Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Couples: Choosing Love and Meaning in Relationship
Working on close relationships in therapy is particularly useful from a contextual behavioral perspective. Intimate relationships are an essential part of the client’s context, and changes that occur in these relationships directly and indirectly generalize to daily life. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, relationships also provide a unique opportunity to learn, practice, and sustain core skills such as acceptance, defusion, values clarification, mindfulness, and commitment or behavioral activation. “Stuck places” for couples inevitably involve fusion with judgments or non acceptance of one's own or another's feelings. Identifying and defusing from these thoughts and opening up to emotions can provide a unique opportunity for individual growth and development inside the relationship. Assisting the couple to engage in values based behavior can be a powerful tool for connection and intimacy. In therapeutic work for couples, the ACT core processes can provide opportunity to develop deeply meaningful relationships. Relationship can become a vehicle for growth and self-expression, further enhancing intimacy. This presentation will explore the six core processes of ACT and how these can bring vitality to couples in therapy.
Schedule:
6:30-7:00 Networking
7:00-9:00 Training
Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. is Director of TL Consultation Services, Associate Director at the National Center for PTSD and is Associate Clinical Professor at University of California, Berekely. 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 Learning ACT, The Mindful Couple and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of Posttramatic Stress disorder. 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.
Dr. Walser has presented her research findings and papers at international and national conferences, universities and hospital settings; and she has been invited to international conferences to speak about ACT. She is invested in developing innovative ways to translate science-into-practice and continues to do research and education on dissemination of ACT and other therapies. She has had a number of leadership roles in international and national organizations and she served as Member At Large and is currently President-Elect for the Association for Contextual and Behavioral Science, the main association that houses ACT.
CEs are provided by The Spiritual Competency Resource Center who is co-sponsoring this program and is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. SCRC maintains responsibility for the program and content. SCRC is a California Board of Registered Nursing Provider (BRN) and a Board of Behavioral Sciences Provider (BBS). For questions about ce contact David Lukoff, PhD at (707) 763-3576.