ACT for depression: going deeper into the processes to lift the inertia and move forward with purpose with Jim Lucas
Intermediate level skills workshop
Course Description
Wednesday 21st & Thursday 22nd September 2022
9am – 12pm UK BST; 6pm-9pm Sydney / AEST CLICK HERE to convert to your local time
ONLINE WORKSHOP + recording available after
Please note: you can still access the recording for 6 months even if you are not able to make the live event
When clients get deeply stuck in depression, they will understandably feel hopeless and helpless, avoid meaningful activity and ruminate excessively. It can be hard as a therapist to stay on track and persist. We can end up struggling to engage our clients in building psychological flexibility successfully and maintaining flexibility ourselves. The more we try to help, the more we encounter the same stuck behavioural patterns. Our energy levels and confidence in our abilities can drain quickly, leaving us feeling uncertain, frustrated and ineffectual.
If you find yourself engaging in behaviours such as working excessively hard in session, disconnecting from the client, or sitting back and letting them talk then know that you are not alone. These are all perfectly reasonable responses to an entrenched situation.
Often, these are good indicators that we need to go deeper into ACT processes. By staying close to the functional contextual roots of ACT, you develop the skills to make room for curiosity, appreciating people as they are here and now and connecting with flexibility and wholeheartedness. This workshop is about how to build your skills to do just that, whilst at the same time holding yourself with kindness and warmth as you do this difficult work.
In this workshop, ACBS peer-reviewed ACT Trainer, Jim Lucas, will show you how to sit inside the ACT processes, embodying them and inviting your client to do the same.
You’ll learn how to:
- Notice verbal and non-verbal responses indicative of emotional numbing (demonstration and role-play practice)
- Take a grounded, humble and compassionate stance to create a context that undermines self-criticism and learned helplessness (experiential exercises)
- Regain attentional control by bringing awareness to the emotional experiences otherwise blocked by depressive patterns (experiential exercises).
- Encourage a client to allow and describe their emotions to lift the fog of depression (role-play practice).
- Bring awareness and compassion to negatively-framed self-stories to engender hope (reflective writing exercise).
- Engage clients in positive emotional spirals to create sustainable life patterns (role-play and worksheet completion)
By using taught material, experiential methods, demonstration, role-play practice, and reflective writing, delegates will deepen their ACT knowledge and skills to enhance their work with depressed clients.
About Your Speaker
Jim Lucas specialises in showing CBT Practitioners how to integrate Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) into their work. He has taught ACT at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels. Since 2014, Jim has been a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham. He trains and supervises practitioners on the CBT PG programme within the School of Psychology and founded Openforwards, a Birmingham-based Psychology enterprise offering personal well-being and professional training. Jim is an ACBS peer-reviewed ACT Trainer and a BABCP Accredited CBT Practitioner and Supervisor.
Rates
Please contact us for group booking discount rates.
If you have disability and require adjustments or accommodation, please email us at admin@contextualconsulting.co.uk to discuss your needs and we will do our best to help you.
Booking cancellation
The registration fee will be refunded minus a administration charge if cancellations are received at least two weeks before the workshop date.
Cancellations within two weeks of the event date are charged the full registration fee, other than in exceptional circumstances that can be verified.
Event cancellation
In the event of cancellation of the course outside of our control we will not be held accountable for travel and/or accommodation costs incurred. However, the workshop fees will be refunded.
All workshops will be subject to minimum delegate numbers being met; in the event that a workshop should be cancelled delegates will be given no less than 2 months’ notice.
Replacing delegates
If a delegate is unable to attend and a replacement is nominated there may be a charge depending on the individual circumstances, this will be advised at the time. Please contact the us to request a replacement of delegates at least a week before the workshop date.
You’ll learn how to:
- Notice verbal and non-verbal responses indicative of emotional numbing (demonstration and role-play practice)
- Take a grounded, humble and compassionate stance to create a context that undermines self-criticism and learned helplessness (experiential exercises)
- Regain attentional control by bringing awareness to the emotional experiences otherwise blocked by depressive patterns (experiential exercises).
- Encourage a client to allow and describe their emotions to lift the fog of depression (role-play practice).
- Bring awareness and compassion to negatively-framed self-stories to engender hope (reflective writing exercise).
- Engage clients in positive emotional spirals to create sustainable life patterns (role-play and worksheet completion)
This program is sponsored by Contextual Consulting and is approved for CE credits for psychologists. To find out more, including attendance requirements and how to access your certificate, go to our continuing education information page.