Description
Interpersonal Counseling 3-Session (IPC-3) is an empirically informed treatment that follows a structured and time-limited approach. In order to bridge the treatment gap of forced migrants who need help and those who receive it, IPC-3 offers a novel short‐term psychosocial intervention by clinicians or clinically supervised peer providers to familiarize clients with mental health resources, identify key problem areas, and encourage future connection to mental health services, where appropriate. Utilizing this brief consultation as the first point of introduction to treatment, IPC-3 may increase short-term engagement with mental health treatment for those who need it as well as longer-term engagement via community reintegration. IPC-3 may be uniquely suited to feasibly and substantially address the barriers forced migrants face – promoting engagement in support and addressing interpersonal stressors, including life transitions. This webinar will expose attendees to the foundational model of IPC-3, cover the development and adaptation of IPC-3, discuss the clinical research and evidence base for the protocol, as well as illustrate the strategies and techniques in IPC-3.
Note: The term forced migrants is used here as it includes asylum seekers, asylees and refugees over 44% of whom have experienced primary or secondary torture in their country of origin.
Learning Objectives
After attending this webinar, participants will:
- Attain a basic understanding of the principles of the Interpersonal Counseling 3-Session protocol (IPC-3).
- Be able to identify how IPC-3 can be used for assessment, triage, and engagement, and consider potential use within the work of serving SOT clients.
- Be able to recognize ways in which IPC-3 has been and can be adapted for different cultural and humanitarian contexts.
Target Audience
Staff of torture rehabilitation programs that are funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and/or are members of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs as well as others who provide services to survivors of torture. This session is designed for providers working with survivors of torture and forced migration populations.
Presenters
Lena (Helen) Verdeli
Dr. Lena Verdeli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of Clinical Training at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received federal and foundation funding to study psychotherapy for prevention and treatment of mood disorders. In the past fifteen years Lena Verdeli has played a key role in landmark studies involving adaptation, training, and testing of psychotherapy packages used by non-specialists (primary care staff, community health workers, etc.) with depressed adults in southern Uganda; war-affected adolescents in IDP camps in northern Uganda and depressed IDP women in Colombia; distressed patients in primary care in Goa, India; depressed community members in Haiti; and war-affected Syrian refugees in Lebanon, among others. She is a member of the Mental Health Advisory Committee for the Millennium Villages Project of the Earth Institute, a Scientific Advisory Council member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Scientific Advisory Board of Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. She received the American Psychological Association International Psychology Division Mentoring Award and chaired the research workgroup of the Family NGO at the UN. She is currently a technical advisor for the WHO on global dissemination of psychosocial treatments.
Bryan Cheng
Dr. Bryan Cheng is the Director of Research of the Global Mental Health Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. He completed his doctoral internship at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and West Hospitals where he focused on the care of individuals suffering from psychotic and personality disorders, and continues to stay on faculty where he supervises psychiatry residents and psychology interns. Dr. Cheng provides oversight on various projects in the lab as a co-investigator and methodologist. His previous research includes an assessment of the needs of Syrian refugees in Jordan and validation of mental healthcare instruments for that population, as well as utilization of new statistical methodology to investigate trends and trajectories in mental health outcomes in large clinical epidemiological data. He is also an IPT supervisor and trainer, and specializes in other modalities and forms of therapies including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). He also teaches two classes in the Master’s program – Introduction to Clinical Interviewing, and Introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. His research interests continue to include the role of rumination in depression, the economics of mental health interventions in health systems, and the development and cultural validation of mental health measures in minority and underserved populations.
Jose Ponce
Jose C. Ponce de León has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in Community Mental Health. Currently, he is in charge of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Specialist at HIAS Peru and was the local coordinator of IPC-3 Project in Peru. His interests in research are mental health, migration, disability, and gender-based violence.
Attachments
- IPC-3 for Assessment Triage and Engagement PowerPoint (One Slide Per Page)
- IPC-3 for Assessment Triage and Engagement PowerPoint (Three Slides Per Page)
Resources
- Group Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) for Depression. (2020, January). WHO.
- Interpersonal Counseling (IPC) for Primary Care, WHO MENA Region
- Weissman M, Verdeli H. Interpersonal psychotherapy: evaluation, support, triage. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2012 Mar-Apr;19(2):106-12. doi: 10.1002/cpp.1775. Epub 2012 Feb 22. PMID: 22359316; PMCID: PMC3433760.
- Case study in Colombia on internally displaced woman: “You Pulled me from a Dark Well”
Ceballos, A. M., Andrade, A. C., Markowitz, T., & Verdeli, H. (2016). “you pulled me out of a dark well”: A case study of a colombian displaced woman empowered through Interpersonal Counseling (IPC). Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72(8), 839–846. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22365 - IPC in General Practice: Judd, F., Weissman, M., Davis, J., Hodgins, G., & Piterman, L. (2004). Interpersonal counselling in general practice. Australian Family Physician, 33(4), 332–337.
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Pilot Study in Columbia: Shultz, J. M., Verdeli, H., Gómez Ceballos, Hernandez, L. J., Espinel, Z., Helpman, L., Neria, Y., & Araya, R. (2019). A pilot study of a stepped-care brief intervention to help psychologically-distressed women displaced by conflict in Bogotá, Colombia. Global Mental Health, 6. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2019.26.
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When it was called IPT-EST: Weissman, M., & Verdeli, H. (2012). Interpersonal psychotherapy: Evaluation, support, triage. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 19(2), 106–112. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1775