President: Russ Harris
Vice President: Darin Cairns
Secretary / Treasurer: Linda Bilich
Student Representative: Priscilla Almada
Members-at-Large: Julian McNally, David Mellor, Louise Shepherd, Carla Walton

Candidates with bios:
President:
Russ Harris
My mission: I aim to continue promoting ACT and RFT not just in Australia, but throughout Oceania, and to do so as a team-player, helping to build a vibrant and supportive ACT community, and to make ACT widely accessible and available to the general public and health/coaching professionals alike. While carrying out this mission, I will stand for authenticity, responsibility, openness, fairness, professionalism and passion.

My bio: Dr Russ Harris: Medical Practitioner - Psychotherapist - Executive Coach

Russ's background is in medicine, but over the years, he has trained in many types of therapy and coaching. When he discovered Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, he was so deeply impressed that he promptly went to the U.S.A. to train with its creators, Steve Hayes and Kelly Wilson. Since then, he has been back several times for advanced training, and is now an experienced ACT trainer.

Russ has a unique model for training, which he calls 'ACT Made Simple', because it covers so much material in a short space of time. (In fact, in November 2009, he has a textbook on ACT coming out, which is titled 'ACT Made Simple'.) He bases his training on three core values: simplicity, clarity, and authenticity. (There's also a big emphasis on having fun.)

Russ travels all around Australia, and internationally, providing workshops and training for a wide variety of health professionals, from coaches and counsellors, to psychologists and psychiatrists. He also regularly presents ACT workshops at a wide variety of national and international conferences. His ACT-based self-help book 'The Happiness Trap' is an Australian best-seller, available in all Borders bookstores. It has also been published in the USA, UK, New Zealand, Mexico, Korea, India, and most of South America. In 2009 it will be published in France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden and China.

 

Vice-President:

Darin Cairns

 

Secretary/ Treasurer:
Linda Bilich
I am a clinical psychologist and have almost completed a research PhD at the University of Wollongong. My project involved conducting an ACT intervention with NSW police officers. I have been involved with ACT in different ways since 2003, such as attending training / workshops and presenting at conferences (both in Australia and overseas), and have assisted Joseph Ciarrochi in numerous ACT projects that he’s been working on. I have been involved in and helped out with the formation of the APS ACT Interest Group, the ACT Oceania Conference in Wollongong, and the upcoming Kelly Wilson workshops.

There are many reasons why I’m putting my hand up for this position. The main one being that I want to contribute to the ACT community from which I have gained so much, both professionally and personally. I have acted in a Treasurer / Secretary role before in sporting community groups, and have a general sense of the workload that can be involved. In this position I will aim to assist in the development and promotion of ACT in Oceania, and provide support to the elected representatives and members.

Student Representative:
Priscilla Almada

 

Members-at-Large (4):
Julian Mcnally
I have been a counselling psychologist since 1994 and switched from a largely solution-oriented framework to ACT in 2003. I currently work solely in private practice and have previously worked in correctional, welfare and educational environments. I am currently the ACT_ANZO listserve moderator and previously ran the Melbourne ACT Peer Supervision Group. I currently supervise several practitioners here in Melbourne in the ACT approach and have provided an ACT training workshop for postgraduate psychology students. From 2010 I will be providing ACT training workshops in Victoria and further afield. I have trained in ACT with Russ Harris, Robyn Walser and attended both the ACT Oceania pre-conference workshops and conferences in 2007 and 2008, presenting a workshop at the latter. Outside the ACT community I am also a member of the Victorian Branch Committee of the APS College of Counselling Psychology and have experience working on similar committees.

David Mellor
I am a clinical psychologist currently working in AOD with 33 years practice. I was introduced to ACT only 4 years ago by my colleague, Jim Hegarty and found it brought my clinical life alive again. After a couple of years of rapid learning including a number of workshops (with Robyn Walser, John Forsyth, Georg Eifert and Kirk Strosahl) I am now trying to consolidate my skills by working slowly through several of the recently produced books about learning ACT and establishing a supervision relationship which extends supports this.

