Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Intensive Training

1. Demonstrate effective use of the six core processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients advance psychological flexibility.
2. Employ clinical techniques for increasing psychological flexibility in clients using ACT.
3. Utilize acceptance approaches with avoidance problems to strengthen a client’s willingness to have emotions.
4. Apply clinical skills to help clients effectively handle automaticcognitions.
5. Utilize effective ACT exercises in therapy to aid clients with developing new skills to engage in the present moment and move past struggles.
6. Assess and clarify a client’s values in order to develop an effective treatment plan and avoid potential clinical problems.
7. Integrate ACT into different therapeutic styles and methods as an approach to managing symptoms.
8. Create committed action plans for clients with anxiety disorders to improve level of functioning.
9. Use metaphors to undermine language-based avoidance repertoires to improve client engagement.
10. Utilize clinical strategies to develop an ACT-based behavior therapy plan as it relates to treatment outcomes.
11. Perform emotional, behavioral willingness and exposure techniques with clients to reduce experiential avoidance.
12. Apply ACT techniques to the treatment of specific disorders including depression, anxiety, and personality disorders.

What You'll Learn During Your Two Days in San Diego

Take your practice to the next level! Here’s what you’ll learn at the amazing Crown Plaza San Diego - Mission Valley, where you can find a pool, fitness center, two on-site restaurants, plus so much more within walking and driving distance! 

The ACT Model 

• The nature of human suffering 
• "Healthy normality" is a myth 
• Language: The double-edged sword 
• Undermine unhelpful thoughts 
• Aiming for psychological flexibility and why 
• The ACT hexagon model 

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks 

• Children and adolescents 
• Acute, florid hallucinations 
• Catatonic depression 
• Individuals with an adverse reaction to mindfulness exercises 

Acceptance 

• Strengthening a willingness to have emotions 
• The opposite of acceptance is experiential avoidance 
• Experiential avoidance throughout the lifespan 
• Why acceptance is important 
• Case example: Teenage shyness & hoarding 

Defusion 

• Look at thoughts rather than from thoughts 
• Deal with automatic thoughts 
• The power of words 
• The problem with cognitive fusion 
• Address CBT-based disputation techniques with defusion 
• "Taking your mind for a walk" exercise 
• Case example: Eating disorders & social phobia 

Perspective-Taking 

• Understand the “Self” in ACT 
• Self-as-content, self-as-perspective, self-as-context 
• Observer self-exercise 
• Deal with identity issues 
• Case examples related to PTSD & childhood sexual trauma 

Mindfulness 

• Contacting the present moment 
• Why being in the here-and-now is critical for mental health 
• Relationship between mindlessness and psychopathology 
• Meditation, mindfulness and mindful action 
• Exercises for mindful action 
• Case example: Anger, personality disorders, alcoholism 

Values Work 

• The positive side of language 
• Identifying core values 
• Differentiate values and goals 
• Writing values-based treatment goals 
• The ethics of values clarification 
• Establishing the lifeline 
• Case example: Heroin addiction, bipolar disorder 

Committed Action 

• Define “commitment” objectively 
• Integrate evidence-based therapy with ACT 
• Develop ACT-based behavior therapy treatment plans 
• Improve behavioral activation with ACT 
• Accelerate exposure therapy with ACT 
• Case example: Depression, agoraphobia 

Pulling It All Together 

• Hexaflex model for psychological flexibility 
• Ask the “ACT Question” for self-help and case conceptualization 
• Inflexahex model: Diagnosis from an ACT approach 
• Case example: Obsessive-compulsive disorder 

Incorporate ACT into Your Own Approach 

• Social skills training 
• Applied Behavior Analysis 
• Inpatient treatment programs systems 
• Exposure and ritual prevention 
• Behavioral activation 
• Parent management training 
• Executive coaching 

The Mindful Action Plan 

• ACT simplified 
• Passengers on the bus: The classic ACT group exercise 
• How ACT can make you a better therapist