Description
Live from Columbus, Ohio. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from one of the ACT community’s most renowned master therapists and trainers in action. Workshop participants frequently describe Dr. Walser as a “passionate, creative, and bold ACT trainer and therapist.”
Course Overview:
Acceptance and commitment therapy employs a variety of verbal and experiential processes and techniques to assist clients in making life-enhancing choices based on personally held values. The behavioral processes implemented in ACT may be learned and understood at many levels. Yet, they may also remain challenging to implement in a flexible, consistent, and effective fashion inside of a complex relational issue. Multiple levels of process are present in any therapy, including intervention processes. Moving beyond simple technique and into a fluid ACT, intervention requires attending to intrapersonal, interpersonal, and overarching and ongoing processes in the context of the therapy. This workshop will focus on applying ACT at the level of the interpersonal process. It will include role-plays and guided skills development. Participants will engage in exercises designed to refine and develop their ACT process skills attuning to the relationship and therapeutic stance. Didactics and discussion will be oriented to increasing flexibility in the use of the core processes and consistent application of the model.
At the end of this workshop, the learner will be able t0:
- Describe what is meant by the therapeutic presence from an ACT perspective.
- Explain what is meant by ACT processes in the therapeutic relationship.
- Explain what is meant by ACT processes and their flexible use with respect to the six core components of ACT.
- Identify the barriers to fluid implementation of ACT and how to work through these barriers in an ACT consistent fashion.
- Describe intrapersonal process from an ACT perspective.
- Explain the purpose of self-disclosure and its use in ACT.
- Describe interpersonal process from an ACT perspective.
- Explore the purpose of interpersonal work and feedback and its use in ACT.
- Describe how the ACT relationship is vital to outcomes; and
- Explain how case conceptualization guides the arc of ACT therapy.
References:
- Walser, R. D. (2019). The Heart of ACT: Developing a Flexible, Process-Based, and Client-Centered Practice Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Oakland, California: New Harbinger.
- Walser, R. D., Karlin, B. E., Trockel, M., Mazina, B., & Taylor, C. B. (2013). Training in and implementation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for depression in the Veterans Health Administration: Therapist and patient outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(9), 555-563.
- Gloster, A. T., Walder, N., Levin, M. E., Twohig, M. P., & Karekla, M. (2020). The empirical status of acceptance and commitment therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 18, 181-192.
- Hayes, S. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). The third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy and the rise of process‐based care. World Psychiatry, 16(3), 245.
Audience:
This training is for those who are interested in applying the ACT process to treat clients experiencing PTSD and trauma-related problems. Practitioners and clinicians from beginner to advanced are welcome, including Psychologists, Physicians, Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and Mental and Behavioral Health Professionals.
About The Presenter:
Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D.
Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D., is the Director of TL Consultation Services, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and works at the National Center for PTSD. She maintains an international training, consulting, and therapy practice as a licensed psychologist.
Dr. Walser is an expert in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and has co-authored 7 books on ACT, including a book on learning ACT. Her most recent book is The Heart of ACT- Developing a flexible, process-based, and client-centered practice using acceptance and commitment therapy.
Dr. Walser has expertise in traumatic stress, depression, and substance abuse and has authored many articles, chapters, and books on the topics. She has presented ACT workshops since 1997; training in multiple formats and for multiple client problems.
Dr. Walser has been described as a “passionate, creative, and bold ACT trainer and therapist” and is best known for her dynamic, warm, and challenging ACT training programs.
She is often referred to as a clinician’s clinician. Her workshops feature a combination of lecture and experiential exercises designed to provide a unique learning opportunity in this state-of-the-art intervention.
