Introductory ACT Experiential Workshop - Sonja Batten

Sonja BattenIntroductory ACT Experiential Workshop

Registration is now closed.

Workshop leader: Sonja V. Batten, Ph.D., VA Maryland Health Care System and University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dates & Location: July 14 & 15, 2007, 9:00am - 5:00/5:30pm at the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

General description/abstract: Clients frequently come to therapy with an agenda of the amelioration of symptoms - to feel less depressed, have fewer panic attacks, and have fewer cravings to use drugs and alcohol. Traditional treatment approaches are designed for exactly such a purpose - to assist in symptom reduction. But what if there were another way of approaching our clients' difficulties in living? What if it were not the thoughts, memories, and feelings that are the problem, but instead that individuals presenting for treatment have lost touch with what is important to them? That they are not living a life in accordance with those things that they really value?

Often we find that years of disappointment, disenfranchisement, and avoidance have led our clients to make choices based on attempts to feel good, rather than based on building a life that is meaningful to them.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a contemporary behavior therapy, provides an alternative to the feel-good agenda and instead focuses on helping our clients to reconnect with those ideals and principles for living that are deeply important to them. This two-day workshop will provide clinicians with the tools to work with clients on identifying each person's valued life directions and then help motivate behavior change in the service of those values. Structured experiential and written exercises, along with role pays and case material, will be used to demonstrate the process of values assessment and commitment to engage in valued life activities.

Educational Objectives:
*Understand problems in living as the result of behavioral choices that individuals make that are inconsistent with their personal values
*Identify the role of avoidance in the development and maintenance of psychopathology
*Recognize client barriers to identifying and acting upon values
*Be able to lead clients in experiential exercises designed to facilitate awareness of valued life directions and motivate valued behavior

PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you understand the experiential nature of this workshop. These workshops teach ACT by creating an experience of what it is like to stand in the place where we ask ACT clients to stand. The workshop will be largely experiential and may be intense at times.

Target Audience: Clinicians who have not previously attended a 2-day ACT introductory training

ACT Core Skills and Competencies- Niklas Törneke & Jason Luoma

Jason LuomaNiklas TörnekeACT Core Skills and Competencies (Introductory)

Registration is now closed.

Workshop Leaders: Niklas Törneke, M.D., Private Practice, Sweden, & Jason Luoma, Ph.D., Private Practice, Portland, Oregon

Dates & Location: July 14 & 15, 2007, 9:00am - 5:00/5:30pm at the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

General description/abstract: This is primarily a didactic and skills-building workshop, presenting the central clinical strategies and techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The presentation will include video examples of different techniques and active exercises will be used to help participants to improve both their understanding of and skills implementing ACT core competencies.

Educational Objectives: The participants should:

1. Learn how to do case conceptualization within an ACT framework

2. Understand how the different ACT techniques relate to each other and, to the basic principles of ACT.

3. Improve their skills in using central ACT techniques and

4. Learn how to bring metaphors and experiential exercises into the flow of therapy.

Target audience: People who are beginning to learn ACT, who have been to an experiential workshop or a shorter introduction to ACT and who want to learn some more about how to implement ACT in their work. We highly recommend those who have not read the basic ACT book (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson 1999, Guilford Press) to do so prior to the training!

ACT: Advanced Experiential Workshop- Robyn Walser

Robyn WalserACT: Advanced Experiential Workshop

Registration is now closed.

Workshop Leader: Robyn D. Walser, PTSD Core, Palo Alto, VA Hospital

Dates & Location: July 14 & 15, 2007, 9:00am - 5:00/5:30pm at the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

General description/abstract: The advanced ACT workshop is designed to sharpen skills learned in the beginner’s workshop, plus provide additional experiential exercises to further the understanding of the ACT model. Attendees will have the opportunity to:
1. focus on the therapeutic relationship
2. role-play clients/practice ACT components and receive feedback
3. learn how interpersonal process, letting go of self-concept and compassion fit into the ACT model.

Educational Objectives:
1. Learn how to improve flexible implementation of ACT core skills
2. Develop further understanding of compassion and forgiveness from an ACT perspective
3. Cultivate mindfulness and self-as-context
4. Develop understanding of ACT double-flex and the therapeutic relationship

The advanced training is highly experiential and interactive and is designed to provide attendees with a personal sense of how ACT is applied in their own and their client’s lives.

Target audience: Those who've previously attended a 2-day ACT experiential workshop.

ACT in the Present Moment- Kelly Wilson & Emily Sandoz

Emily SandozKelly WilsonACT in the Present Moment (Advanced)

Registration is now closed.

Workshop Leaders: Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D., & Emily K. Sandoz, M.S., University of Mississippi

Dates & Location: July 14 & 15, 2007, 9:00am - 5:00/5:30pm at the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

General description/abstract: The focus of this workshop will be on the role of mindfulness and present-moment processes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Over the past year or two, I have become increasingly interested in the centrality of present-moment processes in ACT. It has become clear that when ACT interventions go wrong, the problems can often be traced back to a failure of present moment processes. For example, when our clients struggle with acceptance of some thought, emotion, or memory, they are often rejecting conceptualized acceptance in a conceptualized future. Likewise, some of the biggest problem we see with values and commitment work centers on guilt (conceptualized past) and fear (conceptualized future). Persistently bringing clients (and ourselves) into the present moment undermines fusion and non-acceptance and enhances values and commitment work.

Other difficulties that arise in ACT involve the therapist overstepping the therapeutic contract. Part of the therapeutic contract involves some limited amount of pain the client is willing to have in their interaction with the clinician. Attending carefully to present moment processes allows the therapist to work in harmony with the client and dramatically lessen the chance for breaks in the therapeutic alliance or problems with the pacing of treatment.

Through a series of experiential exercises, participants will learn to bring present moment focus to acceptance and defusion work on the one hand, and values and commitment work on the other. Participants will learn to intersperse mindful moments into their ongoing therapeutic interactions. Although this is a skills acquisition-oriented workshop, it will be densely experiential.

Educational Objectives:

Target Audience: This workshop is advanced. It is intended for those who have attended a previous ACT workshop. (If you have never taken an ACT workshop before, please consider taking one of the two Introductory Pre-Conference workshops available.) The workshop may be of particular interest for those interested in the interface between ACT and other mindfulness-based interventions.