CBT for Reducing Suicide Risk

• Estimated Course Length:  3 hrs. and 30 mins.
• CE Credits: 3.50 continuing education/contact hours for social workers, psychologists, physicians and nurses / 2.75 continuing education hours for counselors and marriage and family therapists
• Course Includes: 3 modules consisting of a mixed media approach with roleplays, video interviews with subject matter experts, animation explainer videos, knowledge games and more 
• Refresher Videos: 2 provider videos to highlight key concepts
• Supplementary PDFs: 5 downloadable PDFs expanding on relevant course topics
• Target Audience: Mental Health Practitioners (licensed professional counselors, licensed clinical social workers, licensed psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, behavioral health nurses); Physicians; Nurses
• Level of Instruction: Advanced
• Prerequisite: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Foundations: A Skills-Based Approach
• Instructional Method: Self-paced, interactive, hybrid of audio, text, video, and learning checks 
• Accessibility Accommodations: Closed captioning of all audio and video components. In order to request further accessibility accommodations, please email support@psychhub.com.
• Completion Requirements: To obtain your CE certificate, you must progress through all course segments, complete a participant evaluation, and obtain a score of 80% or higher on a post test quiz. Learners are expected to complete the quiz within 3 attempts. If unable to do so, the learner will need to re-review the course segments.
• Financial/Commercial Support Statement: This course has no commercial support.
• Conflict of Interest: This course has no potential conflict of interest or outside commercial support. Psych Hub's conflict of interest statement is found in the footer of the training center.
• Grievance and Refund Policies: Grievance and refund policies are found in the footer of the training center.
• Participation Costs: The cost to participate in this CE activity is included in the subscription registration fee.
• Course Creation Date: 5/14/2020; updated 4/9/2026

*Disclaimer: This course is intended for providers who are licensed or pursuing licensure, as listed above in the target audiences. The education provided in this course is one step toward competency in using the clinical intervention(s) described, but it should be combined with additional supervision, consultation, and/or training. Completion of this course does not give you permission to consider the specific populations, treatment approaches, or clinical concerns as within the scope of your practice capabilities. It is recommended that you consult the appropriate jurisdictions, licensing bodies, and professional code of ethics relevant to your specific licensure type to determine further action needed prior to implementing any of these clinical interventions or treating any of the clinical concerns or presenting issues depicted in the course.

Course Objectives

What the learner should be able to describe and employ upon course completion:

1. Explain the following elements of the first phase of treatment for reducing suicide risk: obtaining client engagement, screening and assessing risk, uncovering the suicide story, developing a Hope Kit, treatment planning, and identifying treatment goals. 

2. Demonstrate competency in utilizing the following middle-phase interventions, with competencies in behavioral, cognitive, and emotion-focused interventions.

3. Summarize a plan for terminating treatment, including the five steps of the relapse prevention task, skill reinforcement, treatment reflection, and booster sessions.

Module 1: First Phase of Treatment

Client engagement, screening and assessing for risk, suicide story, safety planning, psychoeducation, case conceptualization, general knowledge related to treating clients at risk of suicide, and evidence for cognitive behavioral therapy for reducing suicide risk.

Module 2: Middle Phase of Treatment

Behavioral interventions, cognitive interventions, emotion-focused interventions, and challenges of working with clients at risk of suicide.

Module 3: Final Phase of Treatment

Relapse prevention, final tasks, continuation phase, and preventing and addressing secondary trauma related to working with clients at risk of suicide.