ACBS Newsletter - March 2017

Pre-Conference PROSOCIAL Workshop Highlight

Some of the most significant problems facing the human race - climate change, poverty, discrimination - are ones that can only be realistically tackled at the group level. ACBS is pleased to present "Igniting change in your groups: the 8 PROSOCIAL principles in action", a pre-conference workshop focused on improving the effectiveness of groups, across contexts, in order to bring about real, meaningful, social change.

We had a chance to catch up with one of the speakers for the event, Paul Atkins, Ph.D., to briefly speak about his research, his work, and some of the different challenges associated with bringing about change at the individual level compared to the group level. Please check out the interview on the ACBS website here.

If you'd like to know more about PROSOCIAL or the pre-conference workshop, we encourage you to visit the PROSOCIAL workshop page. To learn more about the other pre-conference workshops, you can see a list of what's being offered here. Make sure to register for the conference and pre-conference workshops by 7 April in order to qualify for the early registration rates!

2017 Annual Conference Early Registration rates end 7 April!

Just a reminder that the early registration rates for our annual conference end on April 7th! Make sure to register before then as the money you save could easily be put toward exploring the beautiful city of Seville! Check out our Things to Do and Traveling Tips page to see some of the wonderful things Seville has to offer, and to start planning some fun events to do while you're there!

Make sure to book a room as soon as possible - we have negotiated a group block rate at the Melia Seville, as well as at the nearby Hotel NH Collection Seville, but spaces are limited. To check out our block rates, and to reserve your room at the block rates, please visit our conference hotel page!

We are also collaborating with oneworld® to provide discounted airfare prices for travel - more details can be found on our Travel/Flight Information page.

This year we also have our first ever additional Tours exploring Southern Spain. Bring your partners, guests and spouses!

The Brief Schedule of the program will be available by 4 April, with the schedule, presenters, and titles.

2017 North Central New Jersey Affiliate Luncheon

Looking for ways to connect to and become involved with other local and regional members of the ACBS community? Though joining an ACBS Chapter is possibly one of the best ways to get connected, individuals also have the option of joining or starting an ACBS Affiliate. Affiliates are a quicker, smaller, and simpler way to coordinate a local ACBS group. Additionally, in high population areas, Affiliates provide members with a way to get connected at a smaller, more tightly-knit level.

The North Central New Jersey Affiliate, for example, holds an annual lunch event with an invited speaker: this year, the lunch was held at the Roots Steakhouse with featured speaker Jonathan Fader, Ph.D., author of "Life As Sport: What Top Athletes Can Teach You About How To Win In Life.” To read more about the event, and for some simple advice on how to host a well-attended event, please check out our news article. To find out if there is an ACBS Affiliate near you, or for more information on how to start an ACBS Affilitae, visit our ACBS Affiliates page on our website.

15 in 15 Podcast with Richard Bennett

We are very excited to share that ACBS member and ACT Peer-Reviewed trainer Richard Bennett is hosting an ACBS Annual Conference podcast series entitled "15 in 15". Join Dr. Bennett as he does 15 minute interviews with some of our fascinating ACBS colleagues, as well as some of the key contributors to our annual conference, including leading Relational Frame Theory researcher, Yvonne Barnes-Holmes; current ACBS President D.J. Moran; and co-founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Steven Hayes. You can also check out the podcast on iTunes or on the ACBS website. More episodes will be coming very soon, so stay tuned!

Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC-ACBS) Graduate Training Program

One of the most important goals of ACBS is that of dissemination: to inform others and spread contextual behavioral science to places where it is lacking. Though this can be as dramatic as providing outreach and crisis intervention services to individuals residing in Sierra Leone, it can also happen in our own backyards, as evidenced by the recent work of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter(MAC) of ACBS. In an effort to spread CBS principles, the MAC leadership elected to reach out at the local level and contact graduate university programs in the area. Out of the 30-40 programs contacted, 3 invited the MAC to provide training for their graduate students, resulting in a positive student response and invitations to come back for subsequent trainings. To learn more about this experience, please visit the news page, and check out the MAC Chapter to learn more about the chapter. And join us in thanking Miranda Morris, Chris Wemple, and Staci Martin for volunteering their time to conduct these trainings! You guys rock!

2017 Student Spotlight Winners

We are happy to announce the second and third student spotlight winners, in conjunction with the ACBS Student SIG! This month's first featured student is Cainã Gomes. He is currently finishing up his master's degree at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo working on experimental research exploring rule-governed behavior and the transformation of stimulus functions under the supervision of Willia Perez, Roberta Kova, Julio de Rose, and Dermot Barnes-Holmes. Cainã also volunteers at the Universidade de São Paulo hospital, working with children with severe symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cainã states that he hopes to strengthen ties between basic laboratory research and the clinical applied settings, which is particularly important given the prevalence of conservative behavior analysts in Brazil.

Our next featured student is Victoria Ameral, a 5th year graduate student at Clark University under the supervision of Kathleen Palm Reed. Victoria is currently exploring the effects of values clarification in opioid use disorder as her dissertation research. More specifically, she is evaluating whether engaging in a values clarification exercise increases motivation for abstinence, and if this increase is mediated by improvements in the ability to delay gratification. Victoria also did her master's thesis on the differential impact of negative and positive reinforcement process on quality of life within the context of depression. Though her research and clinical work have been focused on the area of substance abuse, Victoria is also interested more broadly in any research that utilizes transdiagnostic, CBS-informed processes. Victoria hopes to continue her research career by continuing to bridge the gap between clinical science and practice in substance abuse treatment, with an emphasis on values and motivation-related processes.

To learn more about our student spotlight award winners, please visit the Student Spotlight Award Winner page. If you would like to apply for an award, please send in an application by March 31.