Greetings from Malaysia!

I can still feel the excitement while writing this dissemination report seven months after attending the ACBS World Conference 13 in Berlin. It was my first international conference, and this was made possible because of ACBS Developing Nation Scholarship. I am very grateful for the learning opportunity and am committed to share my learning back in my home country. This dissemination report will briefly describe my initial dissemination activities thus far and the future plans.

In contrast to learning from written materials, the six days conference has provided me with great conceptual and experiential learning on ACT, adding valuable amount of my repertoire on the application of the psychological flexibility processes. With the effective training method, the two days preconference workshops on ACT skill building by Steven Hayes has especially given me a good balanced of theoretical and practical input on ACT. During the conference, I attended workshops in accordance to my interest in young people and chronic pain, trying to gain as much as I can within the six days.

After returning to Malaysia, I started utilizing ACT modality with greater confidence in my private practice with individuals with mental disorders. For group work, I have also started to facilitate the participants' psychological flexibility to increase their work functioning while conducting a Return to Work program. In my work at pain clinic Hospital Kuala Lumpur, I have started to incorporate ACT approach to guild patients to manage chronic pain.

In addition to some informal sharing with my colleagues in Malaysia, I have organized a workshop on managing exam anxiety with ACT for students in Methodist College Kuala Lumpur in October 2015. In February 2016, I will be facilitating another ACT workshop on increasing psychological flexibility for special needs children in the Special Education Network in Asia Conference (SENIA).

For prospective plans, after securing a good funding, I will start my doctorate study on the area of ACT for young people with pain condition under Dr Lance McCracken. I am also looking for opportunities to observe ACT chronic pain group program, as I wish to implement one in the pain clinic that I am working in. Besides that, I plan to equip myself on the use of ACT on young children by attending workshops by Louise Hayes. Lastly, my longterm goal is to become a peer review trainer and share this wonderful approach and community to my fellow colleagues in Malaysia.

Thank you, ACBS!

With gratefulness,
Lee Sook Huey
Clinical Psychologist, Malaysia

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Are you wondering how you can help to disseminate CBS in the developing world through scholarship opportunities like this? Please consider donating to the Developing Nations Fund via Paypal by using the button below. Your donation will help us continue to bring attendees and presenters from developing nations to the ACBS world conference.

Every dollar/euro/yen goes to helping those in need -- not a nickel goes to administration. Money collected for this fund is distributed by an ACBS Developing Nations Fund committee. Scholarships are awarded based on need and merit.

 

Please note that this contribution does not qualify as a tax-deductible charitable contribution, according to USA tax law ... but it's a nice thing to do.

Report to ACBS on using ACT to train Lay Counselors in Afghanistan

Reported by Norman Gustavson, Phd

Feb. 17, 2016

First, thank you for your support and the ongoing work of ACBS

"Lay counseling" is a very new concept in Afghan communities attempting to deal with a vulnerable population dealing with many physical/structural demands and psychosocial issues.  In this project, in spite of the expected challenges, the volunteers who were trained were very determined in their community outreach and very enthusiastic about the tools that they acquired in the PARSA trainings.  This project demonstrated that the foundational work done this year has created the possibility of a healthy and effective community response to mental health issues. Methodology adapted from cognitive behavior therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) by Dr. Gustavson and Dr. Sabour proved effective in reaching clients in vulnerable communities.

During this period, three workshops on awareness of psychosocial problems and three trainings on “Introduction to Counseling Skills” were designed, developed and implemented in Kabul, Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces.

In the workshops on “Introduction to Counseling Skills” 53 people were certified as “Village Psychosocial Counselors” (VPSC) to provide counseling to clients in internal refugee camps in these three provinces on a volunteer basis.

These 53 VPSCs reached 793 people utilizing their "lay counseling" skills.

The first awareness workshop was held in Kabul in February 2015 for five days for 16 staff from WarChild-Canada (WCC). 

The second MH awarness training for staff of the WCC contract provider, “Organnization for Human Welfare” (OHW) in February for 17 participants, male and female staff of OHW.

The third staff development-awareness of MH issues workshop was conducted in Kandahar in April for staff of (OHW) with 17 staff participants.

