A whole new way to practice therapy

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is, at its heart, a process-based therapy. Developed by Paul Gilbert, CFT can have a synergetic effect on other therapeutic approaches. CFT intervention ‘kernels’ or components can neatly be applied to a PBT intervention plan, especially in the early stages of therapy. Practices which down-regulate the body can enable clients to be more receptive to therapeutic intervention, such as soothing-rhythm breathing, Compassionate Imagery and psychoeducation about the Tricky Brain. This talk will cover the theory, relevant research and experiential practice of core CFT practices, and demonstrate their application within a PBT approach. We will focus on core CFT processes that can serve as a powerful precursor for therapeutic intervention, and enhance client engagement.

Dr Madeleine Fraser is a researcher, senior lecturer, and registered clinical psychologist. In her academic role, she is course coordinator of the Clinical Masters in Psychology program and works with future generations of clinical psychologists. She is an active self-compassion researcher, and her published findings inform her work as a clinical psychologist and educator.

“Good sleepers do nothing.” Why, then, when sleep eludes us, do both individuals and professionals instinctively try to control it? This session will provide an exploration of how ACT can be effectively applied to improve sleep by moving beyond the traditional CBT for Insomnia model focused on symptom reduction. We will critically examine how control-based behaviors and sleep inflexibility can exacerbate poor sleep and insomnia, and how fostering a more accepting and compassionate stance can facilitate natural sleep. Participants will learn to integrate key ACT processes such as acceptance, cognitive defusion, present moment awareness, values-based living, and self-compassion into their clinical practice. By shifting the therapeutic focus from eliminating sleep disturbances to transforming the client’s relationship with sleep, clinicians can support the emergence of natural, restorative sleep. This webinar offers an opportunity to deepen your understanding of the benefits and application of ACT for effectively treating chronic insomnia.

Dr. Guy Meadows, co-founder of Sleep School, is a leading figure in chronic insomnia treatment. He has been instrumental in developing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Insomnia and regularly conducts therapist training sessions on the subject. Dr. Meadows authored “The Sleep Book – How to Sleep Well Every Night” (Orion, 2014) and launched the Sleep School App in 2021, both specializing in applying ACT for chronic insomnia.

Process-based therapy (PBT) promises to transform treatment by moving beyond one-size-fits all protocols to a personalized model of change for each unique client. The idea of applying the PBT model clinically once seemed daunting without a strong statistical background in idiographic science. Nevertheless, the advent of technology for collecting longitudinal data and emerging software is making this ambitious vision a reality. In our work, we have explored the feasibility of idiographic network methods using trichotillomania as an exemplar population, where the primary treatment goal is to reduce hair pulling. To develop a PBT framework for trichotillomania, we adapted the extended evolutionary meta model to identify unique processes of change specific to the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional experiences of individuals with trichotillomania. We employed idionomic network analysis which allowed us to derive personalized process-based networks for each individual and identify the common patterns between them, which were few. Throughout this journey, we encountered several logistical obstacles, including measurement development, collecting intensive longitudinal data, selecting appropriate processes to include in the network, and interpreting network models from a clinical perspective. In this presentation, we will share the exciting findings and clinical takeaways from our applied work with the PBT model. Additionally, we hope our example can shed light on the logistical nuances of applying network science to implement PBT, thereby offering practically helpful insights to support researchers and clinicians.

Mercedes Woolley is a doctoral student in the ACT Research Group at Utah State University supervised by Michael E. Levin, PhD and Michael P. Twohig, PhD. Mercedes is interested in advancing processed based treatment approaches for OCD and related problems and has been working to adapt a model of PBT for those with trichotillomania.

Michael E. Levin, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for MindGrapher. His research focuses on the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital technologies to address mental health concerns for a range of populations.

Michael P. Twohig, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University and has contributed over 200 scholarly works on ACT across a diverse range of disorders. He has specialized knowledge in OCD and related conditions and is a leading expert in treating trichotillomania.

The correspondence between saying and doing – what we say we did versus what we did, or what we say we will do versus what actually occurs and the reasons we give – breaks down with many neurodegenerative insults or diseases, such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or Lewy bodies disease. While verbal behavior may not match past or unfolding events, it nevertheless maintains its social functions both in your office and out in the world. Understanding these functions is the key to maintaining significant relationships and living well with cognitive loss. The work with people with cognitive loss provides unique opportunities for learning how to conduct ongoing comprehensive functional analyses that combine the results of nomothetic tools (e.g., from neuropsychology) with those of idiographic assessments (e.g., medical records; interviews, client-centered measures to document patterns over time) to arrive at individually tailored interventions that maintain quality of life for persons with cognitive loss and families. Attendees will learn how to understand the impact of attributions and other narratives (“stories”) on the lives of individuals with cognitive loss and their care partners; how to organize and integrate complex information, and how to prepare for collaborative intervention planning with individuals and families.

Susan McCurry, PhD, is Research Professor Emeritus at University of Washington and a practicing clinical geropsychologist in Seattle. She is a founding member of the ACBS Aging in Context special interest group, with particular specialization supporting psychological health in older adults across the cognitive continuum and in their community care partners.

Claudia Drossel, PhD, is an associate professor at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), a licensed clinical psychologist, and a researcher who specializes in contextual approaches to case formulations. She directs EMU’s Center for the Advancement of Neurobehavioral Health. Her work focuses on late-life behavioral health, including the assessment and management of emotional and behavioral changes associated with cognitive loss, and she offers specialty training in the modular application of evidence-based practices with caregivers and adults aged 60 and older at EMU’s outpatient Community Behavioral Health Clinic.

