Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in chronic pain

The evidence base, clinical training, how ACT is practiced in clinical settings has changed over the past 20 years. Current practice is influenced by several developments:

• Wider understanding for Relational Frame Therapy, an approach to language and thinking allied with ACT
• An increasing emphasis in CBT on Process-Based Therapy
• New ways to frame psychological flexibility, the therapeutic focus in ACT, with the appearance of A Liberated Mind, a book by Steve Hayes.

This 12 hour workshop is designed for treatment providers interested in chronic pain and related conditions.  It is an up to date approach to training in essential skills for those with little or no prior training in ACT, for people wishing to refresh their basic skills. The training is suitable for psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, or doctors, or other counsellors or therapists.

In this workshop participants will learn about:

• The challenges of chronic pain that make is so well suited to ACT.
• The latest evidence for ACT in chronic pain.
• The psychological flexibility model as applied to chronic pain.
• How to apply facts of psychological flexibility to ourselves.
• How to recognise inflexibility in another’s behaviour and how to respond to this in ways that promote flexibility.

Through the use of cases examples, experiential exercise, and direct skills training, participants will:

• See psychological flexibility processes in their own experience.
• Directly practice skills that can be applied in clinical practice.
• Learn alternative simple ways to conceptualise and apply psychological flexibility
• Take away easy to learn skills for working with the most challenging parts of the model, such as “self” and perspective-taking.

The workshop includes only very short lectures, some discussion, and a relatively greater focus on demonstrations and role-play.