ANCC Accreditation — Application Submitted Feb 2026

Clinical CE That
Respects Your Time

Most CE teaches you what happened. This teaches you what to do when it's not clear.

Applied Feb 2026
3 pilot courses submitted
Approval Sept–Oct 2026
Courses launch
Join CE Waitlist See Forum Pricing & Join
Fall '26ANCC approval target
14 yrClinical experience
12/yrCE credits w/ forum
PMHNPBuilt by a prescriber
✦  ANCC Application Submitted Feb 2026 — ✦  Approval Expected Sept–Oct 2026 — ✦  CE Courses Launch Upon Approval — ✦  12 CE Credits Per Year With Forum Membership — ✦  ANCC Application Submitted Feb 2026 — ✦  Approval Expected Sept–Oct 2026 — ✦  CE Courses Launch Upon Approval — ✦  12 CE Credits Per Year With Forum Membership —

"Most CE teaches you what the guideline says. Real practice means deciding what to do when the guideline conflicts with the patient in front of you."

Most CE focuses on information and protocols: what to prescribe, what to document, what the guideline says to do next. That's necessary, but it's not sufficient.

Real outpatient practice means deciding what to do when the guidelines conflict with each other, the patient doesn't fit the algorithm, the payer won't cover your first choice, and the documentation risk is high no matter which direction you move.

That's not a knowledge problem. It's a judgment problem.

And almost no CE teaches you how to structure clinical reasoning under those conditions. We teach psychopharm and diagnosis — but we don't stop there. We teach the clinical reasoning, documentation strategy, billing compliance, and workflow systems that allow you to practice confidently under scrutiny.

How This Is Different

Built for the gray zones.

This CE teaches clinical judgment: the systematic reasoning behind decisions when the guideline doesn't give a clear answer.

Not just protocols

Structured reasoning frameworks

We don't teach more algorithms. We teach you how to evaluate competing risks, navigate payer restrictions, and defend your clinical reasoning when the guideline doesn't give a clear answer.

Not academic theory

Real outpatient practice

Outpatient care happens inside constraints: documentation risk, payer rules, scope boundaries, liability exposure, and patients who don't follow textbook patterns. Our courses teach the full range of judgment you actually use.

Not generic advice

Decision-level precision

We don't stop at "best practices." We teach how to weigh the real-world tradeoffs in front of you: risk vs. benefit, safety vs. autonomy, clinical indication vs. system limitation.

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Who This Serves Best

Designed for clinicians who:

  • Want clarity when making decisions in gray zones
  • Value systematic reasoning over intuition or shortcuts
  • Need their clinical judgment and documentation to hold up under scrutiny
  • Practice in outpatient settings where payer reality, risk management, and clinical complexity intersect constantly

This isn't just CE for clinicians who need hours.
This is CE for clinicians who want to think more clearly under pressure.

The Philosophy

You're not learning what to think.

"It's not about giving answers. It's about helping you build a framework for better ones."

Clinical reasoning develops through reflection, conversation, and seeing how other clinicians think through the same decisions you face in practice.

Through case-based learning and real-time discussion, you'll watch experienced clinicians reason through complex decisions, refine your own thinking, and get feedback on real scenarios.

— Michael Van Gelder, PMHNP-BC

What a Course Actually Looks Like

Not a lecture. A decision.

Every course is built around a real clinical scenario where the right answer isn't obvious.

Sample Scenario

MDM Documentation & Billing — Moderate vs. High Complexity

The Scenario
A 47-year-old patient with bipolar I disorder, stable on lamotrigine for 14 months. No mood episodes in the past year. At today's visit, she reports mild fatigue, no other symptoms. You check CBC, counsel on rash monitoring, review adherence. The visit takes 28 minutes. You bill 99214.

Three months later, your biller flags a potential audit risk on a cluster of 99214s. Is this one defensible?
The Competing Signals
  • Patient is clinically stable — but stability requires active management to maintain
  • Prescription drug management with monitoring is documented — but does the note prove it?
  • CBC ordered — but ordering a test doesn't automatically establish moderate risk
  • Time was 28 minutes — but MDM level depends on what the note proves, not how long you were there
  • No acute presentation — but chronic disease management is not the same as low complexity
What the course teaches: The MDM framework for prescription drug management, what "active monitoring" requires in documentation, and how to write a note that proves moderate complexity — not just reflects it.
What You Get

Two Paths. Same Philosophy.

