Tuesday 31st May, 2022
9am – 11.30am UK/ BST time; 6pm – 8.30pm Sydney Time/ AEST. CLICK HERE to convert to your local time
Online Webinar + recording
Presenter: Dr. Russ Harris
Please note: you can still access the recording for 3 months even if you are not able to make the live event
All of us – whether we’re a newbie therapist, or whether we’ve been in the profession for many years – find that at times we get stuck in session because of our own fusion and avoidance.
We may get fused with rigid rules – “I have to do it perfectly”, “I must not make mistakes”, “The client can’t leave my room until they are feeling good” – or unrealistic expectations – “I have to fix this”, “I have to solve all their problems”, “I have to take their pain away”. Or we may get hooked by our fears: fear of upsetting or invalidating the client; fear of getting it wrong or making mistakes; fear of looking foolish; fear of negative reactions or evaluations.
Or we may be unwilling to make room for the anxiety of taking risks, trying new things, leaving our comfort zones. Or we may become fused with the client’s sense of hopelessness – and end up feeling hopeless ourselves. Or we may become fixated on the need to have an ACT-congruent outcomes – and start trying to convince or persuade the client.
We may get hooked by self-doubt, self-judgment or impostor syndrome. Or we may fuse with harsh judgments or unhelpful beliefs about the client: “They don’t really want to get better!” Or we may unfairly compare ourselves to ACT gurus. And the list just goes on, and on, and on.
And of course, just like everyone else on the planet, when we’re fused and avoidant, we act in self-defeating ways. We do things that take us away from the ACT model: we become louder or more directive; or we turn into a fixer or problem-solver or we move into reflective listening and “supportive counselling”; or we make the classic mistake of “talking about ACT instead of doing it”; or we fall back on other models with which we feel more comfortable. And then we beat ourselves up for doing ACT badly!
So what can we do about it?
Well, the good news is … a lot!
And that’s why this webinar is all about you.
It’s an opportunity to work on yourself, and learn:
How to recognise your own personal barriers to doing ACT effectively
How to apply ACT on yourself, to overcome those barriers
How to make good use of your own “negative” reactions in session
When your session has stalled or derailed, how to rapidly get it back on track
How to take care of yourself when sessions go badly
Russ likes to include live demonstrations in his webinars – so if you are willing to work with him on one or more of your own personal barriers, please let us know in advance.
Suitable for intermediate and advanced level practitioners. (Basic ACT knowledge is assumed).
Note: the webinar is supposed to last 2.5 hours, but sometimes Russ runs over, so please allow for 3 hours, just in case. (Of course, if he does run over but you can’t hang around, it’s not an issue; you can always watch the recording afterwards.)