We are grateful to the worthy Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Bushra Mirza for providing us with the opportunity to benefit from the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) workshop titled “Role of Cognitive Behavioural Interventions in Improving Psychological Impact of Parents of Children affected with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders” at Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), Lahore. On Thursday March 6, 2020, Professor Dr. Talat Sohail, Chairperson, Department of Applied Psychology organised this CBT workshop for MS Health Psychology students. This event was hosted by Dr. Saima Eman, Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology, LCWU with Ms. Maryam Hassan, Lecturer in Psychology, LCWU. 
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Irfan, Head of Department of Psychiatry, Peshawar Medical College conducted the CBT workshop with Dr. Madeeha Latif, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS).
We had clinical psychologists and psychiatrists from Lahore and Karachi. Ms. Mirrat Gul, Mirrat Gul Clinical Psychologist Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, Dr. Imran Ijaz Haider, Head of Department of Psychiatry, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Ms. Maria Bukhari, Clinical Psychologist and CBT practitioner, Psychres, Karachi, Ms. Falahat Maqbool, neuropsychologist, (DUHS), Karachi, Dr. Kiran Ishfaq, senior clinical psychologist at Psychiatry ward, Jinnah hospital, Lahore and Dr. Imran Shareef, Senior Registrar, Department of Psychiatry, Mayo hospital, Lahore were the attendees.
The workshop participants introduced themselves and described their own and others experiences about behaviour problems in children and problems with parenting. After a brainstorming session on problematic behaviours, there was a PowerPoint presentation on CBT. The participants were given a sheet of emoticons and they were asked to label the emotions shown in the emoticons. Later on those emotions were discussed.
During tea break the participants were given certain guidelines to work on a certain hypothetical case. All participants performed a role-play in pairs of therapist and the client on stage to present their work on their hypothetical case. They showed how they would deal with the client using CBT. The downward arrow technique was explained which demonstrated a pathway to the cause of irrational beliefs of the client. The example of Socratic dialogue was also mentioned. Take home messages were discussed at the end.
The participants were provided the email address and the website name through which they could obtain the details of membership of Pakistan Association of Cognitive Therapists (PACT). Dr. Saima Eman was asked about the patient populations with whom CBT could be used. The answer was very enlightening about CBT use. CBT could be used with uneducated populations. CBT could be culturally adapted and the instructions could be followed with the help of somebody at the home. . CBT could be used with audio recordings as well. CBT could be used with persons with mild dementia and individuals whose cognitive ability was intact. Dr. Imran Ijaz asked about insight-oriented therapy. The presenters said that nowadays pure CBT is used. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Irfan was provided with a shield by Prof. Dr. Talat Sohail. The guests were served with the lunch at the end of the workshops and the participants were given certificates.