Kizito Wamala, Uganda
At the conference
I was a scholarship winner; I was fully facilitated by ACBS to participate in the WC16. I arrived at the conference venue, the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth, on 23rd July 2018. I participated in very educative and skills-building pre-conference workshops that were conducted for two full days – 24th and 25th July. I participated also in the conference symposia and trainings on 26th to 29th during which I also presented a poster on my work in Uganda – a copy was submitted to the organizing contact. At the conference, I benefitted beyond my expectation. I learnt so many new things from experiences of great ACBS experts for example meeting with Steven Hayes, Kelley Wilson, Robyn D Walser; research findings; experiences in practice and research of many presenters and facilitators; met new people for professional and personal friends; and received a Certificate of Participation in the Continuing Education Activity of ACBS World Conference 16.
Post-Conference
On return to Uganda, I engaged myself in four main activities:
1. Promotion of ACT theory and therapy among practicing counselors. I started with compiling materials, especially for training counselors and psychologists in the North of Uganda. I was able to convince my line manager to include 8 hours of training on Introduction to ACT in my organisational clinical capacity building training program. That program was and still is a 300-hours training in counseling theoretical approaches and skills plus 45-hours of clinical supervision spread over a period of 11 months per year. Participants in the program are counselors and psychologists working with different organisations and institutions where their main job is offering counseling to organisational clients. On 2nd October 2018, I was able to conduct the first 8-hour training on Introduction to ACT with thirteen (17) trainees plus my line manager and a psychotherapist/ trainer of The center for Victims of Torture (CVT). Thereafter, the psychotherapist/trainer recommended that the staff of my organisation – CVT – also receive the same training. On 15th October 2018, I conducted the same 8-hour training with seven (7) CVT staff. The feedback given by participants of both trainings was very positive. All the participants acknowledged that ACT was a new concept, process and approach of counseling for them and that they needed more hours of theoretical input, practice and supervision in order ground their skills in using ACT for themselves and for their clients. I have already scheduled to conduct the same ACT training in October 2019 with 19 trainees who have enrolled for our clinical capacity building.
2. Consistent use of ACT in my work with my clients. CVT as an organisation doesn’t subscribe to ACT as the organisational therapeutic approach but neither does it prevent its staff from using ACT as a personally preferred approach in individual counseling. I therefore decided to use ACT consistently in my individual sessions and I am witness to the positive feedback that I frequently receive from my clients relating to their experiences in ACT. I feel very satisfied with that feedback and I am committed to continuing with ACT as my first line therapeutic approach.
3. I consistently facilitate mindfulness exercises with my organisational clinical team at both individual and group supervision sessions that I conduct every week. This has been our practice since September 2018. I feel happy and proud to report that my team enjoys the exercises because, they say, those exercises bring each one to the present moment enabling them to experience life as it is. All my six team members (my supervisees) have reported back to me that since we started the practices in mindfulness, their lives have greatly changed. They struggle less with both past and future bothers and life is more livable than before in terms of both personal private lives and life at work.
4. And at the moment, I am personally writing my PhD project aiming at carrying out a randomised controlled clinical trial using ACT for treatment of Trauma in Uganda. Having used ACT consistently for the last six or so months, I find its efficacy promising for my context in Uganda. I therefore think that engaging myself in validating it with evidence will be a great contribution to ACBS and the evidence-base of therapeutic approaches in developing nations, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. This points to a great hope for ACBS’ future here in the developing world.
Challenges
1. Working in the north of Uganda, far away from Kampala, has disabled me from participating in peer supervision sessions with my colleagues of the ACT special-interest group that was initiated by Dr. Kasujja Rosco. I am very grateful however that whenever I meet clinical challenges related to my use of ACT, Dr. Kasujja Rosco makes efforts to avail himself to me. He is very supportive and very generous with time, reading and visual materials.
2. My new contract with my organisation has barred me from lecturing for universities. I have therefore lost the opportunity of introducing ACT at Bugema University.
3. This report has no pictures because my organisation protects its clients and stakeholders’ confidentiality very strictly and I believe that it’s okay. Therefore, you cannot see any pictorials which sometimes say more about the report narratives of activities.
Conclusion
The scholarship I received from the ACBS was a great honor and opportunity for me to participate in such a high caliber professional world conference in Montréal in 2018. The benefits of my participation are and will remain innumerable for me personally and for my country and beyond. I commend ACBS for their decision and effort to facilitate some interested professionals, to such conferences, who cannot afford on their own. It is one of the many ways ACBS is supporting the promotion of quality evidence-based mental health practices in the developing world and the world-over. Thank you so much ACBS.
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