Offering a new Extended training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)*, Functional Analytical Psychotherapy (FAP) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), with fortnightly supervision to measure your increasing ACT-consistency. *Delivered by three ACBS peer-reviewed ACT Trainers
Our ACT training is approved by the British Psychological Society Learning Centre for the purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Including assessment of your learning through regular supervision and monitoring The purpose of this training programme is to provide a thorough and more in-depth training programme in ACT and other contextual behavioural approaches. The training incorporates regular feedback. Such measurement and feedback is there to focus and deepen the process of learning and skill acquisition. This training programme incorporates ACT, FAP and RFT modules. As the ACT model evolves, its training and practice continues to be influenced by RFT. We therefore feel it’s important to include an RFT module. Advanced ACT practitioners also tend to have FAP training under their belts as this deepens the ACT therapist’s ability to apply a deeper functional analysis to the therapeutic relationship. These 12 days of training can be taken without opting for the supervision programme (delivered in fortnightly supervision meetings), leading to a certificate of attendance of our professional programme in ACT and Contextual Behaviour Therapy.
Those completing the supervision and assessment parts of the training will receive a statement of training outcomes documenting what you achieved in ACT competency rating, knowledge tests, as well as how much supervision they received.
The supervision and assessment process
Our training process is designed to cover the ‘head’, ‘heart’ and ‘hands’ of ACT. We will therefore assess your practice of ACT from the perspectives of knowledge, personal experience and skills.
Course requirements*:
Supervision to start after Intermediate level of ACT is completed.
Completing the training modules without the supervision and assessment process leads to certificates of attendance for each training module completed, and a certificate to summarise all the modules completed on our training programme.
This programme does not certify, accredit or approve ACT therapists (following the non-hierarchical ethos of the ACBS community). However, it will provide you with a Training Outcomes certificate stating what you did and the ratings you achieved in your ACT skills development
*These ‘requirements’ are not a locked in system for certifying a particular standard. They are minimums to ensure the course runs smoothly and productively. No fixed standards of ACT practice currently exist in the ACBS community. ACT and Contextual Behavioural Science are evolving disciplines subject to peer-review.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Four Day Skills Intensive Part 1 of 2:
Level: Introductory to Intermediate Trainers: Martin Wilks MSc, C.Psychol, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer and Henry Whitfield MSc, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer. 17-18 Sept + 1-2 Oct 2020 4 day course run over 2 weeks CPD Value: 28 hours Fee: £535 Location: Islington, London N1
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy marries mindfulness and behaviour change strategies to offer a highly versatile mindfulness-informed cognitive behavioural therapy. This 'marriage' has done much to reach clients who shied away from traditional CBT, and brought a more evidence-based approach to those who previously thrived best in the more 'humanistic' approaches. Over 150 randomised control trials have shown that ACT is effective at addressing a wide range of psychological issues (See https://contextualscience.org/state_of_the_act_evidence for more details).
An essential part of progressing as a therapist is to receive regular feedback. Evidence suggests that short two day workshops do little to bring about behaviour change in psychological therapists (Luoma, 2009). Hence we offer a training for those who want to develop the skills to offer ACT with confidence and flexibility. We also provide on going supervision as an additional service
Our modular ACT training offers a well tested, systematic approach to ACT skills building, developed over 9 years of ACT teaching experience. Henry Whitfield and Martin Wilks offered the first dedicated ACT skills training in the UK and have trained over 900 ACT therapists. Efficient skills learning methods have always been the primary focus of our training programmes. Workshop contents: Aim: After these four days of training you should be ready to apply all key ACT processes flexibly to your client work. You will also have had multiple opportunities to experience the benefits of each ACT process personally. The majority of the learning will be experiential in the sense that will ask you to integrate what you learn through application in role-plays, real-plays or group exercises. The many live and video examples of ACT will inform your practice. We structure the training to give you considerable experience in applying the demonstrated principles to varied contexts, flexibly. Remember not to be formulaic! Be present. Every client moment is unique. Day 1:
The ACT therapeutic stance. Demonstrated examples of key guidelines in action. Confronting the control agenda. When controlling your thoughts and feelings is unworkable, how do you ease a client out of the 'quicksand'? Finding your compass points: How to assess values that inspire new behaviour. How to overcome and respond to the pitfalls in values clarification.
