Differential diagnosis is at the heart of every initial clinical encounter and is the beginning of every treatment plan. In community mental health centers, diagnostic clarity is often impacted by chronic psychosocial stressors and complex clinical presentations, and clinicians are tasked with bridging the gap between accurate diagnostic assessment and practical community care. This course aims to help bridge this gap by providing a streamlined, six step blueprint for diagnostic assessment from the DSM-5-TR Handbook of Differential Diagnosis and introducing clinicians to additional available diagnostic tools, such as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). Through lecture and interactive case vignettes, participants will learn how to systematically rule out competing diagnoses and navigate overlapping symptom presentations most commonly seen in community mental health care settings.