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Congratulations to ABCT’s Youth Community Leader Award Winners

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Congratulations to ABCT’s Youth Community Leader Award Winners

New & Noteworthy

This year’s ABCT Youth Community Leader Award celebrates young local leaders in the Philadelphia area who have used their passion, compassion, creativity, and expertise to affect positive change for others. Please join us in celebrating our 2024 Youth Community Leaders at the ABCT Convention, November 14 – 17, 2024, in Philadelphia, PA.

ABCT’s 2024 Youth Community Leaders

Colin Benjamin Deibler
Colin Benjamin Deibler

Moorestown High Scool

Colin Benjamin Deibler, a 17-year-old who attends Moorestown High School, is an advocate for children and adults with Tourette Syndrome. He has given over 17 workshops and presentations to the public that address important topics like positive behavior management, reducing bullying, and instilling a sense of compassion for people with the condition. He has even taken his advocacy to the U.S. Congress to promote awareness and increased funding support to Tourette Syndrome.

Jackson Erdos
Jackson Erdos

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

Jackson Erdos, a 16-year-old who attends Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, turned his passion for American Ninja Warrior and his own experiences with mental health problems into fundraising and awareness for mental health. Jackson designed a multi-day Ninja Warrior competition at his gym where he promoted suicide awareness and raised over $4,000 for the National Alliance for Mental Illness and the American Federation for Suicide Prevention.

Anita FardSanei
Anita FardSanei

Garnet Valley High School

Anita FardSanei, a 17-year-old who attends Garnet Valley High School, exemplifies leadership across multiple roles, advocating for mental health awareness and community change. Anita has raised over $2,500 to support healthcare equity among marginalized groups and leads the Mental Health Awareness Club at her school, where she seeks to destigmatize mental health issues. Anita has also addressed community needs with her nonprofit organization Planet Green Youth that collaborates with other nonprofits to clean up the Philadelphia streets and collect essential items for those in need.

Sylvain Farrel
Sylvain Farrel

Horace Howard Furness High Scool

Sylvain Farrel, a 17-year-old at Horace Howard Furness High School, has become a champion of healthcare equity in his community in just two short years of living in Philadelphia. As a weekly volunteer at the Unity Clinic in South Philadelphia, Sylvain assists patients who are uninsured. He completed a public health leadership program focused on health equity, health care disparities, and public health and has worked with city officials to facilitate community change.

Maia Sevin
Maia Sevin

Friends’ Central School

Maia Sevin, a 17-year-old who attends Friends’ Central School, is a major contributor to the Youth Advisory Board for a NIMH Center Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) lab. Maia’s leadership on the board has turned research into action, assisting in advocacy efforts to reduce suicide rates in her diverse Philadelphia community.

Related Information

Suggested Resources

What Is Cognitive Behavior Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a type of treatment that is based firmly on research findings.  It places emphasis on changing your cognitions (thoughts) or behaviors (actions) in order to effect change in how you feel. These approaches help people in achieving specific changes or goals.

Changes or goals might involve:

A way of acting: like smoking less or being more outgoing;
A way of feeling: like helping a person to be less scared, less depressed, or less anxious;
A way of thinking: like learning to problem-solve or get rid of self-defeating thoughts;
A way of dealing with physical or medical problems: like reducing back pain or helping a person stick to a doctor’s suggestions.

Cognitive behavioral therapists usually focus more on the current situation and its solution, rather than the past. They concentrate on a person’s views and beliefs about their life. CBT is an effective treatment for individuals, parents, children, couples, and families. The goal of CBT is to help people improve and gain more control over their lives by changing behaviors that don’t work well to ones that do.

How to Get Help

If you are looking for help, either for yourself or someone else, you may be tempted to call someone who advertises in a local publication or who comes up from a search of the Internet. You may, or may not, find a competent therapist in this manner. It is wise to check on the credentials of a psychotherapist. It is expected that competent therapists hold advanced academic degrees. They should be listed as members of professional organizations, such as the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies or the American Psychological Association. Of course, they should be licensed to practice in your state. You can find competent specialists who are affiliated with local universities or mental health facilities or who are listed on the websites of professional organizations. You may, of course, visit our website (www.abct.org) and click on “Find a CBT Therapist”

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) is an interdisciplinary organization committed to the advancement of a scientific approach to the understanding and amelioration of problems of the human condition. These aims are achieved through the investigation and application of behavioral, cognitive, and other evidence-based principles to assessment, prevention, and treatment.