Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT as a Brief Intervention

Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT as a Brief Intervention

Workshop Leader:  

Patricia Robinson, Ph.D.

Marcia Sasano, M.Sc.

This two-day workshop provides clinicians that are new to ACT with a brief overview of the Hexaflex and then moves into the fACT Pillars of psychological flexibility. As a brief intervention, fACT makes ACT transparent by requiring clinicians to “focus” (the “f” in fACT) on the unworkable results of avoidance in client behavior. Clinical tools will enable participants to quickly understand and practice the key skills involved in the C.A.R.E. method, a 4-step approach to using fACT. This approach can readily be understood by those new to ACT and may have particular appeal to behavioral clinicians and medical colleagues working closely together to assist patients with psychological, medical, and both psychological and medical problems.

The first skill in C.A.R.E is conducting a 10- or 15-minute assessment that engages the patient and identifies strengths as well as deficits in psychological flexibility (C is for Contextual Interview). Participants will use worksheets to practice the contextual assessment in role-play exercises. The second skill in C.A.R.E. is that of learning to listen with fACT ears while interviewing. With the structure of a worksheet, participants will work in small groups to identify the 3 A’s in client behavior: Attraction, Avoidance, Approach. Additionally, participants will use the fACT Four Square tool to conceptualize possible directions for rapid change in public behaviors. Participants will build upon the contextual interview and 3 A’s to attain mastery of the “R” in C.A.R.E., relating the patient’s suffering to the patient’s values. Skill practice exercises will assist participants with identifying critical opportunities for “Relate” statements and with formulating these statements. The fourth skill area in C.A.R.E. approach is to enhance “experimentation”, the “E”. Without the “E”, radical behavior change is not possible. Participants will have opportunities to experiment with strategies to encourage the behavioral variability of clients.

Participants may want to bring a colleague with them to this workshop, as a partnership may assist with maintaining and growing skills learned in the workshop. In previous offerings of this workshop, some participants will be ready to teach the C.A.R.E. method to others, even with just a 2-day introduction. This is a dissemination-friendly approach, and this is critical, given the huge problems faced by so many patients, particularly those with both medical and psychological problems.  

About Patti Robinson, Ph.D.: 

Patricia J. Robinson, Ph.D., of Mountainview Consulting Group, is recognized as a pioneer researcher in the field of primary care behavioral health and a master clinician in Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She trains internationally and consults with health care systems about initiation and expansion of integrated services. She is the author of over 150 publications, including Behavioral Consultation and Primary Care, 2nd (2015), Brief Interventions for Radical Change (2012), and Real Behavior Change in Primary Care (2010).

About Marcia Sasano, M.Sc.:

Marcia Sasano is a dedicated health psychologist working as a clinician, consultant, clinical supervisor, and trainer for ProCare, New Zealand’s largest primary care providers' network. With extensive expertise in the use and application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and unique skills on brief interventions, her work is adaptable in treating a broad range of psychological and emotional distress and behavioural challenges. Sasano’s work is grounded in evidence based practices. She has specialist knowledge in relational and cognitive therapies, with particular interest in their application within primary mental health services. With her integrative therapeutic approach and a biopsychosocial perspective, she is able to offer specialist psychological and behavioural health assessment and interventions that are intrinsically collaborative and client focused.