Beginning and Advanced Workshop in
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:
Using Mindfulness and Values to Make Powerful Life Enhancing Changes
Presenter: Dr. Robyn Walser
HOSTED BY PHOENIX PRACTICE, HONG KONG
- Dates for Beginning Workshop: Oct 9 and Oct 10, 2010 9.30 – 4.30pm
- Dates for Advanced Workshop: Oct 11 and Oct 12, 2011 9.30 – 4.30pm
- Venue: Renaissance College, Ma on Shan, Hong Kong
Note: if you plan to register for the advanced workshop, please also plan to attend the beginning workshop or have attended a prior ACT workshop or form of training. Please send questions to robyn.walser@sbcglobal.net
For REGISTRATION download the registration form or CONTACT: Jackie Greenwood, enquiries@phoenixpractice.com
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a “third wave” behavioral treatment that emphasizes acceptance of emotion and thought while maintaining a focus on positive behavior change that is meaningful and consistent with personal values. ACT uses a variety of verbal, experiential and homework techniques plus mindfulness to help patients make experiential contact with previously avoided private events (thoughts, feelings, sensations), without excessive verbal involvement and control – and to make powerful life enhancing choices. The workshop will discuss and demonstrate ACT techniques that may be broadly useful for intervening with multi-problem patients dealing with issues such as anxiety, substance abuse, depression, and PTSD. The workshop will provide clinicians with a basic understanding of ACT, and with personal experiences that will allow further development of these skills based on their application.
Comment on ACT
"Once in a while, there is a unique contribution to psychotherapy. Even more rare is the grounding of that contribution in sound philosophy, on the one hand, and firm data, on the other. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy represents such an effort. In a truly creative leap forward, Hayes and his colleagues present a new approach to behavior change that is 'must' reading for everyone in the field of psychotherapy or behavior therapy, as well as students entering the profession."
David H. Barlow, PhD (from the original ACT book: Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson, 1999)
A few quotes regarding Dr. Robyn Walser:
(Robyn)…. is a dynamic leading ACT trainer, charismatic and creative.
“Best workshop I have attended. Excellent presentation. Gained a lot personally and professionally”
“This was one of the best training and workshops I have had the pleasure to attend (and I’ve been to some good ones!)
“That was great! Come back!
“Fantastic. Best training I have ever experienced. Great presenter, great material, great experience”
“Great workshop by a great presenter and person. It’s so nice (and refreshing) to see such a compassion-based therapy alive and well”
Beginning Workshop Outline:
- Part I: Oct 9, 2010; 9.30am - 4.30pm
Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Theory and Concepts
- Human Language, experiential avoidance and their role in pathology
- Our minds do not know what is good for us: F.E.A.R.
- The problem of more, better and different
- Introduction to the 6 core components of treatment
- Part II: Oct 10; 9.30am - 4.30pm
Application of ACT: 6 Core Components of Treatment
The Hexaflex as a model for ACT
- Acceptance
- Present Moment
- Defusion
- Self-as-Context
- Values
- Commited Action
Advanced Workshop Outline:
- Part I: Oct 11, 2010; 9.30am - 4.30pm
The ACT therapeutic stance and the ACT model
ACT and the Hexaflex – Barriers and Clinician Understanding
Role play and client examples of application
Expansion on experiential exercises
- Part II: Oct 12; 9.30am - 4.30pm
Introduction to issues of compassion and forgiveness in the ACT model
Review Processes that trigger the ACT components
Role play and client examples of application
Expansion on experiential exercises
About Dr. Walser
Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. is Director of TL Consultation Services 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 3 books on ACT including a book on learning ACT. She also has expertise in traumatic stress and substance abuse and has authored a number of articles and 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.
