The ACT matrix for beginners

Two lines crossing on a blank page. That is more or less the whole kit, and it can hold a surprising amount of a client’s life. This on-demand workshop teaches you how to draw the ACT matrix with a client and fill it in together. You will then learn to use what appears on the page to find a way forward when therapy feels stuck. The workshop is broken into short modules, so you can watch between clients and go back over the tricky parts.

Background to the workshop

Most clients arrive with a story that has been running for years. The story contains the thoughts and feelings that keep showing up, the things the client does to make them go away, and the people and purposes they care about. All the pieces are usually there. They just arrive in no particular order, like a jigsaw tipped out of the box, and the client is often too close to see how one piece locks into the next.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offers a clear account of how people get stuck and what helps them move. Its psychological flexibility model, often drawn as the hexaflex, maps six core processes and gives you a sound way to think about the person in front of you. It was built for the therapist’s head, though, and it rarely works when you hand it across the room. Clients need something they can look at, point to and recognise themselves in.

Many ACT practitioners feel this gap. You understand the model, and you can talk about values and defusion with confidence. In session, though, it can still be hard to organise what a client is telling you into a picture you can both see. The formulation ends up in your notes when it would do more good on the table between you.

What you will gain from this workshop

The ACT matrix gives you and your client a shared map of their situation. It draws on some of the oldest ideas in behavioural science and links them to ACT’s core processes in a form simple enough to sketch on the back of an envelope. By the end of the workshop you will be able to use it for assessment, formulation and planning committed action. You will gain:

• A grounding in the behavioural theory behind the matrix. You will learn the ABCs of human behaviour, functional contextualism and how the psychological flexibility model fits together, so you know why the tool works and can adapt it.
• A clear way to talk about towards and away moves. Using the allegory of the bear and the blueberry bush, you will learn to help clients tell the difference between moving towards what matters and moving away from what hurts. You will also learn the distinction between appetitive and aversive control that sits underneath it.
• Confidence with each of the four quadrants. You will explore what happens when a client gets hooked, how to identify values and values-based actions, and how to separate internal experience from external behaviour in a way clients grasp quickly.
• A way to use the observing self. The centre of the matrix is where the client notices and chooses. You will learn to invite them there so the map becomes something they can act from.
• Relational frame theory without the headache. A stripped-back introduction to opposition, hierarchy and coordination frames shows you how to weave the quadrants together and link a client’s pain with what they care about.
• Language you can use in session. You will see how to open the matrix with a client using lines such as “Can I draw a quick picture of what’s been going on for you?” and how to keep it collaborative from there.
• Answers to common sticking points. You will learn what to do when the quadrants blur, when a client can’t name a value, or when the matrix seems to go nowhere.

About this workshop

This is an on-demand workshop made up of an introduction and six modules. The modules run from around 15 to 50 minutes, and you can work through them at your own pace. Teaching is delivered in short, focused segments with plenty of diagrams and visuals. The theory builds gradually, so each quadrant is in place before you start connecting them.

Video vignettes show away moves and towards moves in action, which makes the concepts easier to recognise when they turn up in your own sessions. The workshop includes two extended client demonstrations. The first shows how to introduce the matrix for the first time. The second applies it to a clinical example involving anxiety and a fear of public speaking. A final troubleshooting module takes on the questions practitioners most often ask once they start using the matrix for real.

The workshop is presented by Dr Joe Oliver, a consultant clinical psychologist, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT trainer and founder of Contextual Consulting. Joe has used the matrix for years with individuals, groups and organisations, and he teaches it the way he uses it: simply, and with an eye on what happens next in the room.

You can watch the introduction for free before you sign up.

Who will benefit from this workshop?

This workshop is for psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, coaches, occupational therapists and other practitioners who use ACT in individual, group or organisational settings. It suits you well if you know the ACT model but find it hard to turn that knowledge into a formulation your client can actually see and use.

The matrix is taught from the ground up, so no previous experience of it is needed. You should have some knowledge and experience of ACT already, as the basics of the model are not covered in any depth.

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Module overview

Introduction: Introduction to the workshop [6 mins]

• Introduction to the module series and overview of each module.

You can view the introduction for free here:

Module 1: Background theory [14 mins]

• The ABCs of human behaviour
• What is functional contextualism?
• An overview of the psychological flexibility model
• Stepping out of autopilot and into awareness

Module 2: Towards and away [17 mins]

• The bear and the blueberry bush allegory
• Appetitive and aversive – what’s the difference?
• The observing self – who chooses

Module 3: The matrix quadrants [51 mins]

• An intro to away moves
• What happens when we get hooked?
• Video vignette example of away moves
• An intro to towards moves
• Values overview: why, what, when and how
• Values based actions – what are they?
• Video vignette example of towards moves
• Internal behaviour vs external behaviour – everything you need to know
• An example of using the matrix

Module 4: Weaving the quadrants together [16 mins]

• What does weaving the matrix together? And how do I do it?
• RFT made super super simple
• Opposition frames and  how to do them
• Hierarchy frames and how to do them
• Co-ordination frames and how to do them
• Bringing it all together

Module 5:  Client demonstrations using the matrix [36 mins]

• Joe demonstrates how to introduce the matrix for the first time with a client
• Joe demonstrates how to use the matrix with a clinical example related to anxiety and a fear of public speaking

Module 6: Troubleshooting [25 mins]

• Troubleshooting the matrix and answering the important questions
• Next steps in your matrix journey