For Therapists

•Training
•Supervision, Workshops, and Courses
•Online Course for Mental Health Professionals
•Seminars for College and University Counseling

Training
Dr. Benson conducts a 12 session telephone training in the Stopping Overshopping method. The first training took place between January and May, 2007.

The next 12 session telephone training will begin in late September, 2008, for therapists who want to learn to work with compulsive buyers, using the method that the individual and group programs are based on.

During the training, two or three compulsive buyers are followed through the entire 12 session coaching program and there are supplementary readings provided and discussed. To learn more about the program, click here.

Supervision, Workshops, and Courses
The prevalence of compulsive buying is increasing and clinicians are seeing more and more people with buying problems. Dr. Benson is available for in-person or telephone supervision with therapists who want help with current clients or want to begin working with compulsive buyers. She is also available to teach therapists about the treatment of compulsive buying and will tailor course material to suit the individual needs of the interested organization or group.

To learn more about the variety of treatment methods currently being used with this population, click here.

Online Course for Mental Health Professionals

Dr. Benson teaches an on-line course for mental health professionals, I Shop, Therefore I Am: Understanding and Treating Compulsive Buying, through PsyBC.com. Continuing education credits are available. The course begins with an exploration of the sociocultural context of "affluenza" or "luxury fever" or "aspendicitis," a few of the tongue-in-cheek coinages for our modern-day plagues of materialism and consumption in the global buyosphere. We look at the poverty of affluence, the paradox of progress, the paradox of choice, and the predominantly inverse relationship between a materialistic value orientation and subjective well being. Next, we look at how compulsive buying is an attempt to solve intrapsychic, interpersopnal and existential dilemmas.Then we turn our attention to the etiology, assessment, diagnosis, comorbidity, forms, function, and psychodynamics of compulsive buying. Finally, we look in depth at the important clinical issues raised by this population, at the various forms of effective treatment, and at important treatment adjuncts that can magnify the gains of counseling or therapy. Clinical examples and specific tools and strategies for helping to eliminate problem buying behavior will be provided throughout. There will be an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with Dr. Benson at any time during the course. For registration information, click here.

Seminars for College and University Counseling Centers

Compulsive buying is a serious problem among college aged students, where it is almost twice as prevalent as in older adults. Indeed, the aggressive marketing of credit cards to college students is now considered a bigger problem on campuses than alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases. Debt has been linked to suicide in a number of recent cases. Dr. Benson has spoken to mental health clinicians at the Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College about compulsive buying in college students and would be happy to speak to the mental health staffs at other college and university counseling centers.