Creating a State-of-the-Art Process-Based Practice: The Role of AI, EMA, Functional Analysis and Digital Technology

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Creating a State-of-the-Art Process-Based Practice: The Role of AI, EMA, Functional Analysis and Digital Technology

Presented in English, also available for session attendees (in Buenos Aires) via simultaneous AI (artificial intelligence) translation software in Spanish and Portuguese. More details available here.

Tuesday, 23 July 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, 24 July 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(13 total contact hours)

Workshop Leaders:

Maria Karekla, Ph.D.

Andrew Gloster, Ph.D.

Steve Hayes, Ph.D.

Workshop Description: 

Contextual Behavior Science is turning towards a process-based approach to the alleviation of human problems and promotion of human prosperity. Opportunities and challenges arise as CBS practitioners and researchers adopt a more process-based focus in their work. For example, the range of specific problems for a given client become more central because there is no longer an assumption that signs and symptoms of syndromes should be given priority. A longitudinal idiographic focus becomes more important because processes of change cannot be properly modeled through normative methods. New assessment methods emerge because the importance of traditional psychometric assumptions recede and high temporal density self-report measures require few or even a single item. In area after area what we have traditionally relied on in diagnosis, intervention, training, clinical evaluation, and research needs adjustment.

The purpose of the workshop will be to demystify these rapid changes and to show in a concrete fashion how they can be used to expand practice and its applied and conceptual impact. In this workshop we will actively practice case conceptualization and interventions from a process-based perspective. We will explore how to serve each unique client using empirically derived intervention kernels, with modern functional analysis as a guide. We will further examine how a range of challenges practitioners now face can be met, with a special emphasis on technology, AI, high-temporal density measurement, and new forms of functional analysis as at least partial solutions. In our view, recent advances in digital methodologies coupled with the globalization of internet and technological access and needs resulting from the recent pandemic have come together to make digital technologies an essential tool for therapy.

Thus, we will explore the challenges of process-based therapy and how digital and AI tools can be used to support a new form of functional analysis, expand clinical practice, and augment intervention. We will address such tools as virtual reality methods, apps, teletherapy, ecological momentary assessment, etc.. How These can augment CBS research and practice and will be shared using hands-on experiences and “lessons learned” from the presenters’ experiences. Examples of apps, programs and other digital tools will be used to illustrate how available technological products may be used within functional analysis and treatment. The combination of a process-based approach with AI tools and technology promises to fundamentally alter the role of the practitioner, the nature of service delivery, and what clients expect of mental and behavioral health care. This workshop will show how to manage these changes and how to use them within clinical practice in alignment with CBS and process-based approach goals.
 

About the Workshop Leaders:

Maria Karekla, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, peer-reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy trainer, and Associate Professor, University of Cyprus, and heads the “ACTHealthy: Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Medicine” laboratory. Her research focuses on areas of health promotion and the investigation of individual difference factors (especially psychological flexibility parameters) as they relate to the development and maintenance of various behavioural difficulties. She also examines the treatment of these difficulties utilizing process-based and Contextual Behavioral Science principles and innovative delivery methods (e.g., digital interventions, virtual reality) in line with precision and personalized medicine. This led to very successful digital interventions for which she received numerous local, European and international grants, and awards. She is appointed by the Cyprus Minister of Health to the National Strategic Planning Committee for Mental Health and the National Advisory Committee for Tobacco Control, and the Board on Medically Assisted Reproduction and previously in the National Bioethics Committee. She served as the convenor of the European Federation of Psychology Associations’ (EFPA) Psychology and Health committee and is a member of the e-health task force.  She is the immediate past-President of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), from where she received the status of “Fellow” in 2019. In 2023 she became a fellow of the European Health Psychology Society and in 2021 by the Society of Behavioral Medicine, whereas in 2018 she was nominated as Cyprus “Woman of the Year: Academic/Researcher category.” She has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 13 chapters in edited books, 3 books, 4 technical reports and numerous papers in scientific conference proceedings. Her first psychotherapeutic children’s story book was nominated for the 2017 National Literary Awards (category Children/Adolescents) and for her illustrations for the book. She is active in scientific journal editorial boards (e.g., Journal of Contextual Behavior Science). Moreover, she is a TEDx speaker and she has been hosted and interviewed for her work by numerous podcasts, newspapers, TV and radio stations nationally and internationally.

Andrew Gloster, Ph.D., is Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Lucerne and Director of Clinical Training of the post-graduate training program in Process-based Psychotherapy. He is currently serves as the president of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science, where he is also a fellow. He has received several awards for his contribution to mental health, teaching, and mentoring. Author of more than 175 scientific articles and books, his research interests include psychotherapy processes, treatment outcome (including treatment non-response), mental health, digital interventions, methodological innovations in clinical trials, and prosocial behavior. His research aims to promote mental health in various contexts and to develop tools that aid psychotherapists in their work.
 

Steven C. Hayes is a Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Nevada and President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45 year old charitable organization that promotes quality in mental and behavioral health services. An author of 48 books and over 700 scientific articles. He is especially known for his work on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, Process-Based Therapy, and Contextual Behavioral Science.  Dr. Hayes has received several national awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and recipient of the Cattell Award from the Association for Psychological Science -- their lifetime  achievement award for applied psychology. His popular book Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life for a time was the best-selling self-help book in the United States, and his new book A Liberated Mind has been recently released to wide acclaim. His TEDx talks and blogs have been viewed or read by over three million people, and he is ranked among the most cited psychologists in the world.

After this workshop, participants will be able to: 

1. Discuss how the turn toward a process-based therapy approach challenges current practice and be able to implement process-based assessment and interventions.
2. Discuss how to effectively integrate technology into intervention and assessment practices, to enhance the process-based therapy experience.
3. Describe the opportunities and dangers of technology-assisted process-based therapy and make necessary adaptations for diverse client needs.
4. List strategies for building and maintaining a strong therapeutic alliance in the context of technology-enhanced process-based therapy environments.
5. Relate their ongoing professional development to changes in the field of technology and process-based therapy.
6. Identify different digital means and be able to apply them to augment their therapeutic interventions.
7. Analyze the impact of process-based therapy on case conceptualization, organizational strategies, and data analysis within therapy contexts, and the roll of technological advancements managing this impact.
8. Examine the transformational role of AI tools in altering practitioner roles, service delivery, and client expectations in mental and behavioral health care.
9. Critically evaluate the implications of a process-based focus in therapy within the digital age and its pragmatic application.
10. Practice and be able to apply an iterative paper-based prototype method for translating functional requirements into digital artifacts.
11. Apply techniques to evaluate prototypes to guide digital intervention design.

Target audience: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Clinical, Research, Applied, Not Clinical

Components: Conceptual analysis, Literature review, Original data, Experiential exercises, Didactic presentation, Case presentation

Topic Areas: Process-Based Therapy; digital enhanced intervention technology

Package Includes: A general certificate of attendance

CEs Available (13 hours): CEs for Psychologists, BCBA CEUs