peers.asia

About the program

PEERS® School-Based —
designed for educators, medical professionals & allied-health practitioners.

PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) is the most rigorously evaluated social skills curriculum for adolescents. This evidence-based program adapts to the people already working with these students—including teachers, counsellors, school psychologists, allied-health practitioners, and medical professionals—across classrooms, after-school programs, communities, and private practices in both educational and clinical settings.

Where the program comes from

PEERS® was developed by Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson at the UCLA Semel Institute. Originally designed for clinical settings, the curriculum has since been adapted for delivery by school-based and community providers, and validated across multiple randomised controlled trials.

Why a separate school-based program?

School and community settings are different from clinics. Group sizes are bigger, sessions are tied to timetables or program blocks, and the facilitator is typically not a psychologist. The School-Based program accounts for all of this — pacing, group management, parent and teacher coaching, and outcome measurement adapted for educational and community settings. It also extends beyond the classroom: with trained parents (they may attend but not receive certification unless meet selection criteria) reinforce the same skills at home, and certified providers can run the program in after-school, NGO and private-practice contexts.

Who delivers it

The School-Based certification is open to anyone supporting adolescents in a school context — inside schools, in community or private-practice settings, or with parent-assisted interventions at home. Although no clinical degree is required, attendees are selected based on the following criteria:

  • Attendees must be professionals or graduate students in education, allied-health, or medical fields with the following minimum qualifications:
    • Teaching credentials (or current pursuit of a teaching credential).
    • Degree, certification, and/or license in psychology or allied-health fields (B.C.B.A., M.S.W., L.C.S.W., M.A., M.S., M.F.T., M.D., R.N., L.V.N., Ph.D., Psy.D., Ed.D., M.P.H., S.L.P., O.T., R.T.).
    • Other degrees/licenses may be eligible upon approval by Dr. Warner or any assigned master trainer.
    • Graduate students pursuing a master's degree or higher in education, allied-health, or medical fields.
  • Attendee qualifications must be submitted to and approved by UCLA PEERS® Clinic at least 10 days prior to the training.
  • Information to be collated: Name, degrees/certifications, and current position/title.
  • Attendees without relevant credentials (e.g., parents, family members who do not have the above criteria) may attend but will not receive certification.
  • Attendees must complete the full training to become PEERS® Certified Providers.

What students it serves

Any adolescent (roughly ages 11–17) who struggles socially — including students with autism spectrum conditions, ADHD, anxiety, depression, social phobia, peer rejection or general social isolation. PEERS® is not diagnosis-gated.

Affiliated faculty & trainers

UCLA PEERS® Clinic

Blake Warner, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow · UCLA Semel Institute

Dr. Blake Warner is a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, working across the PEERS® Clinic and the Tarjan Center. He completed his Ph.D. with a dual specialisation in Clinical and Disaster Psychology at the University of South Dakota, where he was a two-time Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) trainee.

His research and clinical interests focus on disability-related policy and advocacy training, and on interventions at the intersection of gender, sexuality and neurodiversity — areas directly relevant to adolescents navigating identity alongside social-skills development. Dr. Warner approves attendee qualifications for the PEERS® School-Based certification track.

Source: UCLA PEERS® Clinic — team profile

Who operates peers.asia

peers.asia is operated by PeopleAcademy.io, an authorised off-site training partner of UCLA PEERS®, delivering the School-Based certification across the Asia Pacific.