Coping with Depression course

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Lewinsohn, Clarke, Hops · 1984

What it is

The Coping with Depression course is a class-style psychoeducational CBT group. It is taught as a course rather than run as therapy. Members are "students" with a workbook, short lectures, quizzes, role-plays and homework, and leaders act more like teachers than therapists. It grew out of…

Format

• Formats
• CWD-A (treatment, ages about 13–18): 16 two-hour sessions held twice a week over 8 weeks, in mixed-gender groups. Recommended size is 5–8 (CEBC) to 10 (NHS Scotland). Run as an after-school programme or in an outpatient, community or school setting. You need a room with a large table and a…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Leaders: licensed mental health professionals, typically at master's level or above, with supervised experience in:
• Non-clinicians may lead only under supervision. Training is by co-leading or running a mock group, the Mastering the Coping Course DVD, or self-study of the manual, with weekly or fortnightly supervision. Fidelity is checked by a supervisor rating recorded sessions with adherence and competence scales.
• Version followed: Adolescent Coping with Depression Course (CWD-A), Leader's Manual for Adolescent Groups by Clarke, Lewinsohn and Hops (Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, original 1990, 2000 web edition) and its Student Workbook; the adult CWD (Lewinsohn et al., 1984) and the preventive Adolescent Coping with Stress course (CWS) are covered as variants. The session-by-session leader scripts (manual…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• reading difficulties. Read items aloud or pair members up.
• members using it only in group. Ask for one real use per week.
• early criticism shutting down ideas. Enforce the no-evaluation rule.
• goals that are out of reach and set up hopelessness. Scale them down.
• worry periods set at bedtime, which can worsen sleep. Suggest an earlier slot.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.