In this episode, Louise Hayes, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and academic at the University of Melbourne, Australia, discusses the use of ACT principles for therapeutic intervention with adolescents. She describes how to make ACT fun and interesting for this age group, as well as the unique challenges of doing this work effectively.
About Dr. Hayes
Louise works as an academic with the University of Melbourne, and has special interest in adolescent mental health, and also child and parent mental health. Louise' professional training was grounded in using ABA for parent training and child interventions. Now, Louise is an ACT Trainer who is part of the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS) training community. She conducts workshops for professionals on using ACT for adolescents. Louise also works in private practice at a family medical centre, again mostly with adolescents.
Recent key aspects of Louise’s work include coauthoring a self-help book on ACT for teens that was just released, with Joseph Ciarrochi and Ann Bailey, titled Get out Of Your MInd and Into Your Life for Teens: A Guide to Living an Extraordinary Life. Also, Louise was the principal investigator on treatment studies that have tested ACT with adolescents, these were funded by beyondblue, Australia's national depression initiative. In this series of studies Louise tested ACT for adolescents with depression who were being treated in a public mental health services, and also tested ACT in schools high schools using a group program.
Additional Resources Referenced in the Podcast
Piano, Stairs, Fun - This Youtube video demonstrates that fun changes the function of behavior.
Additional Recommended Reading: The Joy of Parenting: An Acceptane and Commitment Therapy Guide to Effective Parenting in the Early Years by Lisa W. Coyne, PhD and Amy R. Murrell, PhD. This is a parenting self-help guide.