While anger can feel powerful in our bodies, many of us use angry behavior to avoid dealing with things that make us uncomfortable. Compassion gives us a way to be strong that helps us courageously face the things that scare us—about the world, and about ourselves—and help make them better.

Russell is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Eastern Washington University, where he has taught for the past 16 years and has received numerous honors including twice being named the associated student body’s Faculty of the Year. Dr. Kolts has authored and coauthored numerous books and scholarly articles, including The Compassionate Mind Guide to Managing Your Anger, An Open Hearted Life: Transformative Lessons for Compassionate Living from a Clinical Psychologist and a Buddhist Nun (with Thubten Chodron), and the forthcoming Buddhist Psychology and CBT: A Practitioner’s Guide (with Dennis Tirch and Laura Silberstein). Dr. Kolts has pioneered the application of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to the treatment of problematic anger and regularly conducts trainings and workshops on CFT.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Subtitles are available in: Arabic, Chinese, Italian, English, Japanese, and Serbian

This is a simple presentation of an ACT exercise commonly used in therapy that illustrates the difficulty with getting caught up in one's thoughts, as well as a way to change one's relationship to them. 

Here are 4 videos from D.J. Moran, Ph.D. Transcripts are also available.

• An Introduction to the Introduction to ACT
• ACT is based on empirically-supported principles
• ACT aims to increase psychological flexibility
• The Hockey Goalie: A Metaphor for Psychological Flexibility

The following is a 5 minute video with animations that focuses on the utility of distress in guiding valued living.

Dr. Hank Robb conducts an easy-to-follow introductory treatment session he calls "Being Where You Are and Doing What's Important" for this television series.

This is an excellent for a simple introduction on how ACT can be applied to your life. 

Part 1

Our Psychological Landscape: Part 1 from Emily Rodrigues on Vimeo.

Part 2

Our Psychological Landscape: Part 2 from Emily Rodrigues on Vimeo.

Part 3

Our Psychological Landscape: Part 3 from Emily Rodrigues on Vimeo.

This is an episode of a national television program in Australia called "Insight". This episode aired on November 6, 2018, on the topic of "Beating Anxiety".

Clients suffering with anxiety talk about the experiences and struggles with anxiety as well as different therapies they have tried.

Traditional CBT and ACT are featured centrally. Steven C. Hayes is a guest on this episode.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/tvepisode/beating-anxiety  

The poem was created by Jason Luoma (http://www.drluoma.com) and Jenna LeJeune (http://www.portlandpsychotherapyclinic.com) as part of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy conference in Australia. If you like the poem, come to an ACBS conference!

This is a simple, animated ACT metaphor for identifying and coping with difficult experiences.  Animation by Joe Oliver.

This is another simple animated metaphor that illustrates one way to cope with difficult or unwanted experiences. Animation by Joe Oliver.

These videos are from the Learning ACT DVD and expand upon excises and content covered in the book.

The first video serves as an introduction to the rest.

Living Well When You Don’t Feel Well: Overcoming Lyme Disease and Illness | Joe Trunzo | TEDxBryantU
Published on 5 Mar 2018

Trunzo highlights a different way of thinking and coping with diseases (and life), specifically Lyme. Dr. Trunzo earned his undergraduate degree in 1993 from Marywood University in Scranton PA and completed his graduate work in 2000 at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at the University of Vermont and his post-doctoral fellowship at the Centers for Behavioral & Preventive Medicine at Brown University Medical School in Providence, RI.

He is a Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Applied Psychology at Bryant University. He is also a licensed, practicing clinical psychologist with expertise in the psychological management of chronic medical illnesses such as cancer and Lyme disease, as well as the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, especially obsessive compulsive disorder.

He serves on several professional committees and belongs to a number of professional organizations. In his spare time, he enjoys being with his family, live music, running, and mountain climbing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx  

ACT Videos

• ACT unhooking skills
• Be Like A Bendy Tree!
• The Doorway of Decisions
• SOS! The Human Mind from Your ACT Auntie
• Tug of war with a Monster
• What are values?

Mindful Moment Videos

• Born Again : Another Mindful Moment from Your ACT Auntie
• Self Compassion with Furry Friends: A Mindful Moment
• Stardust: Another Mindful Moment from Your ACT Auntie

This video illustrates how to use hierarchical framing to build a sense of self as a context or container of all psychological experiences. The client feels split among the different roles of his life at the moment (new job, baby)

How can we best deal with difficult or negative thoughts? Dr. Steven Hayes discusses language, cognition, and the science behind putting on the mental brakes.

