.JPEG)
Learn IPT from a clinician who delivered it to fidelity NIMH-funded trial
Trained in Perinatal IPT by Nancy Grote, PhD, Dr. Laurel served as a trial therapist studying IPT’s intergenerational benefits for depressed pregnant clients. You’re learning the model as it was actually practiced, adapted for the realities of perinatal care.
Built around the session, not just the theory
Move from an initial engagement session, to treatment planning, and then focusing on four problem areas of IPT, with demonstrations and practice scripts that show you exactly what to say and do in the room.
Skills you can use with your next client
Walk away with a clear framework for formulating the interpersonal problem area, setting time-limited goals, and addressing role transitions, conflict, and grief that come with pregnancy and new parenthood. It’s designed to fit right into your existing perinatal caseload.
About the course
Perinatal Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is one of two interventions the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends for preventing perinatal depression. Yet few therapists receive structured training in how to deliver it. This on-demand course closes that gap. It gives mental health professionals a clear, session-by-session framework for using IPT with pregnant and postpartum clients, at their own pace. Across the equivalent of 12 hours of instruction, you’ll learn the core principles of IPT and how it addresses depression, anxiety, and interpersonal distress. You’ll also learn the adaptations that make it effective in the perinatal period: working with role transitions, role disputes, grief and loss, and complicated pregnancies. The course walks through each phase of treatment, from the engagement session and interpersonal inventory to formulation, active treatment, and conclusion and maintenance. Fidelity check sheets help you deliver IPT as it was designed. What You’ll Learn Core principles of IPT and the research supporting it How to identify clients for whom IPT is a good fit How to conduct an engagement session and an interpersonal inventory How to build an interpersonal formulation and summary The biopsychosocial/cultural/spiritual model and the four attachment styles used in IPT Strategies for each IPT problem area, including grief and loss and complicated pregnancy Clinical techniques such as communication analysis, role play, and transition timelines Considerations for involving partners and families Termination, relapse prevention, and maintenance treatment
About your Trainer
Laurel Hicks, PhD, LCSW, PMH-C brings nearly two decades of specialized experience in perinatal mental health to her teaching. Her path into this work began in 2007 as a prenatal yoga and meditation teacher, then deepened as she trained as a labor doula — an experience that led her to pursue a Master of Social Work, which she earned in 2012. She has practiced clinically ever since, with a career-long focus on the mental health of pregnant and postpartum individuals. Laurel went on to complete a dual-titled PhD in Social Work and Infant Mental Health in 2017, with research centered on the risk and resiliency factors shaping mental health outcomes for perinatal parents exposed to contextual risk. During her doctoral training, she completed a clinical internship at the University of Michigan’s OB/Peds clinic under the mentorship of Maria Muzik, MD, and later a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Denver with Elysia Poggi Davis, PhD. Her postdoctoral work placed her at the center of a major NIMH-funded clinical trial investigating the intergenerational benefits of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for depressed pregnant individuals. As part of this fellowship, she trained directly under Nancy Grote, PhD — a pioneering researcher and trainer in perinatal IPT — and went on to serve as a clinical therapist delivering IPT to pregnant participants in the trial. Additionally, she has taught perinatal IPT in the PsyD program at University of Denver. Laurel remains an active contributor to the perinatal mental health field, with an ongoing record of peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and presentations at national and international conferences.
Are you ready?
It's easy to enroll and you will have access right away!