3-Day Workshop Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): The Complete A to Z Training Program for Treatment Professionals

Credit

Handouts

Speaker

Mike Mecozzi, PsyD Related seminars and products

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Mike Mecozzi, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist, author and speaker who specializes in utilizing ACT to help clients master anxiety and depression. He and his wife own a private practice, Hope with ME, in New Lenox, Illinois. Dr. Mecozzi has trained clinicians in utilizing the ACT model for over 15 years. He is also the author of two books, The Tortoise and the Hare Retold: Learning to Run and Win the Races that Matter and The Other Side of Pain: Discovering Meaning When Life Hurts for which ACT developer Steven Hayes wrote the forward.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Michael Mecozzi has an employment relationship with Hope with Me, LLC. He receives royalties as a published author. Michael Mecozzi receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Michael Mecozzi has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Additional Info

Program Information

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For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepepesi.com

Objectives

1. Identify the core processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), including acceptance, cognitive defusion, mindfulness, values clarification, and committed action.
2. Analyze the randomized controlled trials research base of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
3. Determine the implications of ACT interventions on enhancing overall quality of life and resilience.
4. Identify the specific psychological and behavioral mechanisms underlying ACT interventions.
5. Define cognitive defusion within the context of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
6. Identify experiential avoidance patterns and explore the short-term benefits and long-term costs of avoidance behaviors.
7. Identify considerations for implementing ACT interventions in treatment plans.
8. Formulate ACT interventions to address specific client needs and preferences.
9. Evaluate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in reducing depressive symptoms compared to control groups.
10. Utilize the Open and Engaged State Questionnaire (OESQ) as a tool for assessing psychological flexibility in clients with major depression.
11. Utilize strategies to enhance motivation and address barriers to treatment adherence in ACT interventions for major depression.
12. Use metaphors and experiential exercises to facilitate understanding and engagement with ACT concepts.
13. Integrate values into treatment goals and action plans to promote a sense of purpose and motivation for change.
14. Utilize outcome measures and feedback to assess the effectiveness of ACT interventions.
15. Compare the effectiveness of ACT with other available active treatments for chronic pain.
16. Identify common methodological challenges encountered in ACT research, such as sample sizes, and their potential impact on study outcomes.
17. Identify contexts in which ACT interventions may fail to alter psychological flexibility processes effectively.
18. Use ACT interventions targeting repetitive negative thinking to improve interpersonal skills.

Outline

Introduction to the ACT Model

• Brief history of ACT
• The benefits and costs of language
• Define relational frames
• ACT, destructive normality and suffering
• Destructive normality
• Cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance
• Research, risks and treatment limitations
• Indications and contraindications

The Six Core Processes of ACT

• The Hexaflex
• Define psychological flexibility
• The ACT goal as compared to goal of symptom reduction
• How to focus on processes rather than symptoms
• Apply the six core processes to our work

Creative Hopelessness: How to Detach Clients from Avoidance and Open Them to Change

• Four core questions to help clients detach from avoidance
• The unworkable change agenda
• Metaphors to help clients experience the costs of avoidance
• Creating conflict with the change agenda
• Video demo of creative hopelessness metaphors in a session

Cognitive Defusion: Distance Clients from Their Thoughts to Catalyze Transformation

• Define cognitive defusion
• The function of fusion and the contexts in which fusion is unhelpful
• Change thought content and change one’s relationship with thoughts
• Three cognitive defusion metaphors
• Experiential exercises to promote defusion in daily living
• Apply defusion skills to our work as clinicians

Embrace Acceptance: Make Room for Uncomfortable Emotions and Sensations

• Understand the function of avoidance
• Explain the paradoxical effects of avoidance
• Metaphors to help teach clients acceptance skills
• Three experiential client exercises to promote willingness in daily living
• Apply acceptance skills to our work as clinicians

ACT in the Moment: Mindfulness Practices, Information Overload and Present Living

• Information overload and its impact on clients and therapy
• Two questions that can help promote living in the moment
• Gratitude and present moment
• Practice mindfulness meditation and incorporate it into sessions
• Three mindfulness skills that can be used in session and in daily living
• Utilize and practice mindfulness skills as clinicians

How Self-As-Context Transforms Therapy: Harness Inner Compassion and Flexibility in ACT Practice

• The conceptualized self, inflexibility, and values-inconsistent responses
• Promote self-compassion with the observer exercise
• Three metaphors to promote self-as-context skills
• Practice self-as-context skills as clinicians

ACT and Values: Help Clients Align Their Lives with What Truly Matters to Them

• Understand the difference between values and goals
• Three values clarification exercises
• Use values to assist with exposure interventions
• Help clients create a mission statement
• Utilize values clarification to aid our work as therapists

Committed Action: Align Clients’ Actions with Purpose

• The importance of intention
• Describe the difference between being busy and being purposeful
• Three exercises to help clients develop committed actions
• Create daily plans

ACT for Anxiety: Clinical Strategies and Exercises for Therapists

• Conceptualize anxiety from an ACT perspective
• Link avoidance to anxiety disorders
• Five metaphors to distance clients from anxious thoughts
• Simple “experiments” to promote acceptance of anxiety
• Make exposure work more tolerable with ACT
• Case studies and video clips

ACT Strategies for Depression: Transform Thought Patterns and Cultivate Hope

• Conceptualize depression from an ACT perspective
• Link fusion and avoidance to depressive disorders
• Five metaphors to distance clients from depressive thoughts
• Simple “experiments” to promote committed actions
• Make behavioral activation more effective with ACT
• Case studies and video clips

Use ACT to Improve Clients’ Interpersonal Skills

• Conceptualize relationship challenges from an ACT perspective
• Link fusion and avoidance to unhelpful interpersonal repertoires
• Understand how evaluation and reason giving contribute to relationship struggles
• Utilize values clarification to help clients strengthen relationships
• ACT skills for clients with challenging interpersonal presentations
• Case studies and video clips

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counselors
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Others in caring professions