When you look for a therapist highly trained in CBT for Insomnia, do your research and ask many questions.  Questions such as:

• Where did you receive your training?  Was it a weekend CEU course? Keep looking.

• What is the first line recommended treatment for Insomnia?  If they don’t know it is CBT-i, they aren’t the therapist you are looking for.

• How many clients have you delivered this care to?  Hopefully, the answer to this will be “a lot,” and they can give you some idea of treatment outcomes.

• Do you treat clients who have co-occurring medical or mental health conditions?  The answer to this should be yes.  You need a therapist with training and experience to personalize the protocol so it is safe and effective for you. 

I love being asked questions about my training and experience.  It shows me that you care enough about yourself to ensure you get the care you need and deserve.  For too long, we have settled for limited or no access to behavioral sleep interventions like CBT for Insomnia.  Arkansas needs access to high-quality, gold-standard insomnia treatment, and I intend to make that a reality.

This assessment was published in 2016, and while the numbers have improved somewhat, we are still facing a dire shortage of CBT-I providers in the US and worldwide.  This is concerning, considering the World Health Organization has called our current situation “a global epidemic of sleeplessness.”