The first trainings for Village Psychosocial Counselors (VSPC)was conducted in in April in Kabul’s Charahe Qambar “Internally Displace Persons” (IDP) refugee camp.

The second and third trainings for VPSCs were conducted in June in Kandahar and Jalalabad.  The training method included several hours of practical exercise from actual case studies as well as simplified case vignettes from the trainer’s clinics and International Assistance Mission (IAM) mental health clinic materials.

Methods:

Observing, listening without judging is a basic counseling skill that crosses many counseling methodologies as does “active listening” and form a basis for PARSA’s work.  What we have added are principles form Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), an evidence based program of training and therapy.  ACT does not focus on diagnosis but on the concerns of the client and helping the client to discover unworkable avoidance patterns that tend keep the client “stuck” in a “vicious cycle” that attempts to avoid painful, distressing feelings but that actually tend to keep the client focused on the painful emotions.  The focus of ACT is to foster acceptance of distress as it is while building on the clients stated (and elaborated values, i.e., who and what are truly important to the client.  The client is assisted to formulating behaviors they can take on that support these values.  Acceptance plus increases in valued behavior aid the client in improved functioning, i.e., living a more productive and valued life.  In this way an overview of psychosocial problems was developed for trainees without needing to go into great detail about psychopathology and diagnosis.  The orientation of counseling is pragmatic.

The model used to help trainees understand how clients get stuck in problematic patterns of behavior or “suffering” with negative emotions was drawn from the ACT approach known as “The Matrix” (“the ACT Matrix”, Edited by Kevin Polk, PhD and Benjamin Schoenhorff, MA, 2014, New Harbinger Publications, Inc.).

The Matrix was used to develop both a way of conceptualizing a clients issues; a focus on recognizing things that trigger problem behavioral reactions or emotions and a path for finding more productive behaviors while learning to accept negative feelings as they come up without getting fixated on them.  The basic approach has counselors help clients list what and who is really valuable to the client and then use these values to develop positive actions toward personal goals instead of getting caught in behaviors or feelings they have learned in an attempt to avoid unwanted feelings and reactions.  For example actions to engage in social activity that is valued, like doing things with friends and family instead of trying to avoid negative feelings by self-isolating, drug use or other escape behaviors.

Outcomes:

The success of this program is quantifiable and exceeded our expectations. Using 53 volunteers at a low level of education trained to be Village Psychosocial Counselors (VPSC's), PARSA has documented an outreach to 793 beneficiaries in IDP camps in Kabul, Kandahar, and Nangarhar by the completion of the first year program.

 

Beneficiaries served	VPSC	Beneficiairies
Total number of VPSC male clients in Kabul	9	97
Total number of VPSC female clients in Kabul	4	346
Total number of VPSC male clients in Kandahar	11	4
Total number of VPSC female clients in Kandahar	9	126
Total number of VPSC male clients in Jalalabad	11	80
Total number of VPSC female clients in Jalalabad	9	140
Total beneficiaries who participated in the VPSC outreach	53	793

 

In Kabul the training started in two separate locations for male and female groups and was conducted for 10 women and 12 men.

The VPSC workshop in Kandahar was conducted May 30th through June 5th for 11 females, and in a concurrent but separate workshop during the same dates for 14 males.

In Jalalabad the VPSC workshop was conducted from June 13th through the 17th in concurrent groups for 16 females and 17 males.  The trainees were a group of men and women from districts where IDPs were living (Daman District).

In addition to traditional training components for lay counselors like “active listening” and taking a nonjudgmental stance in relation to the client with whom the counselor is working, the ACT Matrix was used to help the VPSCs to listen for and share with clients the experiential avoidance patters that clients revealed as their issues or “struggles”.  A (I believe) new exercise was also developed (shown in our Poster) called “this is not a tree”.  Here participants were asked to recall an early image of “tree” as they learned to associate the word with objects in their environment and then to draw their personal image of “tree”.  The next step was for them to add to the drawing an early experience associated with their “tree” (to other things and actions in the larger “frame” of their tree.  After sharing their tree and related story/frame the ‘take away’ from the exercise was for the trainees to see that no ones “tree” and framework is any better than anyone else’s.  no ones tree is more or less valid than any other person’s.  All points of view are valid.  This work supported other exercises to build a nonjudgmental stance in relation to their clients.  The exercise also helped to reinforce the idea of observing and giving feedback to clients on patterns of avoidance and behaviors that move toward who and what is important without advise giving, i.e., helping clients discover and sort out unworkable patterns of behavior from moves toward their stated values.

