- Context: Why it is Fundamental to ACT
- How to determine the functional purpose of behavior
- What is language: Relational Frame Theory
- The source of psychological suffering
- The ACT model of psychopathology
- Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion & the toxic cycle
- Psychological Flexibility: What it is & why it’s important
- The Inflexahex diagnostic model
- Limitations of the research & potential risks
THE CORE CONCEPTS OF ACT
Acceptance: Combat Experiential Avoidance
- What is “acceptance” in ACT?
- Experiential avoidance: The “Control Agenda”
- Client control over unwanted thoughts & feelings
- How to confront the control agenda
- Interventions for fostering acceptance
- Acceptance Exercises: The “Unwanted Party Guest;” “Barriers to Writing”
- The problem with cognitive fusion
- Weaken unworkable language functions
- Should thoughts always control behavior?
- Build an environment of defusion within session
- Strategies for building defusion skills
- Defusion Exercise: “Having vs Believing” our thoughts
- What is self-as-context?
- Self-as-content vs. self-as-context
- Mitigate attachment to the conceptualized self
- Help clients understand self-as-context
- Interventions to foster self-as-context
- Self-As-Context Exercise: The “observer self”
- Mindfulness: A core feature of all human psychopathology
- What “mindfulness” means in ACT
- The goal of mindfulness practice in ACT
- How to train mindfulness with flexibility
- Overcome obstacles in teaching mindfulness
- Address relaxation-induced panic
- Formal & informal mindfulness interventions
- Contact with the Present Moment Exercise: Mindfulness without Meditation
- The importance of values in ACT
- How values can be transformative in human behavior
- Values & goals
- How to evoke values from clients
- From instant gratification to pursuit of values
- Values Clarification Exercise: The Eulogy
- The relationship between values & committed action
- What’s considered committed action?
- Address persistent inaction, impulsivity or avoidance
- Interventions
- Exposure-based approaches
- Behavioral activation strategies
- Social-skills training interventions
- Problem-solving barriers to committed action
- Behavioral homework
- Case Study: Engaging in committed action with depression
- PTSD
- Anxiety
- Personality disorders
- Depression


