Psych Continuing Ed Public Blog

“2.03 Maintaining Competence
Psychologists undertake ongoing efforts to develop and maintain their competence”

For some reason I thought the APA ethics Code was more “wordy” about CE credits. But what more do you have to say? Actually, it doesn’t make much sense to pay for CE credits if you don’t have to pay for CE credits. So all of you psychologists and other mental health professionals in states where you don’t have a required amount or type of continuing education to maintain your licensure, feel free to brag while reading courses for free on our site to “maintain competence” after we launch this fall (you’d only pay for the CE credits if you needed them). You of course would have to pay for a live workshop if you went to one or a book unless you got it from the library (I recommend inter-library loan if you’re not sure about the book, it still exists).

I own a lot of psychology related domain names and websites and so I end up getting e-mail from all over from time to time. The other day an associate producer from one of those true crime television shows on one of the discovery channels (Investigation Discovery) e-mailed me looking for leads on psychologists to interview for the show ‘Wicked Attraction’ (I own the domain name spreekilling.com if you’re curious about the connection). Anyway, Dr. Robert Hare came to my mind right away as someone who might be a good fit for their intended topic, but I wasn’t sure how he’d be in an interview- then I saw at J & K Seminars you could get CE credits for a lecture of his that had been taped: Without Conscience: Understanding and Assessing Psychopaths

It looks like they only have that one in CD or cassette tape format, but you can at least hear his voice as opposed to simply reading. The newer presentations from J & K are also available on DVD, so it would be like watching TV and then getting CE credits (of course its just a taped lecture, not Dancing with the Stars).

It looks like as of today they have 7 presentations available in DVD format. Among the DVD presenters are Russell Barkley, M.D. on ADHD;

Gerald Koocher, Ph.D. presenting an Ethics Update for Experienced Therapists,

John Preston, Psy.D. with a
Psychopharmacology Update For Experienced Therapists

and John Foxman, Ph.D. presenting
The Worried Child: Diagnosing and Treating Anxious Children

If you visit the site you can see all courses available in DVD video format by browsing home study course offerings and selecting “available in DVD video format.” I think the DVD option (and sites that are starting to incorporate other multimedia and even online video) give people with different learning styles more opportunities for home study courses and may increase the likelihood that people who don’t want to read a lot or listen to audio only will have more options in the future. While you probably won’t see psychology continuing education programs on the Discovery Channel any time soon, you never know- you may see them on Youtube or one of the CE providers offering multimedia and video presentations online or in DVD format. You can already see lectures from places like authors at google, etc., and many online CE companies have the text of their ce programs online for free without purchase- why not do it with videos on sites like youtube- put them up for free and then charge to process the CEs, hey there may already be videos there that could be worth a ce or two ;)  But for now, why not check out these DVDs if you’re looking for a different way to get your CEs, perhaps one that includes a bag of popcorn ;)