Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) With Adults

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a third-generation, evidence-based, behavior therapy that balances mindfulness and acceptance processes with commitment and behavior change processes to weaken the unhelpful influence of thoughts and emotional avoidance in guiding behavior, while promoting greater experiential engagement and psychological flexibility in the service of valued ends.

When using ACT, the clinician focuses less on symptoms reduction and more on helping clients to engage with what matters most to them so they can live deeper, richer, more meaningful lives. ACT helps clients and therapists to learn to be with their pains and do what works.

The workshop will include didactic teachings, activities, reflection/sharing and practical experiential exercises that will be done individually, in dyads, and small groups. The exercises will illustrate the integration of connecting with our directly lived experience, recognizing cognitive fusion, and developing engaged mindfulness and acceptance strategies to disarm forms of human suffering while also promoting greater clarity of values and action in the service of living well. This workshop will encourage participants (but never force or coerce) to engage the material at a personal level, as it applies to their own lives, and then also in the context of their clinical work. Clinical worksheets and other practical tools will be provided. personal level, as it applies to their own lives, and then also in the context of their clinical work.

Course Objectives

• Learn the ACT model of human suffering and its alleviation,

• Integrate the ACT view of psychological flexibility, including the six processes that are the focus of ACT

• Appreciate the central role of experiencing and being in contact with present moment experience as keys to developing psychological flexibility

• Understand the common role of cognitive fusion and emotional avoidance in creating disengaged living (as well as the behaviors we identify as psychological/psychiatric symptoms),

• Work to identify and liberate themselves from the dominance of their own unhelpful verbal rules, and extend this skill to clients

• Acquire skills (for themselves and their clients) to identify and clarify valued domains and vital sources of vitality and engagement

• Learn to help clients balance acceptance and change while moving in the direction of their chosen values and life goals;

• Integrate a range of experiential exercises, metaphors, applied mindfulness and defusion techniques into their clinical work;

• Understand the ACT therapeutic stance and how not to do ACT.

• Apply ACT in a culturally consistent way in an Asian context.