To first enter or subsequently maintain a competent practice in mental health or human services, practitioners require ongoing professional education, as well as opportunities for supervised practice. The Faculty of Continuing Education at ADLER provides both.

ADLER’s Faculty of Continuing Education offers certificate programs that incorporate a case-based learning approach, encompassing theoretical discussion supported by real-life cases, scenarios, and role-playing. This approach provides participants experience with actual day-to-day challenges.

Many ADLER Continuing Education courses qualify for programs like the educational subsidy for social workers, or as continuing education credit hours for the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Contact your organization to determine eligibility of a particular course.

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY

This certificate programs offer a unique learning experience that emphasizes comprehensive understanding of the theoretical models of CBT, applied to specific clinical and demographic populations, with a solid grounding in real hands-on experience for each course. Each course is taught by clinical and academic experts in their fields to ensure that challenging questions and issues pertaining to each course can be competently addressed. The broad spectrum of our CBT certificate programs prepares clinicians to begin the process of implementing and practicing cognitive behavioural therapy, currently the number one evidence-based intervention applied to the largest number of settings, providing mental health services to children and adults who suffer from diagnosed disorders. 

ADLER offers three face to face certificates in CBT:

• CBT-100 Fundamentals of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (36 hours - 3 modules)  
• CBT-200 Adapted CBT Techniques for Diagnostic Populations (36 hours - 3 modules)
• CBT-300 Advanced CBT Skills and Specialty Settings (36 hours - 3 modules)

Cost: $895 (HST included)
Each Certificate program is divided into 3 modules, each module can also be taken at any time to work towards completion of the entire certificate at $325 (HST included) per module.  Register for the entire certificate program (all 3 modules) to save $80.
As of January 25, 2016 - ADLER's CBT certificates are approved for CE credits by CCPA.

Online CBT

As of mid-September, 2018, ADLER will be offering an online CBT Certificate program.  This is a stand alone program for those that are not able to attend our CBT certificate in person in Toronto.

• Beginning Practice: Cognitive Behavioural Foundations - Cost: $695+HST
  • Prerequisite: None
• Intermediate Practice: CBT Applications 
• A) CBT with Mental Health & Addiction - Cost: $695+HST
  • Prerequisite: Level 1
• B) CBT Advanced Skills with Complex Mental Health - Cost: $695+HST
  • Prerequisite: Level 1 & Level 2A (or equivalents)
• C) CBT with Families: Couples, Kids & Youth - Cost: $695+HST
  • Prerequisite: Level 1
• Advanced Practice: CBT Supervisor Training - Cost: $750+HST
  • Prerequisite: Level 1, 2 (A, B, or C), + 2000 hours of practice experience

MENTAL HEALTH & ADDICTIONS

Overview: The purpose of ADLER's certificate programs in Mental Health and Addictions (MHA) is to provide practitioners, both beginning and experienced, with a range of integrated learning opportunities reflective of the current state of knowledge and practice in the field of mental health & addictions on which they can build and renew their skills. 

ADLER offers three certificates in Mental Health & Addictions:

• MHA-100 Fundamentals of Mental Health & Addictions (36 hours - 3 modules)
• MHA-200 Essential Skills for Mental Health and Addictions Practice (36 hours - 3 modules)
• MHA-300 Integrated Skills for Mental Health & Addictions Practice (36 hours - 3 modules)

Cost: $895 (HST included)
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOUR THERAPYStudents in the process of completing the previous Mental Health & Addictions program, or the previous Adult Mental Health and Child, Youth & Family Mental Health programs may transfer into this program. Please contact our registrar at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details.

Overview:  Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is an intensive out-patient therapy developed by Marsha Linehan to treat chronically suicidal clients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. DBT has also been adapted to treat clients with addictions, eating disorders and other complex problems.  

Working with clients who experience these difficulties is extremely challenging for mental health and direct service professionals. DBT has proven to be effective in reducing suicidal, self-harm and other impulsive behaviours and to increase client engagement in therapy. DBT blends Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with acceptance-based strategies stemming from Zen philosophy. A primary therapeutic task is to balance acceptance of the client with a focus on change. The structure of DBT includes four components: skills group, individual treatment, DBT phone coaching, and consultation team. During this training, participants will learn the theoretical underpinnings of DBT, the group and individual components and DBT skills from each of the four modules. 

This DBT-Informed Practice Certificate Program will include two days of theoretical foundations focusing on individual treatment, followed by two, two-day classes of applied learning using a standardized actor. To round out the program provided in the fall, there are two additional, two-day practice-based classes planned for the early winter term, to provide participants with the knowledge and skills required to run DBT-informed groups, a modality of intervention increasingly being used by mental health agencies for its effectiveness in supporting clients with multiple, complex mental health issues.   

This program has to be completed in the sequence in which it is being offered. In providing this program, the ADLER faculty is intent on conveying to participants interested in integrating DBT techniques into their practices that this program does not provide certification to become DBT therapists. The “Certification of Individual Therapists” is the only treatment-developer-approved certification program in DBT® in the US and Canada; it is provided exclusively by the DBT®-Linehan Board of Certification (DBT-LBC). The entire process for certification can be found at http://www.dbt-lbc.org. 

Completion of the ADLER DBT-Informed Practice Certificate Program provides the beginning steps toward certification and an opportunity to join existing DBT-Informed supervised practices in Ontario to continue learning and gaining experience in this technique.

• DBT-100 Certificate in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (36 hours - 3 modules)  

Cost: $895 (HST included)

All 3 modules of the DBT Certificate Program must be taken in order.

MINDFUL TRAINING FOR EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE (MTER)

Research on Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBI’s) are showing very positive outcomes for moderate mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.   The traditional 8 week MBCT and MBSR programs offered through hospital and community based health care settings can be very difficult to access for people who are suffering from more acute mental health problems or experiencing instability in their lives. Mindfulness Training for Emotional Resilience (MTER) is a brief 4 week program developed at St. Michael’s Hospital to teach introductory mindfulness and emotion regulation skills to people struggling with mental health challenges with an emphasis on psycho-education and shorter meditation practices.  This group has helped patients learn mindfulness skills to use in their daily life and also prepare them to participate in longer, more intensive 8-10 week groups, if they so choose. Concepts from sensorimotor psychotherapy such as the window of tolerance and basics of neuroscience are taught within the program to help patients understand the importance of modulating arousal in order to stay well.

This 2-day training will emphasize experiential learning by leading participants through the 4 week MTER curriculum followed by group discussion on the experience.  There will be time for in-session practice teaching of exercises and guided meditations.

GOALS: This training initiative will introduce clinicians to mindfulness practices through experiential learning.  Participants will have the skills to use the MTER curriculum to support clients in their setting.  This training will provide an opportunity for clinicians to deepen their own mindfulness practice which will serve as a foundation for providing mindfulness based interventions with clients.

• 2-day course in Mindfulness Training for Emotional Resilience (15 hours)

Cost: $299 (+HST)