1 hour | 1 CE
This on-demand professional training program on Risk Formulation is presented by Kelly A. Watt, PhD, in partnership with Protect International Risk and Safety Services.
Risk formulation is a critical step for guiding decision-making when assessing and managing violence risk. If we do not understand why someone engaged in violence in the past, it is difficult, if not impossible, to prevent that individual from engaging in future violence. Although the formulation process is considered a core competence in the practice of mental health, including forensic mental health, there are few explicit clinical guidelines for this skill and very little research evaluating this skill.
This program provides an overview of various approaches to formulation, focusing on a strategy of formulation that was explicitly developed for understanding the perpetuation of past violence. It does so by providing a structure for evaluating motivators, disinhibitors, and destabilizers for past violence. This approach to formulation is informed by decision theory and is used routinely in the Structured Professional Judgment model of violence risk assessment.

Intended Audience
This on-demand professional training program is intended for mental health and other allied professionals

Experience Level
This on-demand professional training program is appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level clinicians.

CE / CPD Credit
APA, ASWB, CPA, NBCC Click here for state and other regional board approvals.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this program you will be able to:
Describe one of the core steps in Structured Professional Judgment
Describe the nature and implications of formulation
Describe formulation for understanding perpetration of past violence
Describe motivators, disinhibitors, and destabilizers for past violence

Develop a Specialty Area of Practice
Transforming mental health professionals into experts
Expert Instructors
Professional training developed and delivered by the field's leading experts
CE Credit
Earn CE credit for meaningful professional training that will elevate your practice
Convenience & Flexibility
Learn at your own pace, from wherever you might be!
Program Partner
Protect International Risk and Safety Services
We are proud to partner with Protect International Risk and Safety Services for this training. Protect International's threat assessment professionals are internationally recognized experts that have developed some of the world's most widely used and best-validated threat assessment tools. Protect International provides services and products related to violence risk assessment and management, also known as threat assessment and management. Protect International services and products include threat assessment training and support, case assessment and management, legal consultation, policy review and development, and program evaluation and research; along with threat assessment manuals, worksheets, licenses, and software applications for those tools.

CE Sponsorship Information
Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT), SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0356 and the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0073. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6811. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CONCEPT Professional Training, #1480, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. CONCEPT Professional Training maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 11/22/23-11/22/26. Social workers completing this course receive (clinical or social work ethics) continuing education credits.