CBT for Depression

Depression is common, complex, and deeply individual — and one of the most challenging issues therapists face. Fortunately, CBT remains one of the most widely researched and recommended treatments for depression. Decades of clinical studies and international practice guidelines consistently support its effectiveness.

This specialized training gives you clear, real-world CBT tools to treat depression with greater structure and confidence. You’ll learn how to address the thoughts, behaviours, and emotional patterns that keep clients stuck — and how to help them reconnect with activity, meaning, and hope.

Whether you're supporting clients through hopelessness, low motivation, self-criticism, anger, or co-occurring substance use, this course helps you deliver CBT that is structured, compassionate, and clinically effective.

What You’ll Learn

This course goes beyond general CBT training to give you specialized, practical tools for treating depression with confidence and care. You’ll learn how to:

• Apply structured CBT approaches to treat depression across diverse clients and presentations

• Use behavioural strategies — including behavioural activation — to increase engagement, mastery, and pleasure 

• Support clients in identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts and beliefs

• Integrate mindfulness, compassion, and emotion-focused strategies when appropriate

• Build clients’ skills in key areas such as problem-solving, social skills, assertiveness, and healthy sleep habits

• Address depressive symptoms such as low self-worth, anger, and motivational deficits

• Move through stuck points and guide clients toward meaningful, sustainable change

You’ll also learn how to flexibly adapt your interventions — meeting clients where they are while maintaining structure, momentum, and clinical clarity.

There 12 CE/CME credits available (see Learner Notification). Please see our FAQ to review complete CE/CME details, course objectives, speaker/planner conflict of interest disclosure and more.