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ACT in New England List: First Message, Feb 2008

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ACT in New England List
Mailing #1: 2/05/08
Contents:
1. Welcome
2. ACT Trainings in New England
3. Other Trainings
4. General ACT News and Updates
a. Summer Institute in Chicago
b. ACBS now has values-based dues
c. Learning ACT resources
d. New ACT books
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1. Welcome! This is the first posting of the ACT in New England List. The primary purpose of this list is to inform New Englanders of upcoming ACT training opportunities in the area. A secondary purpose is to begin cultivating the budding ACT community here. New England is not yet a hotbed of ACT activity but I hope that we can grow a sizable community from this tiny seed. Regarding the future of this list: I am open to any and all ideas. I do have a specific request: If you hear about any sort of ACT training in New England, please let me know so I can get the info up on the site and out to the list ASAP. And if you are having a training of your own, please let me know and I will help to create a listing for you.

Regarding the emails: I know we all get too much email these days. These mailings will be infrequent and relatively simple. For the time-being, I will send them in this text format to be sure everyone can read the content. I will provide links to the website: www.actinnewengland.com (in case you haven’t seen it yet…), to the ACBS site, and other relevant sites for more detailed info.

2. ACT Trainings in New England. There is currently one ACT training in New England in the next few months. Elizabeth Kubik and I (Joel Guarna), both psychologists in private practice in Portland, will be doing a one-day training in Portland, Maine on June 20, 2008 from 9 to 4:30. Maine is beautiful in June! How can you pass up a tax-deductible trip to Maine?! Click HERE for details.

3. Other Trainings. Kevin Polk, psychologist at the VA in Togus, Maine, and his colleague, Patt Aptaker, will be running a telephone training series over 8 sessions from March through July, 2008. This is exciting as it will be accessible to people interested in ACT but unable to find a local training. Free information sessions will be held via teleconference on February 13 and 20 at 4 pm. Click HERE for details.

Reminder: The full listing of ACT trainings nationwide and worldwide is available at the ACBS site.

4. General ACT News and Updates

a. Summer Institute in Chicago. The Fourth ACT Summer Institute will be held May 28-30, 2008 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Preconference workshops for persons new to ACT up to advanced practitioners will held the couple days prior. Click HERE for info on the Summer Institute.

If you have not yet been to an SI, I highly recommend it. I attended the SI in Philadelphia a couple of years ago and the World Conference in London last year—both were incredible events. There is no substitute for the intensive exposure to ACT that you can get at one of these events. Note also that Kevin Polk (see above) and his team are holding a preconference training on ACT Training Made Simple (Click HERE for details).

b. ACBS now has values-based dues. What is this about? The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), the professional home for many ACT therapists and so-called “fellow travelers,” has introduced values-based dues as something of an experiment. First, some context: ACBS, and its online home at HERE.

c. Learning ACT Resources. Jason Luoma and his colleagues recently published a book titled Learning ACT (available through New Harbinger) that includes expert guidance on learning basic and more advanced ACT skills. The book includes DVDs depicting ACT therapists in action. There is also a website and online forum to complement readers’ individual work: www.learningact.com . Check it out.

d. A rush of new ACT books have hit the shelves in the past year. These include Rob Zettle’s ACT for Depression, several self-help books for issues including depression, trauma and PTSD, chronic pain, and diabetes, and several resources for acquiring specific ACT skills. Many of these books can be found through the big online sellers. Most are available through New Harbinger. Russ Harris’s excellent ACT self-help book, The Happiness Trap, is currently only available in the U.S. through Context Press (I hear it will be more widely available in the U.S. later this year). The “third wave” is picking up – stay tuned!

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the update. Please send me your thoughts and feedback. Feel free to forward this to anyone you know to be interested in ACT.

Sincerely,
Joel
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Joel Guarna, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
25 Middle St
Portland, ME 04101
207-272-8500
www.whitepinepsych.com
Email: joel@actinmaine.com