Authors: Eric Morris, Joseph Oliver, Louise Johns, Majella Byrne & Ellen Craig

Affiliation: Lambeth Early Onset Services & OASIS Service South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust / Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK

Abstract The stance of acceptance and committed action may allow for flexibility in response to persisting psychotic experiences, as has been suggested in ACT studies with the seriously mentally ill (Bach & Hayes, 2002; Gaudiano & Herbert, 2006). There is also the exciting potential for researching the impact of ACT in the early phase of psychosis - helping first episode clients to recover from psychosis through the development of a more mindful approach toward unusual experiences and critical appraisals, and committing to values-based actions.

More specifically, the use of ACT may: [1] foster the development of a psychologically flexible stance toward anomalous experiences, [2] enable a “values-based” recovery, [3] reduce the impact of “fear of recurrence” of psychosis through development of mindfulness and self as context, [4] enable individuals to notice the process of self-stigmatisation, contexts where this operates as a barrier, and commit to valued directions in the face of these appraisals, and [5] improve relapse prevention plans through the use of mindfulness and committed action. We describe a group program we have developed, as well as individual work with young people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis. In addition we briefly discuss a pilot ACT/mindfulness group for people experiencing at risk mental states, who may be in the initial prodromal phase of psychosis.

The .pdf of this presentation is here

ACT for chronic pain rehabilitation.

Here are the slides for our 90 minute time together exploring kindness & compassion from an ACT perspective. I've also uploaded the video that goes in the spots set in the files. I hope some of this is useful. I know that I enjoyed the time we had exploring these important domains and I know that Sean did too. Peace -john

This workshop is aimed at improving attendees' skill in utilizing the core ACT process of defusion. Participants will further understand the process of defusion through a theoretical overview of defusion and a discussion of how defusion is facilitative of other ACT processes. Experiential exercises will help participants contact a defused space, while other exercises will help participants try out and obtain feedback on new defusion techniques. 

Jason Luoma, Ph.D.

Powerpoint and handout attached. 

Presentation by: 

M. Joann Wright, Family counseling Center, A Division of Trinity Services 

Kimbery Sanders, Trinity Services, Inc.

This workshop is aimed at providing participants an opportunity to practice ACT by being in the role of both "therapist" and "client" in experiential exercises that mimic a therapy process. Much of the workshop will be spent in small groups where participants will work in dyads utilizing ACT techniques, both as the "therapist" and the "client" with their own personal material. As a result, participants will experientially learn more about implementing ACT, with also learning a new method for supervision and training. 

Jason Luoma, Ph.D. 

Niklas Torneke, M.D.

ACT is one of several third wave behavioral treatments to incorporate mindfulness into therapy. The term mindfulness is borrowed from Eastern religious and spiritual traditions that emphasize meditation practice as an important technique for the alleviation of suffering. While many third-wave therapies emphasize informal mindfulness practices, including ACT, this workshop will explore the inclusion of "formal" practices that may enhance treatment when they are adapted for use with the ACT model. Buddhist traditions provide a nearly limitless supply of different meditation practices that may be adapted to work with ACT concepts. Specifically, tonglen practice, loving kindness meditation, vipassana, and other meditation techniques will be introduced and additional exercises that were not presented at least year's workshop. The purpose of this workshop will be to teach participants how to conceptualize particular meditation techniques in ACT/RFT terms and to apply these techniques to therapy. During the workshop we will accomplish these goals by introducing a variety of meditation techniques within an experiential format. These techniques will also be tied to a larger context by relating them to ACT core processes. Thus, clinicians will learn to apply these techniques and conceptualize their application according to specific ACT core processes and RFT.

Lindsay Fletcher

Attached is our PowerPoint. I actually use a Mac program called Keynote. It allows me to export as a PowerPoint document, but some of the bells and whistles get lost.

Some handouts are also attached.

See Kevin Polk's blog for further info.