The trappings of language: Learn a spectrum of methods for loosening the grip of thought and language. Hold lightly those ideas that push for unworkable behaviour. 'I'm not good enough, therefore I...'
Day 2:
Behaviour change: Do your action tendencies match your values? What does your mind have to say about the new path before you? Bringing behaviour change to what you learnt in day one, you will coach and be coached to walk a new path.
Acceptance: Wilingness to be in difficult therapeutic situations. Willingness to walk that path you have been avoiding. What does your mind tell you you would rather not experience? Transforming the function of those feelings you hate, you will coach each other to know and feel what is more important than the feelings you avoid.
Present moment: Examples of eye-closed meditations and one on one interventions that bring a client out of her mind and into the present.
Psychological flexibility and self-concept issues: How to develop and foster a flexible sense of self.
Moving seemlessly between the processes. Practice applying multiple ACT processes together. The right combination in the right context can be pivotal. Overview of all processes with clinical examples. r /> Guided meditation that includes all six processes. Live and video examples of Willingness and Values. These two processes naturally feed into each other. Pain leads to values, values lead to pain. Accessing the value that is more important than the pain/avoided emotion. Present moment and Willingness. To be more aware is to open up. Video and live examples of applying these two processes together. Time for practice and feedback.
Day 4:
Bringing four processes together using metaphors such as the Life Bus. More live and video examples to analyse. Emphasizing the coupling of cognitive defusion and committed action. What do the bus passengers say as you turn the wheel of the bus towards what's important? Break the rules! Present moment and the observer self. Get present to the ever changing process of yourself concept. Further video examples to 'bring it all together'. All six processes applied in one session flexibly. Further real-plays for applying it all, as the moment demands, flexibly, and with feedback. These four days are prerequisite to our Intensive ACT skills Part 2 training.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Four Day Skills Intensive Part 2 of 2:
Level: Intermediate to Advanced Numbers limited to 20 to make personal feedback possible. 10 students per trainer.
Trainers: David Gillanders, (D.Clin.Psychol.) ACBS Peer-reviewed ACT trainer, Martin Wilks MSc, C.Psychol, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer and Henry Whitfield MSc, MBACP, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer. The trainers have multiple publications in their field. See trainer profiles for full biographical details.
Dates: 15-16 Oct + 12-13 Nov 2020 CPD Value: 28 hours Fee: £535 Location: Islington, London N1 Manual provided: Printed manual, included. Prerequisite: Introductory ACT training with skills training, or experience of applying ACT to your client work.
On completion of this intermediate-advanced level course you will have: 1) a thorough experience of case-formulation and it's application to a client of yours 2) received personal feedback from David or Henry on your style of practice 3) targeted areas for improvement in your personal ACT practice 4) expanded your physicalized repertoire If you didn’t already, you should feel confident enough to call yourself an ACT therapist, after this training. Prerequisite: Our Four day Part 1 Intensive skills training, or equivalent skills training.
Day 5:
Where is your ACT practice currently at? A tool for finding holes in your skill set. What would you particularly like to improve during this training process? Examples and practice of Functional analysis in case-formulation, and ‘on the fly’ in the therapeutic relationship. David’s latest approach to case-formulation and treatment planning Roleplay: put your treatment plan into action (with feedback from the trainers).
Day 6:
Day 7(after 4 weeks break):
Report back on how ACT practice went in personal and professional contexts. Troubleshooting questions answered. Live demonstration of working with a difficult client, tracking the trainer’s moves with cross process tracking form. Overview of common sticking points with examples of how to respond to them. Further roleplay practice of sticking points discussed - with feedback from the trainers.
