Understanding ACT Assessment and Treatment: Not Just for Beginners

Understanding ACT Assessment and Treatment: Not Just for Beginners

Workshop Leader:
Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D.

This workshop will include:

• Multiple live demos by Dr. Wilson
• Experiential exercises
• Practice interviews
• Practice assessment components

In the workshop, we will use the structure of the Hexaflex Functional Dimensional Experiential Interview (HFDEI; from Mindfulness for Two, Wilson & DuFrene, 2009). This interview provides strong linkage between treatment, assessment, and case conceptualization. The HFDEI is an unusual interview. First, it doesn’t bow to syndromal classification. The user of the interview need not discard syndromal classification. Many circumstances require them. Although the diagnoses in the HFDEI are not DSM syndromes, many of the signs and symptoms required for DSM diagnoses will be elicited in the context of this interview. Second, the interview is organized around a dimensional understanding of psychological difficulties. Third, and probably most unusual, the interview contains significant experiential components. The interview for the hexaflex is not a mere series of questions, rather it involves a set of questions embedded in a series of experiential exercises. The exercises and questions will provide you with directly observable samples of client behavior that will allow for rating those behavior samples in terms of the six facets of the hexaflex. The entire interview is embedded in a series of questions about valued domains of living.

ACT is not a treatment aimed at the elimination of symptoms, rather it’s a treatment aimed at the enhancement and development of valued living. Because there’s an intimacy between values and vulnerabilities, an examination of values is a likely entry point to seeing the relationship between difficulties with behavior change processes on the one hand and mindfulness processes on the other. In addition, such an interview helps you and your client remain closely connected to the ACT model. Work with client struggles are always directed and dignified by valued living. Likewise progress in ACT is ultimately to be found in increases in valued living.

The workshop will involve a series of exercises and intensive practice with the HFDEI. Practice with the interview will be interspersed with LIVE DEMOS of interview segments. Participants will practice looking at each of the six facets of the hexaflex and will practice at case conceptualization. As is usual for me, this workshop will be highly experiential. In the workshop, we will mix the experiential and conceptual. This mixing itself is practice for the mixing of conceptual and experiential in our treatment. The interview can provide a framework for assessment and also for treatment. In a short version, the interview allows for the assessment of all six core ACT processes. The interview, in an extended form can serve as a template for the provision of treatment.

Prior to the workshop I will make workshop preparation materials available to attendees. For additional information, please contact me at kwilson@olemiss.edu

About Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D.: 

Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University at Mississippi. He was the first President of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, a Representative-at-Large of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and is one of the co-founders of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Dr. Wilson received his B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Gonzaga University and his Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno. After running a National Institutes on Drug Abuse clinical trial in Reno, he joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi in 2000 where he established the Mississippi Contextual Psychology Lab. Dr. Wilson is a devoted mentor a university-wide Elsie M. Hood Award for undergraduate teaching and also the University of Mississippi Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring. Dr. Wilson has devoted himself to the development and dissemination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and their underlying theory and philosophy for the past 28 years, publishing 53 articles, 38 chapters, and 11 books. He has central interests in the application of behavioral principles to understanding topics such as purpose, meaning, values, therapeutic relationship, and present moment focused work. Dr. Wilson has presented his re 32 countries, and has participated as co-investigator in a wide range of research projects in the U.S. and internationally.