The vitality ACT has provided, peaked for while last year when both Jim and I ran the 2nd Oceania conference in Christchurch at which the energy for this Chapter became a reality and here we are, voting for officers. I am would be privileged to participate in and contribute to the Oceania Chapter of ACBS so that it maintains the momentum we already have and provides strong, diverse and expert development in both the academic and applied areas around ACT and psychological processes.

New Zealand now has around 300 - 400 people who have attended at least an introductory workshop in ACT. It is important that we include Kiwi ACTers in this exciting development and I am honoured to be the only NZ nominee. I would be delighted to see the Chapter ensure a certain future for regular conferences and trainings as well as the opportunity to meet and talk with like-minded people on both sides of the Tasman. If elected, I would do my utmost as the NZ voice to make sure that NZ, not only benefits from the larger numbers in Australia, but also contributes to the strength and purpose of the Chapter.

Louise Shepherd
I'm a clinical psychologist who graduated from USyd in 1997 and since then have worked in a range of clinical settings including at CRUfAD, in a private psychiatric hospital, in oncology and now at UNSW in student counselling. I trained originally in CBT and have been greatly interested in ACT since I first went to Melbourne in 2004 to see Steve Hayes. Since then I have been hooked and have attended the following training: 4 days with Robyn Walser in 2005; 2 days with Kelly Wilson & London conference 2006; 2 days with J.T. Blackledge in 2006: 2 days with Kirk and Patti in Wollongong in 2007 as well as the conference; Oceania conference in 2008 in Christchurch. I come away from every workshop or conference more passionate about this approach to living a fulfilling life! In the past couple of years I have also been extremely fortunate to have regular supervision with Robyn Walser (over Skype, not face to face :-). I also have been involved with the Sydney CBD ACT peer supervision group for the past couple of years and previously with the Bondi Junction group since it commenced.

My love of ACT really took off when I had the opportunity to work with Nat Glaser on her PhD which involved running a RCT comparing (group) CBT and ACT for anxiety. Since then I have gone on to develop workshops for students addressing stress and low mood / depression. There is never a dull moment! I also use ACT almost exclusively in my private practice.

I'm honoured to be nominated as a member at large. I have been thrilled in recent years to watch the ACT community grow in Australia, especially now that there are more opportunities for professional development and supervision as the wealth of knowledge and experience in Australia increases. I would like to help continue this growth and ensure that there is good coordination and awareness of ACT resources and collegial support (education, supervision, referral network, list serv, peer consultation groups etc). In the past I was involved in workshops committee (for the executive committee) for AACBT (NSW) where I was able to put my organisational skills to work!

Carla Walton
I am a Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Centre for Psychotherapy, a specialist service of Hunter New England Mental Health Service for Borderline Personality Disorders and Eating Disorders. I am involved in treatment provision (individual and group) and supervision in both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. I hold a conjoint lectureship in the School of Psychology at the University of Newcastle and also work in private practice, where I use ACT (almost exclusively). So many ‘I’s’ in that sentence that I feel the need to take myself off and do a Self as Context exercise!

I have been involved with ACT since 2003 and have attended ACT training with Kelly Wilson, Robyn Walser, Steve Hayes, Kirk Strosahl and John Forsyth and through this started on the receiving end of ACT and developing the principles in my own life before moving on to using them as a therapist (whilst still ongoingly utilising the therapy in my own life!). I co-ordinate the Newcastle ACT interest group and have run a number of workshops on ACT and lecture on the topic in the postgraduate clinical program at the University of Newcastle. I am particularly interested in doing and supporting more research into the use of ACT with clinical disorders so as to further develop the evidence base.

I connect with ACT personally more than I have with any other therapy and the impact on my life has been huge. I am proud and awed to be a part of the worldwide ACT community that is so sharing and supportive of each other. I am passionate about the idea that we need to be working on our own side of the ‘hexaflex’ every step of the way whilst we are inviting someone else too. I am really excited to be nominated as a Member at Large and would feel privileged to have a role in further contributing to developing within the Australian ACT community, the worldwide ACT culture of openness, sharing, compassion, humbleness (whilst also continuing to work on the same values in my own life). Apart from the ideological components, I’ll be able to put my analness to work with the associated paperwork on the housekeeping side of things for the Oceania Chapter!

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