Day 8:
Relational Frame Theory (RFT), The Self and Perspective Taking Online
Trainer: Louise McHugh
Dates: TBC Time: 9:30am for a 10:00am start to 5:00pm CPD Value: 14 hours Fees: £275 Location: Islington, London N1
The most important relationship any individual has is the one with themselves; any challenges you have with yourself will leak into your relationships with others. A healthy self is pretty much universally seen as a prerequisite for sound mental functioning, while dysfunctional or underdeveloped aspects of self are understood to contribute to poor mental health. When a therapist is working with a client, one key aim is to help the client to have peace of mind (from a relational frame theory point of view ‘mind’ is a metaphor for verbal behavior – relation framing). In order to have this, we cannot avoid our self. We cannot walk away from our self. Our self is with us no matter where we go. In this online series we will introduce Relational Frame Theory and how it applies to the self. In brief from an RFT point of view, you want therapeutic techniques that foster variability, stability, functional coherence and a flexible sense of responsibility.
Any techniques that do the following can help foster a healthy sense of self:
1. Find variability in the process of awareness
Online Skills Training in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy for Social Connection
Trainer: Matthew SKinta, Ph.D.
Online Skills Training in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy for Social Connection Date: 7th Apr 2020 Time: 6:30-8:30 pm online for 8 weeks - each tuesday CPD Value: 18 hours Fee: £315
Followers of fashion will be aware that alongside Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Behavioural Activation sits a third behaviour-analytic approach; Functional Analytic Psychotherapy is a "fellow-traveller" to ACT, with FAP workshops regularly offered at ACT World Conferences as a complementary approach. FAP is considered by some as a 3rd hand of the 3rd Wave of CBT.
FAP is based on a broad functional analysis of the therapeutic relationship rather than a specific behavioural model of, say, depression and as such aims to enhance our therapeutic effectiveness. As we know Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy is a powerful set of interventions that has improved the ability of practitioners to provide effective and efficient services. Yet many feel something is missing and seek to increase the emotional intensity and interpersonal focus of their work and create deep and meaningful therapeutic relationships. CBT manuals rarely provide guidance on these aspects of the work. Even ACT practitioners might state that the therapeutic relationship remains the biggest challenge and opportunity for change and is perhaps the most obvious context of interest to a functional contextualist. This is where FAP begins. Broadly stated, FAP is about expanding and living up to our full potential as human beings for whom loving and living with other human beings is fundamental. FAP seeks to use functional contextual/behavioral principles to maximize our relationships and the impact we can have within them. More specifically, FAP focuses on how CBT therapists can create powerful therapeutic relationships, how clients’ daily life problems occur in the context of the therapy session and therapy relationship, and how therapists can respond to these problems to maximize their impact. FAP aims to supercharge CBT, boosting its value beyond symptom reduction to create intense life-changing experiences for some clients. FAP is user friendly and FAP techniques are applicable to almost any disorder including depression, anxiety and OCD, intimacy difficulties, personality disorders, substance abuse, and couples’ work. The behavioral underpinnings of FAP facilitate its use with empirically supported approaches such as Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Behavioral Activation and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. FAP, however, is not a typical eclectic approach. All interventions are informed by clearly stated and understandable behavioral principles. This workshop will be experiential, geared toward active learning, interaction and engagement. Participants will be encouraged to take strategic interpersonal risks to facilitate personal growth while cultivating mindfulness of the relationship. FAP encourages bringing out the best in who you are so you can fully commit to your relationships with those who are important to you, including your clients, and to make space for the vulnerability that entails. FAP is about expanding and living up to our full potential as human beings for whom loving and living with other human beings is fundamental. An important assumption in FAP is that the therapy relationship is a real relationship; therefore this workshop aims to train you in FAP skills through practicing your increased ability to connect with and be fully present in your relationships. Participants will be encouraged to discuss ways to tailor FAP principles to their own clients and to address challenges and concerns about focusing on the client-therapist relationship. In addition, materials will be provided to help participants apply the workshop strategies to their own practice.
