Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is being delivered effectively by various disciplines in diverse professional settings, for addressing a broad range of populations across multiple geographic locations. By deepening the understanding of how language and cognition are foundational for effective interventions, Relational Frame Theory provides a framework from which ACT interventions can be both flexible and comprehensive. Considering language as the intervention, the current workshop outlines how clinicians can increase accessibility and meet the ever growing complexities of child and adolescent mental health settings.
Clinicians increasingly support children and adolescents (C&A) with differing intellectual skill sets, varying neurotypes and from early intervention settings all the way through developmental trajectories to young adulthood. While clinical presentations, individual life histories and language capabilities can vary a lot, the increase in C&A mental health difficulties is only going in one direction. Therapists need sensitive and responsive tool kits to meet increasing mental health demands with compassion and skill. Understanding individual language needs, and the traps that both the client and the therapist can fall into, can go a long way towards enhancing clinical effectiveness. As our C&A populations progress along their individual developmental trajectories, our clinical tools need to grow up too, and quickly.
Transdiagnostic, developmental, process based approaches are essential for supporting complex C&A mental health needs. Simultaneously, interventions benefit from understanding unique cohort needs related to neurotype, identity, ability level as well as any specific MH presentations, environmental challenges or life histories. Listening carefully and respectfully to the lived experiences of our C&A client communities, and engaging in scientific practice, are not dichotomous positions. Rather, taking our clients’ individual needs seriously means collaborating to ensure therapy exercises do not inadvertently minimise youth experience. Further, this means creating practices that clients are truly willing for, thus fostering steps in freely chosen directions from places of verbal ‘stuckness’ in language traps through to lives that are more psychologically flexible and in line with long term values based thriving.
Explicitly embracing the intersectionality of how identity factors (including neurotype, gender, sexuality), language abilities and life history all impact on mental health and well-being, clinicians can effectively layer affirming, evidence informed care. Building upwards from a foundation of Multiple Exemplar Training (MET) interventions (e.g., SMART) for increasing language and cognition, clinicians can customise therapy to meet a range of mental health needs across C& A stages. Explicit RFT and ACT integrations, such as MAGPIES, provide an example of one such customization. However, a wide range of others can be created to enhance psychological flexibility (PI), allowing individuals to adjust to the unpredictable conditions of their environment in values driven & interest driven chosen ways.
She is a peer reviewed ACT trainer and a longstanding member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, where she is a Foundation Board Member, a former Chair of Membership Committee, a steering committee member for the Neurodiversity Affirming Research & Practice Steering SIG, and Chair of both the Community Education pillar for the ND SIG and of the Fellows selection sub-committee.