Full Course Description
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Made Easy: ACT for PTSD, Anxiety, Depression & Personality Disorders
Are your current techniques just not working?
You’ve experienced the frustration; you have a client who seems to just not break through. You’ve tried your best, but the outcome is the same: he or she progresses for a while, then regresses again.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is the popular transdiagnostic approach that you can integrate into your practice to achieve positive therapeutic outcomes with difficult-to-treat clients.
Watch ACT expert and presenter Daniel J. Moran, as he delivers an exercise and intervention-heavy course that will give you the tools you need to more effectively treat clients with PTSD, anxiety, depression or personality disorders.
You’ll learn how ACT weaves mindfulness strategies with cognitive-behavioral change strategies to revolutionize client outcomes, as well as discover a variety of ACT techniques for helping clients who are struggling to make difficult behavior changes due to the presence of painful thoughts, feelings and memories.
By shifting client focus to their own values, ACT sets clients up to embrace behavior change that is meaningful to them while simultaneously fostering skills that allow clients to more effectively handle impulsive actions based on current thoughts or emotions.
Dr. Moran will guide you step-by-step through highly practical, evidence-based ACT skills that you can apply in your practice immediately!
Program Information
Objectives
- Appraise ACT concepts such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion in session.
- Assess client’s fusion with thoughts about the past or future and illustrate mindfulness exercises to clients in a clinical setting.
- Evaluate the role of psychological flexibility in ACT and devise interventions for increasing it to improve treatment outcomes.
- Construct emotional and behavioral willingness exercises to address experiential avoidance.
- Analyze the efficacy of exercises in values clarification as it relates to treatment outcomes.
- 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
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
- Relational frame theory & mental health
- Undermine unhelpful language processes
- Give clients skills to notice their thoughts
- How to decrease believability of unhelpful thoughts
- Aid clients in changing the functions of their thoughts
- Experiential Exercise: Notice the meaning of language
- 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
- 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
- What are values?
- How to help clients author their values
- Values vs. goals
- When clients are “stuck”
- Values assessment
- Batteries exercise
- Epitaph exercise
- 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
- Client avoidance & escape strategies
- Assessment tools
- Address reason-giving as a barrier
- Strategies to increase willingness
- Anxiety Detector exercise
- Values contradiction
- How experiential avoidance impacts depression
- Fusion to the damaged conceptualized self
- Behavioral activation strategies
- Coping strategies
- Increase emotional tolerance
- Target the client’s story
- Experiential avoidance from the therapist
Target Audience
- Social Workers
- Counselors
- Psychologists
- Physicians
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Psychotherapists
- Case Managers
- Nurses
- Mental Health Professionals
- Therapists
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, Anxiety, Depression, Self-Injury, PTSD, Psychosis, and More
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a unique and innovative approach that helps clients to fundamentally change their relationship with their thoughts and feelings; to live in the present moment; to stop reacting and start responding; and to allow their values to guide them in a more rich and meaningful life. In ACT, clients utilize skills in mindfulness to accept the painful aspects of their lives while at the same time reducing the experiential avoidance that causes suffering. In other words, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” Move your clients toward focusing on identifying what matters in their lives and taking actions in service of those values.
In this recording Sydney Kroll, PsyD, shares an introduction to the research and theory behind ACT so you can clearly articulate the empirical evidence for this model. Experiential and engaging activities are used throughout the course to illustrate specific techniques and concepts. Dr. Kroll shows you how to apply these strategies to virtually any client population. Walk away with the skills and tangible resources to use immediately in your practice for better client outcomes and a greater sense of purpose as a clinician.
Program Information
Target Audience
- Addiction Counselors
- Case Managers
- Counselors
- Marriage & Family Therapy
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
- Psychiatrists
- Psychologists
- Social Workers
Outline
THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
- Relational frame theory (RFT)
- Cognitive psychology
- Third wave of behavioral interventions
- Supporting evidence
- Transdiagnostic nature of ACT
PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY
- Hexaflex Model
- Paradigm shift
PAIN VS. SUFFERING
- Avoidance
- Creative hopelessness
- What’s the goal?