Individual CE courses available for purchase, or access 12 CE credits per year through Think Beyond Practice Forum membership.

The CE course is the textbook. The Practice Lab is the classroom.

ANCC-accredited continuing education focused on mandatory topics and high-stakes clinical decisions.

Suicide Prevention & Risk
  • Suicide prevention fundamentals (varying credit hours)
  • Risk documentation that holds up under scrutiny
  • Decision not to hospitalize — defensible reasoning
Ethics
  • Professional conduct and ethical risk management
  • Safety vs. autonomy tradeoffs in practice
  • Ethical decision-making under system constraints
Billing & Documentation
  • Audit red flags and compliance strategy
  • MDM documentation and billing judgment
  • 99213 vs 99214 — coding based on what the note proves
Clinical Reasoning
  • Judgment in gray zones — competing clinical signals
  • Serotonin syndrome and medication management
  • Diagnostic complexity beyond the DSM algorithm

12–13 additional courses in development. ~2 courses/month releasing through Fall 2026.

Join CE Waitlist

The CE course is where you learn the rules. The forum is where you develop judgment. The Practice Lab is where you apply both under realistic conditions.

CE Access

  • One new ANCC-accredited CE course per month (12/year)
  • Pre-accreditation course access available now
  • Quarterly live 60-min events with Michael (recorded)

Forum Access

  • Clinical reasoning and judgment development
  • Documentation strategies and billing compliance
  • Ethical dilemmas and boundary decisions
  • Workflow systems, EHRs, and practice management
  • Real-world case discussion with practicing prescribers
  • Ask the Archive — ask a question mid-session and get a structured, source-linked answer drawn from real forum discussions, with templates when available

Practice Lab

  • Guided training — interactive, concept-by-concept teaching with immediate feedback
  • Billing Simulator with realistic ERA responses
  • Denial Drills for payer pattern recognition
  • MDM Foundations — domain literacy and documentation translation
  • Psychotherapy Documentation training
  • Code Reference library

Additional modes in development.

See Pricing & JoinCE Waitlist Only
Accreditation Status

ANCC Provider Accreditation

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Estimated time to approval target — October 1, 2026

Current Status

ANCC Provider Accreditation

Think Beyond Education is pursuing ANCC accreditation as a continuing education provider for nursing.

Application submittedFebruary 2026
Three pilot courses completed as submission activitiesSubmitted with application
Approval expectedSeptember–October 2026
Courses launch immediately upon approval
Notify me when approved
From Members
★★★★★
"This is the only forum I've found that's actually useful long term. Other communities felt basic, performative, or recycled. Here, the clinical info is thorough, the business and coding guidance is what nobody else teaches, and everything is organized, practical, and miles better than the hype forums. The mix of real-world charting, coding, practice-building, ketamine/spravato breakdowns, and ethics makes it useful whether you're new or seasoned."

— Haley, PMHNP-BC

Michael Van Gelder
Michael Van Gelder
M.S. Clinical Psychology
M.N., PMHNP-BC
14 years psychiatric practice
7 years solo private practice
Location: Spokane, WA
ANCC CE developer
Clinical Leadership

Built from the inside of outpatient practice.

I built Think Beyond Education because I kept watching prescribers struggle with things that had nothing to do with their clinical knowledge. Billing audits they couldn't defend. Documentation that collapsed under review. Clinical decisions made under pressure without a framework for what makes them defensible.

These were not knowledge gaps. They were judgment gaps — and no amount of additional coursework was going to close them, because most CE is built around information delivery, not reasoning development.

I have been in solo private practice for seven years. Before that, eight years in community mental health where I had to build documentation workflows, compliance systems, and clinical templates from scratch across eight clinic sites with no support. That experience is exactly the kind of learning this CE is built to replicate.

Think Beyond Education is not a side project. It's the CE I would have paid for years ago if it had existed.

Free Guide

7 Audit Red Flags PMHNPs Miss

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