Treatment for disabling chronic pain, perhaps more than any other condition, is widely delivered in group settings. And this is highly popular with treatment participants and clinicians, which is understandable. At the same time, even those who believe in group treatment will see its limitations. After all, how does one efficiently and effectively meet the needs of each individual in the context of a group? This talk will discuss the why and how. How shall we evolve treatments with a predominant group focus into treatments that incorporate an individualized focus on processes of change.

Lance McCracken, PhD, is Professor and Head of Division of Clinical Psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden. He has done several things that were quite new at the time: a first published paper on a facet of what is now known as psychological flexibility in people with chronic pain in 1998, helped launch the first ACT-based specialty chronic pain service in the UK in 2000, and initiated a research group with a focus on idiographic and process-focused research in chronic pain in 2018.

We are living in a time when three unfolding parallel stories hold critical significance: Business as Usual, The Great Unravelling, and The Great Turning (Macy & Johnstone, 2022). While few of us are unaware of these stories, facing the facts and feelings of our climate and related crises can be a shocking, overwhelming, and painful awakening. Resourcing our inner and expressive worlds with psychological flexibility and relational skills can help transform our pain into purpose and cultivate collaborative and liberating action needed to pivot toward The Great Turning. This presentation will unpack the three stories and draw on contextual behavioral science (i.e., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and ProSocial approaches), relational/affective science and application (e.g., Emotion Focused Therapy), and climate psychology to suggest perspectives and process-based exercises to engage our thinking, feeling and motivational centers toward collective action. These exercises are/will become part of the PsychFlex library in the program called “Climate distress and resilience.”

Viveka Ramel, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco, CA. She co-taught the first course on climate psychology at Lund University, Sweden, and offers lectures and workshops on psychological and behavioral dimensions of the climate crisis. She consults with organizations and groups seeking to apply and integrate climate awareness and action, prosociality, psychological flexibility, mindfulness, and mental sustainability into their cultures.

Modern approaches to self-esteem have shifted from "esteem enhancement" interventions to promoting self-acceptance. Self-acceptance, fostered through a healthy, flexible relationship with oneself and guided by values-driven actions, leads to well-being and emotional health. Obstacles to self-acceptance include a self-relationship dominated by an unhelpful self-concept that hinders emotional health and values-based actions.

RFT-informed selfing interventions, designed to reduce the dominance of these unhelpful self-concepts, are crucial for increasing flexibility and laying the foundation for self-acceptance. Drawing on the model outlined in his book, The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Self Esteem (co-authored with Richard Bennett, New Harbinger, 2020), Joe will train participants on one key component of the model: strengthening hierarchical framing and flexible perspective taking in relation to unhelpful dominant self-concepts.

The training will emphasize case conceptualization and skill development, providing clear and measurable methods for promoting self-acceptance. Joe will use client examples and demonstrations to offer concrete examples of how this work can be conducted, maximizing learning opportunities.

Dr. Joe Oliver is a consultant clinical psychologist, founder of Contextual Consulting, and associate professor at University College London. Dr. Oliver is an active member of the Association of Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS), a peer-reviewed ACT trainer, and an ACBS fellow. He regularly provides ACT training both nationally and internationally and has authored six ACT books, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy & Mindfulness for Psychosis and The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Self Esteem.

This workshop will delve into the rich history and modern relevance of nonattachment. Discover the scientific theories that support nonattachment and its links to prosociality and well-being. Learn practical strategies to incorporate the principles of nonattachment into your client work and daily life. This workshop is designed for accessibility and practicality.

Joseph Ciarrochi, PhD, is a professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University. He has published more than 165 scientific journal articles and many books, including the widely acclaimed Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life and The Weight Escape. He is ranked in the top 1% of scientists in the world across all disciplines, and he has been instrumental in the development of Process-Based Therapy, which cohesively integrates various therapeutic change processes and interventions, aiming to enrich therapeutic practice and tailor interventions to individuals.

Dr. Baljinder Kaur Sahdra is a full-time researcher at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, Australia. She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. She has made substantial scientific contributions in the areas of well-being, mindfulness, compassion, nonattachment, intensive meditation, discrimination and social identity, compulsive internet use, educational psychology, and personalized psychology.

Exposure therapy should be a cornerstone to everyone’s therapy for anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders. Some people have shied away from exposures because they seem overwhelming for the client or therapist. With a firm grasp on what exposure therapy is, it can be relatively straightforward to implement, and its proper use should boost outcomes. I have been training graduate students and professions to implement exposure therapy for anxiety disorders for my entire career. The most common errors I see in the use of exposure therapy is thinking too simplistically about the practice and not individualizing the work. In this training, you will learn a way to look at exposure therapy that is personalized and expansive. You will learn how to deeply target what your client is anxious about or fearful of. You will learn how to choose exposure exercises that match your client’s struggles. I will teach you how to keep the client connected to the most useful stimuli and emotions. We will learn how detect when a client is improving. Finally, we will work on keeping clients engaged in the exercises.

Michael P. Twohig, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University and has contributed over 200 scholarly works on ACT across a diverse range of disorders. He has specialized knowledge in OCD and related conditions and is a leading expert in treating trichotillomania.