ACT For Perfectionism, People-Pleasing And Other Forms of Rigid Rule-following with Dr Russ Harris

Recorded Webinar – 2 hours

Presenter: Dr. Russ Harris

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Practitioners often struggle when clients are heavily fused with rigid rules, keeping them stuck in self-defeating patterns of behaviour. Two of the most common ways this shows up in therapy are perfectionism and people-pleasing (or ‘fawning’). Clients often don’t realise they are fused with rigid rules such as “I have to do this perfectly” or “I have to please others”. But even if they do realise it, they are often resistant to change, because there are significant benefits to following such rules.

Although in this webinar, we’ll focus primarily on perfectionism and people-pleasing, the principles we cover can be applied to any type of rigid rule-following, from compulsive rituals in OCD, righteousness and entitlement in relationship issues, and any type of addictive behaviour.

You will learn how to help your clients overcome perfectionism and escape from people-pleasing through:

• Becoming aware of the rules they are following
• Identifying both the benefits and costs of following those rules
• Looking at their rules in terms of workability
• Learning how to “hold their rules lightly” – and bend them or disobey them, if and when useful to do so
• Finding more effective, life-enhancing ways of obtaining the benefits that have previously reinforced rigid rules
• Extracting important values from beneath rules, and using them for flexible committed action
• Overcoming barriers to change
• Handling the short-term increase in anxiety that almost always occurs when bending or disobeying rules
• Handling setbacks and relapses

About Your Presenter

Dr Russ Harris: Medical Practitioner – Psychotherapist – Executive Coach 

Russ Harris, author of the international best-selling self-help book ‘The Happiness Trap’, is a world-renowned trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). Russ’s background is in medicine. As a GP he became increasingly interested in the psychological aspects of health and wellbeing, and increasingly disenchanted with writing prescriptions. Ultimately this interest led to a total career change. He now works in two different, yet complementary roles – as a therapist and as a coach.

Since 2005, Russ has run over 600 two-day workshops and provided ACT training for over 35,000 health professionals, including therapists, coaches, counsellors, doctors, and psychologists. He has authored three ACT textbooks (ACT Made Simple, Getting Unstuck in ACT, ACT Questions & Answers), and six ACT-based self-help books, including The Reality Slap, The Confidence Gap, and ACT with Love. His first book, The Happiness Trap, is now the best-selling ACT book in the world – with over one million copies sold, and translations into more than 30 languages. (To download the opening chapter, click here.)

Russ has a unique model for training, which he calls ‘ACT Made Simple’, because it covers so much material in a short space of time. (In fact, he even has even written an introductory text book on ACT, titled ‘ACT Made Simple’. To download the first chapter, click here.) Russ proudly proclaims each workshop a ‘jargon-free zone’ – and bases his training on three core values: simplicity, clarity, and having fun. His highly-acclaimed ACT workshops are brief, powerful, cost-effective and life-enhancing. Participants regularly report not only major improvements in their therapy and/or coaching, but also in their personal lives – and evaluation forms frequently praise his ability to make complex ideas seem very simple. (For examples, go to testimonials).