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ABCT 2024 Convention Call for Abstracts

Opening Our Doors

Inspiring Community Engagement, Advocacy, and Innovation to Advance CBT

Program Chair: Muniya Khanna, Ph.D.

Associate Program Chairs: Maria Alba, Psy.D., & Abby Bailin, Ph.D.

ABCT President: Sandra S. Pimentel,, Ph.D.

The 2024 Annual Convention theme will showcase the latest efforts in community engagement, advocacy, and innovation designed to advance CBT and prepare us to meet the demands of the future. Like our host city of Philadelphia, ABCT is steeped in a rich history. Our history is of advancing cognitive and behavioral science—it too a revolution of its time. We work to honor this history, acknowledging its difficult lessons, and striving to do better today and in the days ahead. We aim to open our doors for individuals (you!) to join us more readily, and so that we may step out into the communities we serve with science and humility. You are cordially invited to present, connect, reconnect, learn, relearn, contribute, inspire, challenge, eat, dance, and even run the iconic Rocky Steps! While all fabulous submissions will be considered, we are particularly excited by those featuring:

Community Engagement

We all are part of varied personal, professional, and intersecting communities. How does community involvement inform your CBT work? How are you bringing our best science, clinical care, and teaching into the community and how are community partnership efforts bettering our science, clinical care, and teaching? Tell us about:

  • Research incorporating community members as equal partners to facilitate sustainable change.
  • Clinician efforts to serve the needs of the communities in which you practice.
  • Interventions for advancing behavioral health, community resilience, and public health.

Advocacy

Mental health is a human right. We stand on the shoulders of so many who have advanced our science and our reach. Scientists. Practitioners. Educators. Advocates. Tell us about your advocacy work, specifically, efforts towards:

    • Utilizing and expanding CBT to advocate for individuals facing oppression, including methods that integrate social, political, and economic factors into CBT to pursue social justice.
    • Promoting equity and diversity in CBT practice and research, including ways to surmount barriers to treatment and educational access.
    • Addressing the unique experiences of our most vulnerable and historically marginalized.
    • Improving policies that promote mental health and dismantling those that harm it.

    Innovation

    As the philosopher and Yankee legend, Yogi Berra, said: “The future ain’t what it used to be.” With so many technological advances (e.g., Virtual/Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, digital platforms), we want to hear about how you are investigating these vast possibilities as well as the work of those taking a critical look at ethical, legal, and clinical considerations. As the next sentence written by ChatGPT notes: “AI has the potential to revolutionize mental health care by providing innovative tools and insights, but it must be implemented with care to prioritize patient privacy, human connection, and avoid exacerbating existing disparities in access and treatment.” Yes, that! We are especially interested in:

      • Scientific advances and innovative delivery models to increase scale and sustainability of CBT interventions, particularly in underresourced and historically excluded communities.
      • Strategies to promote population understanding and awareness of CBT to wider audiences.
      • Creative ways to teach and train future generations of scientist-practitioners.

      Speaking of future generations, students, and people doing cool things—this message is for YOU: We need your vitality and perspective. This conference—this organization—is for you! We are open to novel submission formats or events to enhance the experience of community at the conference. We would love suggestions for ways to give back to the Philadelphia community hosting us.

      We hope to see you in Philly. We hope to hear from you anytime. Our doors are open.

      —Sandy, Muniya, Abby, and Maria

      ○ Abstract submission opens: February 8, 2024
      ● Submission site closes: March 14, 2024

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      Manage your Membership information, email preferences, and more.

      Journals

      Membership in ABCT grants you access to three journals.

      Convention

      We are now accepting Abstract submissions for Continuing Education Ticketed Sessions at the 2024 ABCT Convention in Philadelphia, PA.

      My Account Info

      Manage your Membership information, email preferences, and more.

      Journals

      Membership in ABCT grants you access to three journals.

      Convention

      We are now accepting Abstract submissions for Continuing Education Ticketed Sessions at the 2024 ABCT Convention in Philadelphia, PA.