Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) Training
Psychological training for professional coaches & clinicians with Dr. Aprilia West, PsyD, MT, PCC
Now Available On-demand (up to 7.25 CEs available)
Activating Psychological Flexibility for Anxiety, Trauma & Emotional Dysregulation
Getting stuck when working with clients who are psychologically inflexible is a common experience for therapists. But it can often feel like fighting a losing battle where, despite your most powerful clinical tools, there is little to no real progress.
This often happens because, in addition to knowing WHAT to do to expand your client’s behavioral repertoire, you also need the skills and confidence to know HOW to create the context for transformation. By learning to make expert-level therapeutic moves with ACT you can help clients decrease suffering and live a more meaningful life -- regardless of their diagnosis or level of functioning.
WHY IS PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY SO IMPORTANT
Psychological flexibility can be defined as the ability to: 1) maintain an open, curious and skillful relationship with your experience, and 2) adapt to situational demands while aligning and staying focused on your most important interests, goals and values. Said another way, your level of psychological flexibility can tell you how effectively you harness your experience and choose your actions based on what matters to you.
The construct of psychological flexibility is rooted in psychological science, originating in a therapeutic model called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and has been recognized as a critical factor for enhancing both flourishing and high performance. Psychological flexibility has been shown to improve wellbeing and performance in over 1000 research trials. Being psychologically flexible happens we people have developed the mindfulness, mental agility, and meaningful moves to skillfully navigate their lives, even in the face of stress, challenge and pain.
A growing body of research also highlights the benefits of psychological flexibility for people across numerous personal and professional domains:
- Increased physical health
- Increased mental health and wellbeing
- Improved performance, satisfaction and engagement in the workplace
- Increased self-efficacy, goal attainment and goal-related thinking
- Decreased risk of burnout and increased resilience
- Improved team dynamics and productivity
- Leadership effectiveness
References:
Skews, R., West, A., Archer, R. (2021). Acceptance and Commitment Coaching in the Workplace. In: Smith, WA., Boniwell, I., Green, S. (eds) Positive Psychology Coaching in the Workplace. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79952-6_26
Archer, Rob et al. (2024). Increasing workforce psychological flexibility through organization-wide training: Influence on stress resilience, job burnout, and performance. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. 33. 100799. 10.1016/j.jcbs.2024.100799.
About the Training
Activating psychological flexibility for anxiety, trauma & emotional dysregulation
This 1-day training with Dr. Aprilia West takes you all the way through the ACT model using process-based cognitive-behavioral strategies to accelerate psychological flexibility across a wide range of diagnoses and improve client outcomes.
By learning to make expert-level therapeutic moves with ACT you can help clients decrease suffering and live a more meaningful life -- regardless of their diagnosis or level of functioning. This ACT workshop will help you enhance your ability to work with common clinical presentations including: chronic stress, anxiety and depression, emotional reactivity and emotional dysregulation, unprocessed trauma/PTSD, substance abuse and compulsivebehaviors
Learning
Participants will be able to:
Identify core underlying processes related to mental health and wellbeing.
Distinguish between the 6 psychological flexibility processes in the ACT hexaflex model.
Apply “open” skills to address experiential avoidance and past and/or future focus.
Utilize “aware” skills to address over identification with self as content and cognitive fusion.
Demonstrate “engage” skills to address lack of meaning and purposeful action in context.
Conduct experiential exercises to enhance the learning, retention and recall of new ACT skills.
COURSE OUTLINE
Acceptance and Commitment Theory: The myth of “normal”
What does wellbeing look like?
The Human Condition: Pain vs suffering
Why Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ACT?
The ACT Model: Psychological Flexibility
The problem of avoidance: the Inflexahex model
How ACT is different from other approaches
Evidence of ACT
Limitations of the research and potential risks
Components of the ACT Model Present Moment Awareness (PMA)
The power of anchoring in the present
Common obstacles to Present Moment Awareness
Metaphor for PMA
PMA experientials to contact the “here and now”
Acceptance
The opposite of control
What’s possible with non-reactivity
Acceptance of painful emotions and realities
What acceptance is not
Obstacles to acceptance
Metaphor for acceptance
Acceptance experientials
Defusion
Benefits of holding thoughts lightly
The power of language
Obstacles to defusion
Metaphor for defusion
Defusion experiential
Self As Context (SAC)
3 levels of ‘selfing’
Benefits of flexible perspective taking
Obstacles to Self as Context
Metaphor for Self as Context
SAF experientials
Values
The power of values
Values vs. scripts or goals
Obstacles to clarifying values
Values clarification
Values-based action plan
Metaphors for clarifying values
Committed Action
Benefits of values-based moves
Pivoting from default to intention
Using functional inquiry to stay on track
Obstacles to committed action
Committed action metaphor:
Committed action experiential
Pulling it all together
Embodying ACT to be a psychologically flexible clinician
Workability as a guide
ACT case conceptualization
Pop culture examples
Integrating other therapies with ACT
Common obstacles to PF in therapy
Structure
This is a 1-day training is available ON-DEMAND.
Investment
From $224.99