Full Course Description

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) Proficiency Course: Master the Core Components & Skills of ACT Across Diagnoses

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Perform a clinical assessment using the Inflexahex diagnostic model to inform clinical treatment interventions.
  2. Utilize acceptance exercises in session to increase client willingness to engage in values-consistent behaviors.
  3. Analyze the efficacy of mindfulness meditation for clients on a case-by-case basis, and demonstrate alternative mindfulness interventions for clients who find meditation aversive or unhelpful.
  4. Utilize clinical strategies to assist clients in clarifying their values as it relates to case conceptualization.
  5. Implement clinical treatment interventions, such as behavioral activation strategies or social skills training interventions, to improve client engagement in values-consistent behaviors as an approach to managing symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, personality disorders or depression.
  6. Utilize metaphors and exercises to explain self-as-context in session for purposes of client psychoeducation.

Outline

ACT Foundations: What You Need to Know

  • Context: Why it is Fundamental to ACT
  • How to determine the functional purpose of behavior
  • What is language: Relational Frame Theory
  • The source of psychological suffering
  • The ACT model of psychopathology
  • Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion & the toxic cycle
  • Psychological Flexibility: What it is & why it’s important
  • The Inflexahex diagnostic model
  • Limitations of the research & potential risks

THE CORE CONCEPTS OF ACT

Acceptance: Combat Experiential Avoidance

  • What is “acceptance” in ACT?
  • Experiential avoidance: The “Control Agenda”
  • Client control over unwanted thoughts & feelings
  • How to confront the control agenda
  • Interventions for fostering acceptance
  • Acceptance Exercises: The “Unwanted Party Guest;” “Barriers to Writing”
Defusion: Break Down Thoughts as Barriers
  • The problem with cognitive fusion
  • Weaken unworkable language functions
  • Should thoughts always control behavior?
  • Build an environment of defusion within session
  • Strategies for building defusion skills
  • Defusion Exercise: “Having vs Believing” our thoughts
Self-As-Context: Aid Clients in Distancing Themselves from Their Thoughts
  • What is self-as-context?
  • Self-as-content vs. self-as-context
  • Mitigate attachment to the conceptualized self
  • Help clients understand self-as-context
  • Interventions to foster self-as-context
  • Self-As-Context Exercise: The “observer self”
Contact with the Present Moment: Mindfulness Strategies to Reduce Worry about the Past & Future
  • Mindfulness: A core feature of all human psychopathology
  • What “mindfulness” means in ACT
  • The goal of mindfulness practice in ACT
  • How to train mindfulness with flexibility
  • Overcome obstacles in teaching mindfulness
  • Address relaxation-induced panic
  • Formal & informal mindfulness interventions
  • Contact with the Present Moment Exercise: Mindfulness without Meditation
Values: Guide Clients in Identifying & Clarifying What Matters
  • The importance of values in ACT
  • How values can be transformative in human behavior
  • Values & goals
  • How to evoke values from clients
  • From instant gratification to pursuit of values
  • Values Clarification Exercise: The Eulogy
Committed Action: Establish Values-Consistent Patterns of Behavior
  • The relationship between values & committed action
  • What’s considered committed action?
  • Address persistent inaction, impulsivity or avoidance
  • Interventions
    • Exposure-based approaches
    • Behavioral activation strategies
    • Social-skills training interventions
    • Problem-solving barriers to committed action
    • Behavioral homework
  • Case Study: Engaging in committed action with depression
ACT in Action: Utilize ACT with Specific Clinical Populations
  • PTSD
  • Anxiety
  • Personality disorders
  • Depression

Target Audience

  • Social Workers
  • Counselors
  • Psychologists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Psychotherapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Mental Health Professionals
  • Therapists

Copyright : 12/11/2019

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Made Simple: ACT for PTSD, Anxiety, Depression & Personality Disorders

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Appraise ACT concepts such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion in session.
  2. Assess client’s fusion with thoughts about the past or future and illustrate mindfulness exercises to clients in a clinical setting.
  3. Evaluate the role of psychological flexibility in ACT and devise interventions for increasing it to improve treatment outcomes.
  4. Construct emotional and behavioral willingness exercises to address experiential avoidance.
  5. Analyze the efficacy of exercises in values clarification as it relates to treatment outcomes.
  6. Integrate the ACT approach into treatment to address clinically-relevant issues for specific disorders including depression, anxiety, trauma and personality disorders.

Outline

The ACT Model

  • Pain vs. suffering
  • Language as a double-edged sword
  • Goal: Psychological flexibility
  • Limitations of the research & potential risks

Components of the ACT Model

Acceptance: Foster Client Acceptance of Emotions to Increase Values-Based Action

  • What should be accepted?
  • The problem with controlling thoughts
  • How to sidestep the happiness trap
  • Spot common phrases of non-acceptance
  • Experiential avoidance
  • How to help clients understand acceptance
  • Experiential Exercise: The finger trap
Defusion: Change the Way Clients Interact with Their Thoughts
  • Relational frame theory & mental health
  • Undermine unhelpful language processes
  • Give clients skills to notice their thoughts
  • How to decrease believability of unhelpful thoughts
  • Experiential Exercise: Notice the meaning of language
Self-As-Context: Aid Clients in Establishing Their Identities
  • The three different versions of the self
  • How to describe the “observer self” to clients
  • How to distance the self from thoughts & emotions
  • The chess board metaphor
  • Experiential Exercise: ”I am” exercise
Contact with the Present Moment: Strategies to Build Attention to the Here & Now
  • How language affects mindfulness
  • Goals of mindfulness
  • ThoughtFit exercises
  • How do we teach clients to be mindful?
  • How to build focus on values
  • Obstacles in teaching mindfulness
  • Experiential Exercise: Mindfulness meditation
Values: Aid Clients in Deciding What Gives Live Meaning
  • What are values?
  • How to help clients author their values
  • Values vs. goals
  • When clients are “stuck”
  • Values assessment
    • Batteries exercise
    • Epitaph exercise
Committed Action: Assist Clients in Behaving in the Service of Chosen Values
  • Persistent inaction, impulsivity or avoidance
  • Address rule-governed behavior
  • Exposure & ritual prevention strategies
  • The Mindful Action Plan

ACT in Action

PTSD

  • Function of trauma symptoms
  • Experiential avoidance in PTSD
  • Increase psychological safety
  • Dominating concepts of the past & future
  • Trauma-informed mindfulness exercises
Anxiety
  • Client avoidance & escape strategies
  • Assessment tools
  • Address reason-giving as a barrier
  • Strategies to increase willingness
  • Anxiety Detector exercise
Depression
  • Values contradiction
  • How experiential avoidance impacts depression
  • Fusion to the damaged conceptualized self
  • Behavioral activation strategies
Personality Disorders
  • Coping strategies
  • Increase emotional tolerance
  • Target the client’s story
  • Experiential avoidance from the therapist

Target Audience

  • Social Workers
  • Counselors
  • Psychologists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Psychotherapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Mental Health Professionals
  • Therapists

Copyright : 10/17/2019