Learning Objectives:
Martin Wilks Chartered Psychologist, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer, BPS , AFBPsS BSc. Psychol (hons), Dip PC Couns. MSc Couns Psychol, Dip Couns Psychol
Martin has cultivated his personal mindfulness practice for over 25 years. For 17 yrs, working as both psychologist and visiting Buddhist minister, he facilitated mindfulness-based groups and counselling services in a central London prison. In private practice, since 2002 he has been developing the use of ACT in short term work and weaves many ACT & MBCT practices and procedures into longer term mindfulness-based psychotherapy. His research interests focus upon qualitative, participant inquiry methods exploring the integration of mindfulness meditation with counseling.
Henry J. Whitfield MSc, MBACP, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer.
Henry set up Mindfulness Training Ltd in 2006. His research interests include the theoretical and practical integration of mindfulness with cognitive behavioural theories, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy processes and in case-formulated applications of mindfulness. After 4 years as a trauma specialist for Victim Support Lambeth, Henry has since conducted empirical research for City and Hackney Mind, and SPCP Regents College, London investigating the process of values within different approaches to trauma counselling. He also works in private practice, and teaches widely on the subject of Mindfulness-consistent therapies.
Dr. David Gillanders D.Clin.Psychol , ACBS Peer-reviewed ACT Trainer
Also a clinical psychologist, David first became interested in ACT in around 2004 via the Contextual CBT for Chronic Pain work of Lance McCracken. As well as working as a clinician specialising in chronic pain, David also trains clinical psychology doctoral students in ACT. He has led a research programme in clinical health psychology, focusing on a variety of long term health conditions. This research has investigated different theoretical perspectives on psychological factors in long term conditions. This research strategy has supported thesis projects for 8 DClinPsychol students, and 3 PhD students. David has also worked on measuring cognitive defusion (a core process in ACT).
Dr Louise McHugh BSc MA PhD
Louise's research interests are centered on the experimental analysis of language and cognition from a behaviour analytic and Relational Frame Theory perspective, including especially the development of complex cognitive skills such as as perspective-taking and the process-level investigation of behavioural and cognitive psychotherapies including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She has published over 40 papers on these topics and has received funding from several sources including the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Waterloo Trust and the Welsh Assembly. Most recently she was awarded a European Marie Curie career integration award to join the faculty at UCD.
Dr Jonathan W. Kanter, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Dr. Jonathan Kanter is a Research Associate Professor and FAP Term Professor at the University of Washington. He has written numerous empirical and theoretical articles on FAP and provided workshops to student and professional audiences around the world. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has edited or co-authored 5 books, including “A Guide to Functional Analytic Psychotherapy: Awareness, Courage, Love, and Behaviorism” with several other authors.
Dr Joseph Oliver BA (Hons), PGDipClinPsyc, PhD
Joe is a clinical psychologist working in the Lambeth Early Onset (LEO) Psychosis Service, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Joseph graduated from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, receiving a BA (Hons) before going on to complete his postgraduate diploma in clinical psychology and PhD in 2003. His PhD research investigated the psychological processes of stress and wellbeing within the workplace. Alongside his clinical work, specialising in the area of psychosis, Joe carries out research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, being involved in a number of trials investigating the use of ACT with people with psychosis and within the workplace. He has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters in the clinical application of ACT and is currently leading on an RCT comparing ACT and mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions for workplace wellbeing.
Joe is also current chair of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) ACT Special Interest Group, which promotes and develops ACT within the UK, by offering professional development opportunities, grants and training workshops. In addition, he regularly provides ACT and contextual-cognitive behavioural therapy training, both nationally and internationally.