South Eastern Regional Committee

Present a workshop entitled:

\"A One Day Introduction to ACT- Acceptance and Committment Therapy” 

Presenter Bio:  Aisling Curtin, a Registered Counselling Psychologist, ACT Expert and Founding Director of ACT Now Ireland, is extremely passionate and enthusiastic in her quest to train others in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness.  Her aim is to make key mindfulness and acceptance concepts readily accessible and applicable to people by bringing authenticity, humour and personal experience.  She has experience working across a variety of settings including psychiatry, psycho-oncology, community, public and educational settings.  She has given multiple professional and public ACT and mindfulness workshops internationally including a number of workshops at Harvard Medical School.  Aisling is the President of the International Getting ACT out to the Public Special Interest Group. She has published both nationally and internationally on the topics of ACT and Mindfulness.

Outline: The aim of this course is to introduce counsellors and psychotherapists to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is based on the idea that when we run into psychological difficulties when we are psychologically inflexible. We are psychologically inflexible when we are primarily focused on the past and future, rather than the present moment and when we are disconnected to what is important to us. The primary aim of ACT is to help us to increase our own psychological flexibility and the psychological flexibility of our clients. We are psychologically flexible when we are fully connected to the present moment and what matters to us whilst also engaging in the actions that bring us closer towards who and where we want to be.

ACT develops psychological flexibility in clients, through the development of mindfulness skills, and guides them towards acting in accordance to their core values to create a meaningful life.

Psychological flexibility is achieved through six core processes in ACT:

1. Cognitive defusion: observing what our mind says and responding effectively, rather than getting tangled up and lost in our thinking.
2. Acceptance: embracing our private experiences fully and without attempting to change their frequency or form.
3. Being present: connecting more fully with the here-and-now with an openness to the possibilities and learning opportunities afforded by the current situation.
4. Self-as-context: developing a more solid sense of ourselves as observers of our thoughts and feelings independent of the content of our private experiences.
5. Values: clarifying what gives our lives meaning and what we would like our lives to be about.
6. Committed action: doing what matters and taking steps towards our chosen values, even in the face of difficulties and discomfort.

Adapted from Luoma, Hayes & Walser (2007)

Course objectives:

• Teach how to apply ACT in your daily life to create a sense of vitality, meaning and fulfillment
• Help you to move towards your values and what matters most to you
• Teach powerful ways to rapidly reduce the believability of unhelpful thoughts
• Introduce exercises that build defusion, mindfulness and acceptance skills
• Show you how to change your relationship with unwanted thoughts and feelings
• Focus on applying ACT with your clients

Upon completion of this course you will:

• Be able to introduce ACT into your existing way of working
• Have an understanding of each of the core ACT processes and how they can be applied to promote psychological flexibility. 
• Be able to apply ACT in your own life 
• To create a sense of vitality, meaning and fulfillment.
• To help you cope with the stresses of clients with challenging presentations.
• To help protect against burnout.

Training Level: All Levels - Some knowledge of Mindfulness would be helpful but not necessary

CPD certificates will be emailed to participants after attendance at the Workshop.