As promised here are the materials and slides etc from the chapter relaunch that was held on 28th march 2018, In London.

What's in your piping?

Many people have dedicated their lives and energies to fighting for inclusion and greater diversity. Organisations and individuals now talk about biases, think about ways of making hiring practices more accessible and work to augment any gaps in their knowledge about the histories of people from down the road and across the oceans.

Yet, as much as there has been attention on processes and policies, there have been areas left out of this consideration that isn't just about diversity and inclusion but good practice, good governance and good work.

This talk will navigate that terrain and ask participants to critically consider the piping in their practices and organisational and institutional frameworks.

About the Speaker:

Dr Karen Salt has over 27 years’ worth of experience engaging and co-creating solutions with communities, organisations, charities and governmental bodies. An expert on governance, systems and transformative change, she has led and managed interdisciplinary research centres, collaborative research teams and large research projects, including those focused on producing evidence-informed interventions and policies. She is currently the Deputy Director of R&I System Diversity and Security within UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation. She has the challenging but rewarding task of driving UKRI’s cross-organisational strategic thinking and policymaking on system diversity and Trusted Research and Innovation. A sought after thought-leader and speaker, Salt works closely with leaders across Government, academia, civil society and industry and contributes to numerous international initiatives focused on embedding inclusive policymaking.

ACBS UK & Ireland Conference 2022 in Liverpool

In this keynote presentation ACT Therapist Jacob Martinez explores the nature of participation and complaint in the ACBS community. You'll learn about fractal organisations, the commodification of communities and how to help an organisation thrive.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe common DEI related complaints within ACBS.
2. Define fractal mode of organisation and how it applies to ACBS.
3. Apply a model of variation, selection and retention to participation in ACBS.

Learning ACT or other CBS approaches is very hard on your own. We encourage the development of communities of practice at a local level, to meet regularly, to use experiential methods to practice skills and give and receive feedback. 

Here is a link to an editable google doc with details of the peer networks we know about. If you set up a group and are happy for people to join you, please post the details in this document

UK & Ireland Peer Networks

This is a recording of the mind train defusion exercise. It is the version that I use with mental health clients with personality disorder diagnoses, and I've modified it in the following ways:

1. It involves a fair amount of description of the physical aspects of the bridge over the track (particularly the solid brickwork), to help people who are particularly prone to fusion and dissociation to at least start the practice with a sense of being on the bridge, and to have something solid to return to during the practice.

2. Most of my clients have histories of suicide attempts, so the description of the bridge includes a high wall that they can just rest their chin on, to reduce the chances of them immediately having images of throwing themselves off. Without this kind of modification, this client group can get so dysregulated by the format of defusion exercises like this, that they don't actually manage to get on with the practice. Of course, it's not possible to stop such images showing up, and nor would you want to necessarily, as it would be helpful for people to cultivate a more defused relationship with these images. However, it's also not helpful for people to become overwhelmed emotionally before they have even started the practice!

3. The exercise has been simplified - it involves practicing defusion just with thoughts/images/memories, unlike some versions of the exercise where people are invited to picture three different trains - for thoughts, emotions and sensations. My experience is that most people find that too complicated.

4. This version of the exercise included descriptions that are likely to be meaningful to people living in the UK.

My experience is that generally clients with complex, mixed Axis I and Axis II presentations find it possible to engage with this practice and find it helpful.