Pomona Valley project sponsor), says funders are initially skeptical that lay providers, some of whom never had the chance to complete high school, can provide effective psychotherapy. Funders – and many others – assume that advanced degrees like MD’s or Ph.D’s and years of professional training are prerequisites to providing quality care. Yet, Nancy says, a program outcome evaluation conducted this spring by Georgetown University’s Julie Staples, is leading funders to conclude such skepticism is unfounded. In this post I summarize this outcome data. You may also download the complete report here.
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