WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

Who this course is for

- practicing psychologists who work with clients' requests and want to gain a deeper understanding of psychopathological conditions;
- psychotherapists who want to distinguish between psychological support and psychiatric indications;
- students of psychological faculties;
- educators, social workers, medical professionals who interact with people in crisis or at risk of psycho-emotional distress.

Course lecturers

NATALIA SABLINA

D. in Psychology, Associate Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy.
Head of the International Association of Psychologists and Expert Trainers, Director of the Natalia Sablina Training Centre.

An expert with practical experience in working with the military and their families. She has been providing psychological support and assistance to the military since 2014.             
From 2022-2024, she trained more than 3000 consultants in military psychology.

​MODULE 1. Introduction to psychiatry
• The relationship between psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy
• The role of a psychologist in the mental health system
• Fundamentals of psychiatric diagnosis (interview, observation, psychiatric scales)
• A brief overview of the main mental functions and their disorders:
o perception (hallucinations, illusions)
o emotions (hypothymia, hyperthymia, emotional lability)
o thinking, consciousness, memory, attention
• The concepts of "symptom", "syndrome", "diagnosis". Fundamentals of psychiatric nosology
• Classification of the main psychopathological syndromes
• Overview of the legislation of Ukraine in the field of mental health:
o Law of Ukraine “On Psychiatric Care” [https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/go/1489-14]
o Law of Ukraine “On the System of Mental Health Care” [https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/go/4223-20]

MODULE 2. Psychotic disorders
• Schizophrenia: clinical features, types of course, stages
• Remission state, defect, negative symptoms
• Differential diagnosis: schizotypal disorder, anxiety disorders
• Reactive psychoses: etiology, dynamics, prognosis
• Exogenous psychoses: clinical features of alcoholic delirium

MODULE 3. Affective and organic mental disorders
• Schizoaffective disorder
• Affective disorders: unipolar, bipolar depression
• Organic mental disorders: trauma, vascular, infectious brain lesions
• Epilepsy: types of seizures, personality changes, features of the course
• Organic personality changes: clinic, psychodiagnostics

MODULE 4. Personality disorders
• Classification and characteristics of personality disorders (cluster A, B, C)
• Differential diagnosis of psychopathies and psychopath-like states
• Autoaggressive behavior in mental disorders: mechanisms, risks

MODULE 5. Mental disorders of childhood and adolescence

• Basic classifications of mental disorders in children and adolescents

• Psychosomatic disorders in early life

• Early childhood autism (brief overview of the main forms)

• Hyperdynamic syndrome

• Mental development disorders: delay, mental retardation

• Behavioral syndromes: fears, fantasies, escapes and vagrancy

• Features of adolescent age: affective, behavioral and psychosomatic disorders

• Childhood schizophrenia and childhood BAD (introduction)

MODULE 6. Addictive behavior
• Addictions: introduction, classification, modern vision
• Alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse: clinic, motivation
• Pathological cravings and habits (gambling, kleptomania, etc.)

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MODULE 7. Neurotic, anxiety, stress and somatoform disorders
• Neurasthenia: symptoms, differential diagnosis
• Dissociative (conversion) disorders
• OCD: obsessions, compulsions, therapeutic approaches
• Sleep disorders: insomnia, parasomnias, hypersomnias
• Agoraphobia, social phobias: manifestations, diagnosis
• Panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder
• Acute reaction to stress, adjustment disorders
• PTSD: formation mechanisms, main criteria
• Somatoform disorders: complaints without an organic basis

MODULE 8. Clinical thinking of a psychologist
• Anxiety and depression assessment scales (HAM-A, BDI, PHQ-9, etc.)
• Psychotic symptom scales (PANSS), cognitive function (MMSE, MoCA)
• Differential diagnosis: psychotic vs. non-psychotic depression
• Differences between depression and anxiety disorders
• Ethical aspects of the work of a psychologist in psychiatry

Teaching methods
• Analysis of clinical cases
• Working with examination protocols and scales
• Watching fragments of films / videos on psychiatric topics
• Discussion of ethical aspects

This course is an important step towards professional, conscious and legally grounded practice of a psychologist in the field of mental health.

SCHEDULE
14.09.2025 – module 1 and 2
Practical work (12 hours)

28.09.2025 - Module 3 and 4
Practical work (12 hours)

12.10.2025- module 5
Practical work (12 hours)

26.10.2025 – module 6 and 7
Practical work (12 hours)

09.11.2025 – module 8 certification thesis defense