The Heart of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Developing a Flexible, Process-based, and Client-Centered Practice

Life contains suffering. But acknowledging this truth is only the first step on the path to transcending it. It is in this transcendence that vital and meaningful lives are born. As ACT therapists, it is hoped that we can assist our clients in this process. Helping them to acknowledge and hold pain, show up for joy, while continuing to take steps, each day, each hour, each moment, that are connected to personal meaning. This is done, as is often said in ACT, with head, hands, and heart. So verbal knowledge, an intellectual understanding of the intervention is needed. The work of the “hands” is about behavior; physical movement and taking action are fundamental. ACT’s heart however appears to be more elusive. Done with intention and presence, ACT links us to the very qualities of what it means to be alive and whole, to be a conscious and experiencing being. ACT may be learned and understood at many levels but may remain challenging to implement in a flexible, consistent, process-based, and effective fashion. Multiple levels of process are present in any therapy, including those processes beyond ACT’s 6 core. Moving beyond simple technique and into a fluid ACT intervention requires attending to intrapersonal, interpersonal, and overarching and ongoing processes in the context of the psychotherapeutic relationship. Engaging in an ongoing functional analysis feeds these processes and informs the case conceptualization This workshop will explore the multiple levels of process found in ACT from a more in-depth, experiential, or heartfelt place. Didactic presentation, role-play, and experiential exercises will be used to convey the material.

About Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D.: 

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. is Director of TL Psychological and Consultation Services, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and works at the National Center for PTSD. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains an international training, consulting and therapy practice. Dr. Walser is an expert in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and has co-authored 6 books on ACT, including a book on learning ACT. She has most recently written a book entitled: The Heart of ACT. Dr. Walser has expertise in traumatic stress, depression and substance abuse and has authored a number of articles, chapters, and books on these topics. She has been doing ACT workshops since 1997, training in multiple formats and for various client problems.