Steven C. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 41 books and more than 575 scientific articles, he has shown in his research how language and thought leads to human suffering, and has developed "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" a powerful therapy method that is useful in a wide variety of areas. His popular book "Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life" was featured in Time Magazine among several other major media outlets and for a time was the number one best selling self-help book in the United States. Dr. Hayes has been President of several scientific societies and has received several national awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Subtitles available in English and Italian

The following are a series of experiential Role-Plays which accompany Kelly Wilson & Troy DuFrene's Mindfulness for Two.

 

 

 

 

Joesph Oliver and colleagues, Vaso Christodoulou and Henry Whitfield worked alongside a youth media charity, Exposure, to develop this animation. This was done with the assistance of a grant from the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) ACT SIG. Exposure was set up to help kids who have had mental health problems get experience and find work within the media industry.

The animation is an allegory, telling the story of a bus driver, Tom, and his struggles with various passengers on his bus, as he heads his bus towards a life of meaning and vitality.

Enjoy!

This video demonstrates our common humanity.

That every one of us experience unwanted thoughts and feelings.

Through processes of openness, awareness and engagement we can learn to hold these experiences lightly. We can learn to show ourselves, our inner and outer world both compassion and kindness while engaging in patterns of meaningful and vital behaviours.

This video is made with much appreciated contributions by trainers and trainees in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

***

The rejection of our common fate makes us strangers to each other.
The election of that fate, in love, reveals us as one body.

Sebastian Moore

***

Thank you Robyn Walser and Kelly Wilson for your inspiration and contribution to ACT and to my life and practice and to this movie.
-Rikke Kjelgaard

***

Music by Coldplay

Pain Management Programme 2017 Glasgow Conference
16th Biennial National Conference

Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland
14th and 15th September 2017
Plenary Session 3 - The Great ACT Debate - "ACT: best thing since sliced bread or the Emperor’s new clothes?"
David Gillanders and James Coyne

https://vimeo.com/album/5023441

What can we do to prosper when facing pain and suffering in our lives? More than a thousand studies suggest that a major part of the answer is learning psychological flexibility. Steven C. Hayes is one of the researchers who first identified that process and put it into action in the form of a popular acceptance and mindfulness method called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. In this emotional talk, Hayes distills the essence of psychological flexibility down into a few easy to understand sentences. He takes viewers through a harrowing journey into his own panic disorder, to the very moment in his life when he made this life changing choice: I will not run from me. Hayes shows how making that choice allows us to connect with our own deep sense of meaning and purpose, arguing that taking a loving stance to your own pain allows you to bring love and contribution into the world.

Steven C. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 38 books and more than 540 scientific articles, he has shown in his research how language and thought leads to human suffering, and has developed “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” a powerful therapy method that is useful in a wide variety of areas. His popular book “Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life” was featured in Time Magazine among several other major media outlets and for a time was the number one best selling self-help book in the United States. Dr. Hayes has been President of several scientific societies and has received several national awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Subtitles available in Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish

This very brief introduction to ACT spells out the different components of the ACT work. 

In this 30 minute interview with Australian motivational speaker Zara, Dr. Harris discusses ACT in simple terms and how he's applied it in his own life. 

World Health Organization's Self Help Plus (SH+) program  - shown in 3 RCTs not only to reduce PTSD and depression, but also to prevent the onset of mental illness in those at risk.

-  SH+ manual and audio files in English

Self-Help Plus (SH+) is WHO’s 5-session stress management course for large groups of up to 30 people. It is delivered by supervised, non-specialist facilitators who complete a short training course and use pre-recorded audio and an illustrated guide (Doing What Matters in Times of Stress - available in over 20 different languages) to teach stress management skills. The course is suitable for adults who experiences stress, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances. It has been shown to reduce psychological distress and prevent the onset of mental disorders. The format of SH+ makes it well-suited for use alongside other mental health interventions, as a first step in a stepped care programme, or as a community intervention delivered alongside broader community programming.

• Check out this free webinar of WHO's Self Help PlusACT protocol for refugees presented by: Russ Harris and Claudette Foley.  They answer Frequently Asked Questions about the protocol – AKA “Self-help Plus” - and explore how to implement it.

Mr. Shamash Alidina has shared some videos on Acceptance and Commitment Training.

Here's the link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFqEhpJvR7lfJfhGFXSPQmRxfHI_mb9ba

The ACT Matrix 101 Videos by Kevin Polk, Ph.D.

A brief introductory video to help clients with OCD who are struggling with uncertainty and the urges OCD can bring about.

Submitted by Annabella Hagen

Jonathan Bricker's work has uncoved a scientifically sound approach to behavior change that is twice as effective as most currently practiced methods. His new methods are driving new norms and new apps for how people quit smoking and decrease obesity, saving many people from an early death.