The matrix exercise was done with individuals creating their own matrix using pictures to past into the four quadrants of the matrix.  This was a very success process based on presentations each participant made to describe their own matrix of values, internal (mental) thoughts and feelings, actions to avoid these feelings (stuck places) and new behaviors to move toward values to enrich their lives.

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Are you wondering how you can help to disseminate CBS in the developing world through scholarship opportunities like this? Please consider donating to the Developing Nations Fund via Paypal by using the button below. Your donation will help us continue to bring attendees and presenters from developing nations to the ACBS world conference.

Every dollar/euro/yen goes to helping those in need -- not a nickel goes to administration. Money collected for this fund is distributed by an ACBS Developing Nations Fund committee. Scholarships are awarded based on need and merit.

 

Please note that this contribution does not qualify as a tax-deductible charitable contribution, according to USA tax law ... but it's a nice thing to do.

My name is Mario Maricic, and I have been awarded a scholarship for Developing Nations ACBS World Conference in Berlin 2015. It`s been a long time since I was in Berlin and enthusiasm I felt there is somewhat present here. Beautiful people and World Class teachers. For me, it was as I have been to the Moon.

I would like to reflect on activities that my colleagues and I have done after WC13. Over the past ten months, a lot of things was going on. For the first time, I was part of the ACT training in Serbia, as a workshop co-facilitator with my mentor and teacher Igor Krnetic, Ph.D.

Since Berlin, ACT is what I'm practicing and learning with the clients and colleagues I see daily, although I was practicing ACT for and with myself for years.
In December of 2014, my professor and I had created and started an Association for promoting and developing psychotherapeutic practice and science "Center for Mindfulness". Under that roof, we have begun with Student counseling services in October 2015. Students from the University of Banjaluka (Bosnia&Herzegowina) now can get counseling and can get into psychological treatment based on 3rd wave behavioral therapies free of charge. We have started continuous peer support and supervision in Center for Mindfulness, for therapists who work with the students.
(see our Facebook page)

Also, we had started group activities with the goal to promote, create and practice living meaningful lives. We had started a pilot project named "Practicing, developing and building meaningful lives". This group offers support for psychotherapists and non-psychologists in the area. We all learn and practice to respond to others needs with authentic courage and love and spread and share those experiences with our families, friends, clients, etc. We had used an online app to organize these activities (see link http://www.meetup.com/Banja-Luka-Mindfulnes-Meetup/)

In the March 2016., we had organized an event for promoting mental health in the local community "Days of mental health in local community - Banja Luka". We had five days of different events with the focus on creating peer support groups in the local community, and with a particular interest in persons with psychotic experience, and hearing voices.

I would like to thank all of you who made it possible for me to attend ACBS world conference in Berlin. Thank you all who made some effort and support people like me, and countries like mine. I would like to say thanks personally to a big-hearted Kristin Marjalla from Norway who financially supports me even these days, months after the World Conference 13 and who is investing in my personal and professional future. I want to say thanks to Dr. Igor Krnetic, my mentor, who is supportive beyond limits, warm and kind person who puts his efforts and made it possible for me and my colleagues to contribute to our local community and make a change. They both are investing in the future of my family, my friends, clients that I live and work with, investing into my colleagues trough me. Thank you! I could never say or do anything to match gratefulness I experience. Thank you all!

With kindness and love, Mario Maricic.

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Are you wondering how you can help to disseminate CBS in the developing world through scholarship opportunities like this? Please consider donating to the Developing Nations Fund via Paypal by using the button below. Your donation will help us continue to bring attendees and presenters from developing nations to the ACBS world conference.

Every dollar/euro/yen goes to helping those in need -- not a nickel goes to administration. Money collected for this fund is distributed by an ACBS Developing Nations Fund committee. Scholarships are awarded based on need and merit.

