Psychopharmacology: Essential Information for Mental Health Professionals – Free Training with Kenneth Carter
When a therapy client is taking psychiatric medication, even a routine conversation can raise important questions. You may need to understand what the medication is intended to do, notice possible adverse effects, coordinate with a prescriber, and stay within your professional role.
Those responsibilities can be difficult to manage when earlier training only covered the basics. This one-day program offers a structured review of common psychiatric medications, nervous-system fundamentals, medication effects, and the ethical issues that can arise in co-treatment.
Kenneth Carter, PhD, ABPP, presents the material for non-prescribing mental health professionals through practical clinical examples. The focus is on clearer communication, responsible collaboration, informed referrals, and better-organized questions for clients and co-providers.
This is general professional education rather than individualized medical, legal, or clinical advice. You can use the training to strengthen your working knowledge while continuing to rely on qualified prescribers and applicable professional standards for client-specific decisions.
Why Attend “Psychopharmacology: Essential Information for Mental Health Professionals”
Clients often bring medication questions into therapy even when their therapist is not the prescriber. Without a reliable framework, it can be difficult to discuss expected effects, recognize concerns that warrant referral, and communicate clearly with other members of the treatment team.
This matters because medication use can influence symptoms, functioning, treatment planning, and the client’s experience of care. The training reviews common medication categories alongside ethics, scope of practice, nervous-system basics, and examples of the clinical situations non-prescribing professionals regularly encounter.
By organizing the information into practical sections, the event may help you ask better questions, document concerns more clearly, and collaborate more effectively without stepping beyond your role. It does not replace consultation with a prescriber or guarantee a particular clinical outcome.
Who Should Attend
This training is intended for mental health professionals who work with clients using psychiatric medication and want a stronger general framework for medication-related conversations. It may be especially useful for clinicians who did not receive extensive psychopharmacology education during graduate training or clinical placement.
The program is not a prescribing course and will not be relevant to every professional need. It is best suited to people who want practical education about common medications, collaboration, referral decisions, ethics, and scope of practice.
- Counselors supporting clients who take psychiatric medication
- Social workers coordinating care with medical providers
- Psychologists seeking a practical psychopharmacology review
- Marriage and family therapists working in multidisciplinary care
- Non-prescribing clinicians answering common client questions
- Therapists navigating differences of opinion with prescribers
- Supervisors discussing medication-related scope and ethics
- Mental health professionals making referrals for medication consultation
What You’ll Learn
During the training, you’ll review how the nervous system is organized and how medications interact with it, creating a foundation for understanding the medication categories discussed later in the day.
You’ll then examine commonly used medications for depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, ADHD, psychosis, and insomnia, with attention to mechanisms of action, potential benefits, adverse reactions, and clinical examples.
Along the way, the program connects medication knowledge with real practice responsibilities, including ethics guidelines, client questions, referrals, collaboration with prescribers, and the limitations and potential risks in the research.
- How psychiatric medications interact with the nervous system
- Common questions clients ask about their medications
- Ways to stay within scope when discussing medication
- Approaches to collaborating with prescribers and co-providers
- Mechanisms of action for commonly prescribed medication categories
- Potential benefits, adverse effects, and drug reactions to recognize
- Key considerations for depression and anxiety medications
- Medication approaches used for bipolar disorder and ADHD
- Foundational information about antipsychotic and insomnia medications
- Research limitations and potential risks relevant to clinical conversations
Event Schedule
The live workshop is scheduled for Friday, August 28, 2026 — 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Central, with Kenneth Carter, PhD, ABPP. That is 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM Pacific Time.
Lunch will be from 11:50 AM to 1:00 PM Central, and the program includes two 15-minute breaks. Individual session times were not published in the supplied schedule.
The workshop topics are listed below in the published order.
Friday, August 28, 2026
- MEDS 101Case study; reasons to be knowledgeable about psychiatric medications; lessons from other disciplines; pharmacy; nursing; ethics guidelines; the common questions clients have about their medications; handling differences of opinion between non-prescribers and prescribers
- GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEMOrganization of the nervous system; structure of the neuron; communication between neurons; and how medicines interact with the nervous system
- DEPRESSION MEDICATIONSNeurobiology; SSRIs and SNRIs; mechanism of action; benefits and adverse reactions; medications in these categories; case study
- ANXIETY DISORDER MEDICATIONSDSM-5-TR® anxiety categories; deconstructionist approach taken by prescribers; neurobiology; SSRIs and Benzodiazepines; mechanism of action; benefits and adverse reactions; medications in these categories; case study
- BIPOLAR MEDICATIONSMonotherapy; lithium, anticonvulsants, and 2nd generation antipsychotics; mechanism of action; benefits and adverse reactions; medications in these categories; case study
- ADHD MEDICATIONSNeurobiology; methylphenidate and amphetamine; mechanism of action; delivery systems; benefits and adverse reactions; medications in these categories; case study
- ANTIPSYCHOTIC MEDICATIONSPsychosis symptoms; neurobiology; 1st and 2nd generation antipsychotics; mechanism of action; benefits and adverse reactions; medications in these categories; case study
- INSOMNIA MEDICATIONSCauses and treatments for insomnia; medications for insomnia; half-life; benefits and adverse reactions; case study
- LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH & POTENTIAL RISKSLimitations of the research and potential risks
About Kenneth Carter, PhD, ABPP
Kenneth Carter, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Oxford College of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. His background combines clinical work, research, teaching, and specialty training in clinical psychopharmacology.
Dr. Carter earned his MA and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan and completed a postdoctoral master’s degree in clinical psychopharmacology. He has taught clinical psychopharmacology classes at Emory University since 2005.
He has presented psychopharmacology workshops to clinicians throughout the United States since 2010. His prior work also includes service as a senior assistant research scientist in the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Across more than 20 years as a psychotherapist and researcher, Dr. Carter has written books and articles on introductory psychology, neuropsychology, and psychopharmacology. For this PESI training, he focuses on making complex medication information more accessible to non-prescribing mental health professionals.
Free Gifts for Attendees
Complete Course Materials
- The complete set of materials for the training
- Materials prepared for the one-day training
- Content aligned with the published workshop outline
Three-Business-Day Recording Access
- On-demand access for three business days
- Available to registered participants who cannot attend live
- Recording access limited to three business days
Frequently Asked Questions
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Join Kenneth Carter, PhD, ABPP, for a practical review of common psychiatric medications, clinical collaboration, ethics, and scope of practice for non-prescribing mental health professionals.
- Aug 28 2026
- Expired!
- 6:00 am - 2:00 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Aug 28 2026
- Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