Jonathan Bricker is an internationally recognized scientific leader in a bold approach called acceptance and commitment therapy. A Stanford researcher called his use of the approach “a breakthrough in behavioral research [that] has major public health implications for the major causes of preventable death.” Bricker and his team, having received $10 million in total federal research grants to study this topic, are rigorously testing this intervention on multiple platforms, including smartphone apps, websites, and telephone coaching. His SmartQuit app for quitting smoking was recently launched and is now in distribution worldwide.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Subtitles available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish

Steven Hayes, University of Nevada, & Bárbara Gil-Luciano, Madrid Institute of Contextual Psychology

 

Some thoughts on the future of ACBS and contextual science from Steven Hayes. (recorded June 2016)

¿Cuál es el futuro de la CBS (Contextual Behavioral Science - Ciencia Contextual) y hacia dónde crees que se dirige la Psicología Contextual? Entrevista a Steven Hayes

subtitulado en español

When Life Hurts: Meaning can Provide Strength and Direction
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Logotherapy Perspective

Presented by Tom Lavin, MFT, LCADC, ACATA
Psychotherapist

 

ACT: Live Better Psychoeducation Series

The intention of the “Live Better Series” is to provide life perspectives and life enhancement skills to encourage and support people in living vital and meaningful lives.

The “Live Better Series” examines and explores what Dr. Salvatore R. Maddi found to be three essential life attitudes in developing stress hardiness-resiliency:
1. Commitment Attitude: strive to be engaged rather than isolated

2. Control Attitude: be engaged in influencing outcomes, rather than lapse into passivity and powerlessness
3. Challenge Attitude: view stressful situations as opportunities to learn and grow and live one’s values

In cultivating these three resiliency fostering attitudes, the psychoeducation series is based on the core principles of Dr. Steven C. Hayes’ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:
1. Acceptance of what is
2. Identifying and then choosing and committing to personally meaningful values
3. Taking action on living a life based on one’s identified core values

Complimentary to the core principles of ACT, the series integrates the three essential elements of Dr. Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy, a therapy based on the fundamental human desire to live a meaningful life:
1. Creative Values: identifying and manifesting one’s talents and gifts to contribute to life
2. Experiential Values: actively engaging with those elements of life that inspire and nurture one’s spirit
3. Attitudinal Values: adopt a self-transcendent attitude: responding with grace , courage , and wisdom in the face of inescapable suffering

Tom Lavin MFT, LCADC, ACATA, the recipient of the 2014 IMPACT AWARD of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, is the primary instructor.

Co-presenters for the series include Drs. Steven C. Hayes, Kelly Wilson, Victoria Follette, and Nicole Pavlatos.

 

****Worksheets that accompany each class are available here. 

 

 

Tom Lavin, MFT, LCADC has hosted the local ABC affliate television show in Reno, NV titled New Skills for Living, a health and wellness series, since 1995 in an effort to help people learn skills to live vital and meaningful lives.

Tom is the recipient of the 2014 IMPACT AWARD of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.

You can see expert ACT therapists discuss how ACT principles can be applied to so many aspects of your life!

Topics: ACT in Daily Life, Anxiety, Addiction, Chronic Illness, PTSD, Eating Disorders, Mindfulness for College Students, Families and Addiction Recovery, Smoking Cessation, Valued-Based Living, Happy Couples, Autism, Meaningful Living, etc.

Each of the videos are approximately 20-30 minutes in length. 

Visit easeap.com for more information.

"ACT in Daily Life", Steven C. Hayes, PhD

 

"ACT: Anxiety" Steven C. Hayes, PhD

 

"ACT: Addressing Addiction" Steven C. Hayes, PhD

 

"ACT Addressing Chronic Illness" Steven C Hayes, PhD

 

"Mindfulness for College Students" Jacqueline Pistorello, PhD

 

"ACT: PTSD" Jacqueline Pistorello, PhD

 

"ACT: Anxiety" Kelly G. Wilson, PhD

 

"ACT: PTSD Treatment" Victoria Follette, PhD

 

"Stop Smoking" Jonathan Bricker, PhD

 

"Happy Couples" Robyn D. Walser, PhD

 

"Living Values Makes a Difference" Jennifer C. Plumb, MA

 

"Effective Psychotherapy" Tom Lavin, MFT, LADC

 

"Help for People with Eating Disorders" Jason Lillis, PhD

 

"ACT Therapy for Substance Abuse and Disordered Eating" Lindsay B. Fletcher, MA

 

"Principles of Vital Living" Tom Lavin, MFT, LADC

 

"How Families Can Deal with Financial and Relationship Stress" Tom Lavin, MFT, LADC

 

"Addiction and Family Recovery" Tom Lavin, MFT, LADC

 

"ACT: Autism" Nanni Presti, MD, PhD

 

"Addiction Recovery" Barbara Kohlenberg, PhD

 

"When Life Hurts: ACT and Logotherapy" Tom Lavin, MFT LADC