The Heart of ACT: Supporting Client Change through Process and Therapeutic Relationship

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has transformed the lives of clients and clinicians in many ways and—as part of a broader shift in the practice of psychotherapy emerging from a new theory of human language —has had a significant impact in the field of psychology. ACT has flourished in areas of application, research base, and clinical use around the world. Not only does it have a broad reach that continues to grow, it also tends to have a distinctive and personal impact. Done with intention and presence, ACT links us to the very qualities of what it means to be alive and whole, to be a conscious and experiencing being. Yet, the behavioral processes implemented in ACT may be learned and understood at many levels and may remain challenging to implement in a flexible, consistent, process-based, and effective fashion. Functional analysis remains a vital yet sometimes elusive aspect of ACT. As well, multiple levels of process are present in any therapy, including those processes beyond ACT’s 6 core. Moving beyond simple technique and into a fluid ACT intervention requires attending to intrapersonal, interpersonal, and overarching and ongoing processes in the context of the psychotherapeutic relationship. Engaging in an on-going functional analysis feeds these processes and informs the case conceptualization. Digesting the theory and research behind ACT and understanding its content, processes, techniques, and foundational goal—psychological flexibility—is about inviting clients back into the vitality found in human joy and pain in the movement toward meaning. Connecting workshops participants to on-going functional analysis and the multiple levels of process found in ACT from a more in-depth, experiential, or heartfelt place will be the focus of this workshop. Didactic presentation, video, role-play and experiential exercises will be used to convey the material.

About Robyn Walser, Ph.D.: 

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. is Director of TL Consultation Services, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and works at the National Center for PTSD. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains an international training, consulting and therapy practice. Dr. Walser is an expert in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and has co-authored 6 books on ACT including a book on learning ACT. She has most recently written a book entitled: The Heart of ACT,  to be released in Fall of 2019. Dr. Walser has expertise in traumatic stress, depression and substance abuse and has authored a number of articles, chapters and books on these topics. She has been doing ACT workshops since 1998; training in multiple formats and for multiple client problems. Dr. Walser has been described as a “passionate, creative, and bold ACT trainer and therapist” and she is best known for her dynamic, warm and challenging ACT trainings. She is often referred to as a clinician’s clinician. Her workshops feature a combination of lecture and experiential exercises designed to provide a unique learning opportunity in this state-of-the-art intervention. http://www.tlconsultationservices.com/