A318 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

A new generation of mindfulness and acceptance-based therapies is challenging some of the most basic assumptions of clinical practice. Instead of teaching clients to change difficult thoughts and feelings, these approaches create change through acceptance, mindfulness, cognitive diffusion, core values, and action. This course will examine Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a therapy model that helps therapists and clients alike change the way difficult experiences function mentally rather than avoiding them entirely. You'll learn specific techniques to help clients cope with a wide variety of clinical problems, including depression, anxiety, stress, substance abuse, and even psychotic symptoms. The benefits of this approach are as important for the clinician as they are for clients. ACT has been shown empirically to quickly alleviate therapist burn-out and to improve clinicians' ability to learn any new techniques, not just ACT. By the end of the course, you'll know the how's and why's of ACT, as well as which clients respond best to it.

Meet The Instructor

Steven C. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada and an author of 27 books and more than 360 scientific articles, including his most recent book, Get Out of Your Mind and Into your Life, which was among the top 10 self-help books in the nation.

Course Contents

Session 1: The overall ACT model • Research on ACT and its underlying theory of cognition • Differences between ACT and other traditions

Session 2: Facing the current situation: Creative hopelessness • Control is the problem

Session 3: Why it is easier to change the function than the form of cognition • Defusion techniques

Session 4: A transcendence sense of self • Contacting the present moment

Session 5: The nature and importance of values • How to do a values inventory

Session 6: Willingness and committed action • Exposure from an ACT model • Wrap up

Learning Objectives

1. Name the six major processes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
2. Describe an intervention to quickly reduce the impact of negative thought
3. Discuss how ACT fosters psychological acceptance
4. Explain how to help clients get into contact with their core values