THE SIX CORE PROCESSES
- Mindfulness
- Cognitive defusion
- Acceptance
- Self-as-concept
- Values
- Committed actions
INTERVENTIONS
- Practicing mindfulness (traditional and innovative strategies)
- Teaching clients to get out of their minds
- Presenting acceptance in a way people will accept
- Exploring observing self
- Values exploration
- Making committed actions in service of values
APPLICATION ISSUES
- Individual therapy
- Group therapy
- Inpatient
- Behavioral health settings
- ACT and psychopharmacology issues
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER TRAINING
- Collaboration and support
- Formal trainings
- Applying ACT in your unique settings
Objectives
- Describe the theoretical models underlying ACT, including relational frame theory and mindfulness-based interventions as they relate to case conceptualization
- Use skills in mindfulness to accept the painful aspects of clients’ lives while at the same time reducing the experiential avoidance that causes suffering in clients
- Show how the lack of “psychological flexibility” contributes to at client’s suffering
- Analyze the six core processes of ACT and identify specific clinical interventions for each
- Articulate the application of the six core process of ACT in unique clinical contexts
- Identify assessment measures and strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of ACT as a therapeutic approach
ACT for Body Acceptance: Help Clients Confront the Barriers that Stop Them from Living the Life They Value
Clients are swimming upstream when it comes to positive body image. Hounded with unattainable white western standards about what constitutes an acceptable body, many stop pursuing the life they want. And at the same time, clients can feel shame that they struggle with body positivity and may blame themselves for being stuck. This session will teach you strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients accept the body they inhabit and use it to pursue meaningful activities even as they experience distressing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
Program Information
Objectives
- Determine the role of avoidance of thoughts and feelings about body image in keeping clients stuck.
- Describe the differences between acceptance and approval when it comes to body image.
- Employ values-based action plans to guide clients in taking committed action toward their values.
Outline
- Different Approach to Body Image Struggles
- Not depending on body positivity or approval
- Acceptance vs approval when it comes to body image
- Building psychological flexibility
- Help clients unhook from Negative Thoughts and Feelings
- Strategies to develop courage to start doing what is important to them
- Working with the body image they have
- Values-based action plans
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Registered Dietitians & Dietetic Technicians
- Nurses
- Other mental health professionals
The ACT Approach: A Comprehensive Guide for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
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Congratulations to Timothy Gordon, Jessica Borushok and The ACT Approach: A Comprehensive Guide for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on winning the gold medal at the 2018 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards for editorial and design excellence in the Psychology category! |
—Kirk Strosahl, PhD, cofounder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
The ACT Approach is the ultimate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) resource all clinicians need to move their clients and therapy forward.
Combining the foundational knowledge of ACT with practical guidance, strategies, and techniques, you can begin to use ACT immediately with any client that walks through your door. Highly recommended by other ACT experts, this workbook is filled with unique tools you won’t find anywhere else:
- Reproducible handouts &worksheets
- Mindfulness scripts
- Experiential exercises
- Transcripts from therapy sessions with line by line analysis
- Anxiety Disorders
- Depression
- Chronic Pain
- PTSD
- OCD
- Substance Use
- Borderline Personality Disorder
- Adults, Children, Couples, Families, and Groups!
ACT With Anxiety: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workbook to Get You Unstuck from Anxiety and Enrich Your Life
Anxiety, in all its various forms, is one of the most common mental health challenges today. Although many of us attempt to deal with anxiety by pushing it away or trying to avoid it altogether, this often has the paradoxical effect of making it worse. Worrying sparks anxiety, and anxiety sparks more worrying, and our lives become smaller. Fortunately, new research reveals how to break free from the anxiety trap.
In this engaging and easy-to-read workbook, Dr. Sears provides detailed explanations, case examples, and practical worksheets to show you how to work with your anxiety instead of trying to battle against it. Using cutting-edge techniques and principles, you’ll learn tools to transform anxiety and create a richer and more fulfilling life.
The ACT Deck: 55 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Practices to Build Connection, Find Focus and Reduce Stress
The ACT Deck offers 55 practices based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for use in therapy, classrooms or at home. These cards ask tough questions, encourage meaningful action and provide new perspectives to help you let go of negative thoughts and live in the present moment.
Using mindfulness and acceptance strategies, this highly practical deck can help anyone suffering from:
- Stress
- Anxiety & depression
- Chronic pain
- Relationship problems
- Focus and attention issues
- Painful memories & feelings
ACT in Action: Q&A Call with Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Program Information
Objectives
- Practice ACT conceptualizations, such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion in session.
- Identify the role of psychological flexibility in ACT and ways of increasing it to improve treatment outcomes.
- Discover ways to include the ACT approach into the strategies you’re already using to treat 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
- 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
- Committed Action: Assist Clients in Behaving in the Service of Chosen Values
- ACT in Action
- Anxiety
- Client avoidance & escape strategies
- Assessment tools
- Address reason-giving as a barrier
- Strategies to increase willingness
- Anxiety Detector exercise
- Anxiety