Our clients get stuck in their thoughts, feelings, behavioral patterns, and personal narratives. And we, as helpers, get stuck in our own. These corresponding forms of rigidity are both a primary cause for clients’ suffering and a driver of helplessness, frustration, and burnout in helpers. ACT provides a coherent and powerful set of strategies for moving both clients and helpers toward greater psychological flexibility and fulfillment—from suffering to thriving.

About ACT

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a contemporary form of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that has shown much promise in helping clients with a wide range of emotional and behavioral difficulties. ACT introduces a comprehensive model of human functioning and change including a creative set of metaphors and experiential exercises to help clients (a) move away from unworkable change strategies, (b) make healthy contact with thoughts, feelings, and other private reactions they have feared and avoided, (c) re-connect with their deepest values to set a direction for change and to motivate change, and (d) experience their struggles differently and in a manner that permits them to move forward with their lives now.

ACT views clients as stuck rather than sick and understands psychological rigidity and experiential avoidance as parts of the human condition. ACT is effective for helping clients with a wide range of emotional, psychological, and behavioral difficulties. It combines the wisdom and effectiveness of motivational interviewing, mindfulness practices and behavioral activation.  ACT uses experiential exercises and metaphors to engage clients and move them past fruitless symptom reduction and toward lives centered on meaning and purpose. By integrating ACT into your practice, you can help your clients to:

• Unhook from persistent unhelpful thoughts

• Be more present

• Accept and carry what cannot be changed

• Focus on what is most important in their lives

• Take committed action toward their values

• Have a kinder and more realistic view of themselves

Using a combination of didactic presentation and experiential exercises, this workshop will introduce the ACT model, philosophy, and core concepts of psychological rigidity and flexibility. Attendees will leave this training with a basic understanding of ACT approaches and with specific interventions they can employ immediately.  Day 2 will build on the overview and provide more in-depth focus on additional interventions and practice to enhance flexibility.  

Day 1

Overview of model

• Illustrate the power of language and normal mental processes to amplify pain into suffering

• Understand the limits of control

• Describe the roles of experiential avoidance in psychopathology and suffering

• Introduce the ACT hexaflex as a clinical frame

• Identify the six core processes of psychological rigidity

• Describe the six core processes of psychological flexibility

Day 2:

Focus on experiential activities to practice engaging and moving the six core processes of the hexaflex, using clinical examples, exercises, demonstrations, and practice.

• Getting intensely present

• Practice flexible perspective-taking

• Being open, radical acceptance

• Disengaging from sticky thoughts and feelings

• Beyond “values clarification,” making values present

• Getting moving, values-oriented behavior activation

Target Audience:

Mental and Behavioral Health Professionals, Social Workers, Psychologists, Physicians, Nurses, Therapists, Counseling Staff, Alcohol and Drug Counselors, and clinical staff in mental health, substance abuse, co-occurring, behavioral or health settings. This workshop is a combination of didactic material, individual reflections, group discussion, and experiential activities.  

12 CEUS for LCSWs, LCPCs, LMFTs, LADCs, CCSs. Psychology and Alcohol and Drug approval is pending. (MAINE only)

Presenters:

Joel Guarna, PhD has been licensed as a psychologist for over 20 years and has delivered behavioral health care in various roles for almost 30 years. He has broad proficiency working as a generalist in 15 years of private practice and particular depth in areas such as health psychology, managing chronic health conditions, treating chronic pain, and addictions treatment. His expertise includes treatment modalities such as ACT, CBT, mindfulness-based approaches, and group therapy. Joel has extensive experience with program development. He developed and ran an intensive outpatient treatment program for substance use at the Brockton VAMC and co-directed the Living Life Well Pain Rehabilitation Program at the Pain Center at Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine as faculty in the Department of Family Medicine. In his primary role as Behavioral Health Faculty Lead at the MMC Family Medicine Residency, he develops the behavioral health curriculum and delivers didactic presentations. He is a regular presenter in other departments of the Maine Health system, including Addiction Medicine, Behavioral Health Integration, and the Advanced Fellows Seminar. Focusing on ACT alone, he has delivered approximately 50 presentations and workshops, both locally in Maine and New England, as well as at regional and international conferences from Seattle to London. He maintains a (small) private practice in Portland serving adults with a special focus on “helping helpers.” He was a founding member of the Southern Maine Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (SMACT) community.

Teresa Valliere, LCSW, LADC, CCS is an individual therapist, group facilitator, clinical supervisor and trainer with 25 years of experience in a variety of settings. She was director of inpatient services for a women’s substance abuse and co-occurring disorders residential programs;  led an Assertive Community Treatment team;  supervised a large detoxification and rehabilitation center specializing in co–occurring disorders, relapse prevention and early recovery for men and women; facilitated groups for anger management and with domestic violence offenders. For the last 16 years she has been facilitating trainings on addiction, mental illness, co-occurring disorders, and supervision for a wide variety of agencies and organizations in Maine. She served as adjunct faculty for North Carolina State University, University of New England and University of Southern Maine in social work and counseling. She currently serves as visiting faculty in the psychiatry residents program at Maine Medical Center (Tufts Medical School). She has expertise in trauma and recovery, relational theory, motivational interviewing, acceptance and commitment therapy, group facilitation and clinical supervision.  She maintains a private practice in Portland Maine serving adults with a special focus on caring for professionals in mental health, medical, legal and other helping professions through training, supervision, and direct counseling. She has been a member of the Southern Maine Acceptance and Commitment Therapy [SMACT] peer supervision community since 2009.

This training takes place at the Woodfords Club in Portland where there is plenty of parking on-site. Morning and afternoon refreshments are included. Lunch is available at several local restaurants within walking distance. Kitchen facilities for bringing your own meal are available (microwave, refrigerator.)

Check in begins at 8:00AM. Workshop runs 8:30AM-4:00PM with a morning and afternoon breaks, and 1 hour lunch.

Registration Information:

Register now for “super early bird” registration rate of $189. Rate good through first day of winter: Dec 21.

Regular registration: $229