The ACT daily diary and weekly report (see attachments below) can be clinically useful in monitoring progress.

This brief questionnaire was designed to quickly assess skills related to psychological flexibility: awareness (of here-and-now experience), openness (to private events), engagement (in valued actions), and perspective-taking (of self/other). It can be freely used as a clinical assessment tool and for treatment planning purposes.

All feedback is welcomed!

Please log in as a ACBS member, and click the attachment link below in order to download the Behavioral Health Progress Note Template.

This tool will allow you to see if you have made a significant difference in your clients life. It looks at two outcome scores (e.g. pre vrs post). It will tell you:

1) If there was significant change from Time 1 to Time 2

2) if the symptoms have reduced to a point that you would consider the client symptoms to be no worse than what you would find in a normal population

The tool allows you to look at a wide variety of outcome measures, such as the beck depression inventory, trait anxiety scale of the STAI, and many others You can also print out a report for your client file. Simply complete name and date and then print the first page of the spreadsheet.

I hope you find this useful best Joseph

This brief clinical instrument was designed for use in follow-up sessions to assess skills related to the three pillars of psychological flexibility (openness, awareness, engagement), as well as key features of the therapeutic alliance (consistent with ACT and evidence-based), while evoking consideration of a goal for the current session, and a space for progress notes.  Please use freely, and feedback is always welcomed.

The following worksheet, titled "Getting to Know Your Mind," is an attempt to create an ACT-consistent "thought record" that can assist the client in practicing defusion after they leave the therapy session. ACT clinicians typically engage their clients in defusion work by encouraging them to relate to their thoughts in a variety of ways while emphasizing the automatic nature of thoughts, the harmful effects of avoiding or struggling with thoughts, the subtle experiential differences between fusion and defusion, and using workability/usefulness to measure whether or not a thought should be "used" or bought into. This is a lot for clients to remember and by its very nature can be difficult to grasp after just an hour-long therapy session. The hope is that this form can function as a boiled down, concrete version of defusion work seen in the therapy room and assist the client in making defusion a well-practiced part of their repertoire.

I made some adaptations to the Bull's Eye exercise for my own clinical use - this seemed to suit my purposes well.

This article introduces the Process Based Progress Note (PBPN), a newly developed tool aimed at enhancing documentation in therapy by focusing on a process-oriented approach. The PBPN was created to address the limitations of traditional note formats, such as SOAP and DAP, which often became repetitive, time-consuming, and insufficient for capturing trends at a glance, particularly with the integration of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

The development of the PBPN was influenced by various therapeutic approaches, including Solution Focused Brief Therapy, ACT Immersion course, and Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (fACT). The tool incorporates key measurements of psychological flexibility—openness, awareness, and engagement—culminating in the total Hexaflex Assessment score. This score provides a comprehensive overview of an individual's progress, with scores greater than 24 indicating potential readiness for discharge.

The PBPN also integrates elements from traditional behavioral notes and the Extended Evolutionary Meta Model, making it a comprehensive Process-Based Therapeutic (PBT) tool. It serves as a valuable resource for therapists, providing clear documentation of session content and progress, while also acting as a learning tool for clinicians and interns.

The article outlines the historical development of the PBPN, emphasizing its practicality and effectiveness in improving therapeutic implementation of ACT. The PBPN has been adopted as a standard template and has received positive feedback from interns, supervisees, and colleagues.

The main goal of this paper is to introduce and an overview of the PBPN and its benefits while inviting feedback and suggestions for further improvement. For more information or to request the outline, contact todd@toddschmenk.com.

(The webpage was last updated on June 19, 2024)

Attached, please find a copy of self-monitoring forms I use with a wide range of patients. I direct patients to monitor those self-care behaviors relevant to their treatment (hygiene, eating, going to sleep at reasonable hour, exercise, meditation/centering, alcohol use). There is ample room for adding other behaviors or to permit some journaling/notes. *I recently replaced the GIF formatted forms with forms converted to PDF format (using free PDF writer at www.gohtm.com).