Greetings from Malaysia!
I can still feel the excitement while writing this dissemination report seven months after attending the ACBS World Conference 13 in Berlin. It was my first international conference, and this was made possible because of ACBS Developing Nation Scholarship. I am very grateful for the learning opportunity and am committed to share my learning back in my home country. This dissemination report will briefly describe my initial dissemination activities thus far and the future plans.
In contrast to learning from written materials, the six days conference has provided me with great conceptual and experiential learning on ACT, adding valuable amount of my repertoire on the application of the psychological flexibility processes. With the effective training method, the two days preconference workshops on ACT skill building by Steven Hayes has especially given me a good balanced of theoretical and practical input on ACT. During the conference, I attended workshops in accordance to my interest in young people and chronic pain, trying to gain as much as I can within the six days.
After returning to Malaysia, I started utilizing ACT modality with greater confidence in my private practice with individuals with mental disorders. For group work, I have also started to facilitate the participants' psychological flexibility to increase their work functioning while conducting a Return to Work program. In my work at pain clinic Hospital Kuala Lumpur, I have started to incorporate ACT approach to guild patients to manage chronic pain.
In addition to some informal sharing with my colleagues in Malaysia, I have organized a workshop on managing exam anxiety with ACT for students in Methodist College Kuala Lumpur in October 2015. In February 2016, I will be facilitating another ACT workshop on increasing psychological flexibility for special needs children in the Special Education Network in Asia Conference (SENIA).
For prospective plans, after securing a good funding, I will start my doctorate study on the area of ACT for young people with pain condition under Dr Lance McCracken. I am also looking for opportunities to observe ACT chronic pain group program, as I wish to implement one in the pain clinic that I am working in. Besides that, I plan to equip myself on the use of ACT on young children by attending workshops by Louise Hayes. Lastly, my longterm goal is to become a peer review trainer and share this wonderful approach and community to my fellow colleagues in Malaysia.
Thank you, ACBS!
With gratefulness,
Lee Sook Huey
Clinical Psychologist, Malaysia
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