 

Please note that this contribution does not qualify as a tax-deductible charitable contribution, according to USA tax law ... but it's a nice thing to do.

ACCEPTANCE & COMMITMENT THERAPY IN UGANDA: 12 MONTHS ON
Time has flown since the Worldcon in July last year and so many things have been happening. I want to first thank everyone at ACBS for creating and supporting the opportunity for me to attend the conference in Berlin. I would like to especially thank Ross White, Jennifer Gregg, and everyone else who made me feel so comfortable when hosting me while so far from home, and giving me greater insight into life in Berlin. I have to say that I felt so welcome and supported all throughout my stay in Berlin. Thanks too, to Courtney and the rest of the organizers.

The pre-conference workshop I attended was presented by Steve Hayes on Advanced ACT. I personally found the workshop to be very enriching and inspiring, and I began to apply what I had learned to my personal process and my work with individual clients immediately. The workshop offered me an opportunity to experience ACT as an individual which gave me confidence to use it further. It’s now my first choice in my private practice. I have got to say that most clients here in Uganda also respond well to ACT.

I personally receive supervision from Ingrid who is based in Cape Town, South Africa. This has offered me an invaluable opportunity to have someone guide me through my case whenever I get stuck but also, just to have another person guiding me while I take on ACT. She has been extremely supportive and understanding because some times power or internet do not enable us to start on time but she is always willing to attend to me whenever I need her. She has been so supportive that it made my work seem so worth it. I had an opportunity to take on Matthew’s online course which runs for a year but the internet and the very busy schedule couldn’t allow me to complete. I still feel awful about not completing it but, I guess sometimes things like that happen.

In November last year we had a visitor from Bosnia (Igor) who visited Uganda for two weeks and offered ACT training workshops to over 40 students of psychology. These students were from three different programs including the Masters of Arts in Counseling (12 students), Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology (25), and Post-Graduate Diploma in Counseling Psychology (3). Some of these students had already benefitted from an Introductory course from Ross White who had visited Uganda the previous year. The coming of Igor boosted the students’ motivation and passion for ACT. In fact, most of them are continuing to use ACT as their major approach during psychotherapy. In December last year we had a visitor from UK (Taslim) who also conducted a half day workshop on ACT to over 60 students of psychology. This was a very interesting group of students (partly because more than 15 students were from the organizational psychology department).

I have also done an introductory presentation on ACT to a group of mental health professionals including a Clinical Psychologist who works with African Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV), and another School Psychologist who works with two International Secondary Schools here in Uganda. These mental health workers continue to use ACT in their day to day work are part of the team forming the Uganda Chapter.

Makerere University has now officially embraced ACT and I am receiving support to continue offering short courses and supervision to students on all post-graduate psychology programs. I continue to look for volunteers who are willing to come and offer support. In fact, as I speak with have someone from Denmark (Anne Anderson) who is going to be with the students for a month just to part of an ACT workshop series that will be running at Makerere University from the 19th of July until the 19th of August. This is very encouraging.
We are also expecting Joe Oliver to come over to Uganda some times in December. This will surely benefit the first years who are coming in this August. I hope that Joe Oliver will be keen on meeting a group of mental health workers who also are thirsty for more trainings. These attended Dr, Ross White’s introductory course but have since then not got so much attention. I also continue to coordinate the nurse’s stress reduction program using ACT. Cerdic Hall is supporting that program and both of us continue to work together.
There’s a very good opportunity for ACT to continue growing but sometimes both time and money remain a constraint.

Thank you again to all of those that have supported this wonderful opportunity.

Regards,
Rosco Kasujja
Kampala, Uganda.

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Are you wondering how you can help to disseminate CBS in the developing world through scholarship opportunities like this? Please consider donating to the Developing Nations Fund via Paypal by using the button below. Your donation will help us continue to bring attendees and presenters from developing nations to the ACBS world conference.

Every dollar/euro/yen goes to helping those in need -- not a nickel goes to administration. Money collected for this fund is distributed by an ACBS Developing Nations Fund committee. Scholarships are awarded based on need and merit.

 

Please note that this contribution does not qualify as a tax-deductible charitable contribution, according to USA tax law ... but it's a nice thing to do.