From the President’s Desk – April 2024

I recently returned from India after presenting at the 2024 Asian CBT Association conference (ACBTA) in New Delhi, India and want to thank Dr. Nimisha Kumar, the organizing and scientific committees, and the Indian Association of CBT (IACBT) board for organizing such a successful conference. It was inspiring to meet professionals and students from India, Asia, and the world. The future of mental health and CBT in India and Asia has never been stronger! I want to thank Dr. Firdaus Mukhtar, outgoing president of the ACBTA for her immense contributions to the WCCBT board. It has been my privilege to serve on the board with her. I also offer my congratulations and look forward to working with Dr. Nimisha Kumar, the incoming president of ACBTA and the president of IACBT, and with Dr. Daisuke Fujisawa, the president of the Japanese Association of Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, who replaces Dr. Mukhtar as the ACBTA representative on the WCCBT board.

Broadly, the mission of the WCCBT is to promote and advocate for global mental health and to facilitate the development and dissemination of evidence-based science and practice through the formation, collaborations, and partnerships with organizations. The key priorities over the next three years of my presidency are to support the dissemination of CBT in underserved regions of the world such as Africa, to disseminate our training guidelines globally, and to partner with the World Health Organization (W.H.O) and with governments across the world to disseminate competently delivered CBT. Towards these goals, I am delighted to let you know that the WCCBT signed a historic agreement with the World Health Organization (W.H.O) in October 2023 to promote and advocate for global mental health, CBT, and evidence-based treatments. This agreement enables the WCCBT and the W.H.O to collaborate on common initiatives to increase CBT competency and to disseminate CBT across the globe.

On December 20th, the WCCBT launched a free webinar presented by Dr. James Underhill, Project Coordinator of the EQUIP program at the Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization (W.H.O). Dr. Underhill presented on the W.H.O.’s work on evidence-based psychological interventions and on the EQUIP Program and its use in various contexts and sectors, including in preservice education settings. The Ensuring Quality in Psychological Support (EQUIP) program is part of a joint WHO/UNICEF project to standardize competency of both specialists and non-specialist in their provision of mental health services and contains a suite of easy-to-use competency assessment tools in standardized role plays and a digital platform for providing real-time visualizations and feedback to improve training and supervision. Please check our website at www.wccbt.org to view the webinar and to learn about the critical work being done by the W.H.O. to improve mental health across the globe.

I want to close by congratulating the 2023 WCCBT Global CBT Ambassadors – Dr.? (AACBT), Dr. Robert Leahy (ABCT), Dr. Firdaus Mukhtar (ACBTA), Dr. Laura Hernández (ALAMOC), and Dr.? (EABCT) for contributing to our mission to disseminate CBT across the world. I also want to thank our board and our membership organizations (AACBT, AnzaCBT, ACBTA, ABCT, CACBT, ALAMOC, EABCT, and IACBT) for their contributions to the WCCBT and its aims. I look forward to celebrating World CBT Day on April 7th, 2024, with all of you.

Warm regards,

Lata K. McGinn, PhD
President, World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (WCCBT)
www.wccbt.org