Why You’ll Love this Course:
You only see your clients one hour per week, on average. How can you improve clients’ progress beyond that? The science is clear: a healthy lifestyle is crucial to mental health. This course breaks down the powerful research on Sleep, Exercise, Nutrition, Stress Management, and Emotional Connection, and offers five easy applications for each domain to arm you with a simple and effective clinical approach for supporting your clients’ growth. Consider this course a cheat sheet on everything lifestyle and mental health.
Course Description:
This course provides a condensed, curated overview of the primary lifestyle factors (Sleep, Exercise, Nutrition, Stress Management, and Emotional Connection) that influence brain and mood functioning. It focuses on key biological and psychological concepts for each domain, highlighting information that is notably relevant to clinical practice but often missed in education. Finally, this course bridges the gap between theory and practice by offering five simple and effective interventions for each lifestyle factor, in order to teach and cultivate “Common S.E.N.S.E.” in nearly any patient.
Who is this for:
Clinicians who are interested in enhancing clinical outcomes by understanding how lifestyle factors contribute to mental health conditions.
Instructional Level:
Beginner to Intermediate
Recommended Course Prerequisites:
None
Included:
Handout:
Common S.E.N.S.E. Resources for You and Your Patients
Skills demonstration
Educational Objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
Identify five lifestyle domains that significantly impact psychological functioning.
List five lifestyle interventions that support brain and mood functioning.
Describe three ways to incorporate the science of lifestyle factors into your clinical practice.
Summarize the research demonstrating how loneliness is a risk factor for poor physiological health.
Common Clinical FAQs Answered:
What does Common S.E.N.S.E stand for and how is it beneficial clinically?
How strong is the evidence base for lifestyle interventions like sleep, nutrition, and exercise in mental health treatment?
How do I integrate lifestyle interventions without drifting outside my scope of practice?
What if patients are resistant or overwhelmed by behavior change recommendations?
How do I avoid sounding prescriptive or invalidating when discussing lifestyle factors?
How do these approaches fit within CBT, ACT, or psychodynamic therapy frameworks?
Katie Arfa, Psy.D.
Health Psychologist
Co-founder
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Katie Arfa, PsyD. is a co-founder and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MindScience Collective. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in California (PSY31016), who specializes in using integrative, evidence-based treatments for health conditions. She is sought after for her particular expertise in the emerging fields of nutritional psychiatry, gut-brain interaction, pain psychology, and lifestyle medicine.
In her private practice, Dr. Arfa focuses on using ACT, CBT, and nervous system approaches to treat families and adults dealing with medical conditions, complex illnesses, or treatment-resistant cases. She provides supervision and consultation to trainees and professionals on the intersection of medical and psychological diagnoses, especially differential diagnosis of complex cases.
Dr. Arfa is the creator of ACT for GI, a group treatment protocol for GI conditions; a psychology education program for fitness professionals; and a postdoctoral training program in integrative health psychology. She completed a fellowship in integrative psychiatry and has a background as a certified personal trainer through National Strength and Conditioning Association. She has also served as adjunct professor at Antioch University.
Patients are referred to Dr. Arfa by some of the most notable healthcare systems in the country, including UCLA Health, Cleveland Clinic, and the Mayo Clinic.
Disclosure:
Dr. Arfa is a co-founder of MindScience Collective and will receive financial benefit from all course sales. She is also the instructor of “Exercise as a Treatment for Mental Health,” and “Intro to Gut-Brain Psychology: Science and Practice that Applies to Every Patient,” which are offered on this platform.