Promoting Psychological Flexibility: ACT in Behavior Analytic Practice
This course runs from September 4-October 30, 2024, with meetings on alternate Wednesdays from 11:30 am-12:30 pm US Eastern.
Improving psychological flexibility is the primary aim of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Training. In this interactive workshop, Drs. Siri Ming and Evelyn Gould take the stance that psychological flexibility is a critical socially valid outcome and guiding principle for all that we do as behavior analysts. Much of our work involves teaching others to behave more flexibly within their context, and establishing the prerequisite skills that lay the foundations for psychological flexibility later; psychological inflexibility plays a role in many of the common difficulties we encounter.
Psychological flexibility involves interacting with (or “languaging about”) our experiences in flexible, context-sensitive ways that help us connect with meaning and purpose (i.e., powerful sources of reinforcement), even when faced with adversity. This is a complex composite repertoire, requiring advanced repertoires of relational framing and rule governance. However, it is a repertoire that is learned, and can be taught, in terms of component skills building over time. We can work to expand child repertoires from infancy all the way through to adulthood, and when working with families, design practices that are contextually sensitive to the development of both parent and child across the lifespan. Working with staff and supervisees also requires sensitivity to psychological flexibility repertoires in the context of supervisory and mentoring relationships over time. Moreover, improving our own psychological flexibility skills increases our effectiveness in supporting others, as well as supporting our own well-being and resilience (inside and outside of work)..
Viewing ACT as a framework for promoting psychological flexibility, rather than as a set of techniques or procedures, allows for an individualized, culturally responsive, functional approach to intervention. In this workshop we will also examine common ACT models and tools in terms of basic behavior analytic principles and explore how and when behavior analysts might incorporate them functionally and ethically into their work with clients. Viewing behavior analytic intervention through the lens of psychological flexibility gives a clear focal point for building a meaningful, values-directed, compassionate and responsive practice, centered on social validity.
This course provides 10 CEUs.
All courses within Constellations have three price tiers. Click here for our pricing guide . We also have low-cost pay-what-you-can scholarships available. Priority will be given to those who primarily serve underserved, disadvantaged and minority populations, clinicians who are members of minority groups themselves, and to early career practitioners or students in developing countries. Please click here to apply.
Overview
Module 1: Psychological Flexibility and Social Validity
• The importance of psychological flexibility as a repertoire
• Psychological flexibility and socially valid goals
• Psychological flexibility and socially valid procedures
• Psychological flexibility and socially valid outcomes
• Psychological flexibility in the context of interlocking contingencies
Live meeting: Viewing ACT as the promotion of psychological flexibility within cooperative contexts for change, grounded in functional analysis
Module 2: Foundations for psychological flexibility
• Doing something different—Behavioral variability
• Noticing—Increasing complexity and flexibility of stimulus control
• Deriving—Establishing new relations and relational flexibility
• Promoting curiosity—Broadening repertoires in the face of adversity
• The social dance—Conceptualizing psychological flexibility in the context of interlocking contingencies
Live meeting: Meeting clients where they are at: Viewing ACT developmentally
Module 3: Self-ing and Psychological Flexibility
• Foundations for self-ing
• Perspective taking
• Hierarchical framing
• Promoting healthy self-ing
• Me and You—Conceptualizing psychological flexibility in the context of interlocking contingencies
Live meeting: Meeting clients where they are at: Including ourselves in functional analyses
Module 4: Rules, values, and psychological flexibility
• Rules—Pliance, tracking, augmenting
• Valuing and transformation of function
• Psychological flexibility and the dimensions of relational framing
• Problems of psychological inflexibility and models for intervention
• Psychological flexibility and interlocking contingencies: Promoting flexibility for ourselves and others, throughout the lifespan
Live meeting: Meeting ourselves and our clients where we are at: “ACTing” throughout the lifespan
Objectives
Experiential Objectives
1. Discuss how adopting psychological flexibility as a guiding principle and primary outcome of behavior analytic services supports social validity.
2. Develop goals related to psychological flexibility that focus on measurable objective behavior change.
3. Describe and conceptualize psychological flexibility repertoires within the context of interlocking contingencies (parent child over time, practitioner-client, supervisor-supervisee, etc.)
4. Describe how psychological flexibility and generative behavior is related to enriching environments, expanding repertoires, expanding sources of reinforcement, and increasing choice-making opportunities and skills.
5. Identify at least one way that psychological flexibility (or inflexibility) impacts you personally as a behavior analyst, and identify strategies for increasing your own psychological flexibility
6. Identify the ways in which your own practice supports or hinders flexibility (in yourself and others).
Technical/Educational Objectives
7. Define psychological flexibility from a behavior analytic perspective.
8 .Describe ACT as the promotion of psychological flexibility within cooperative contexts for change, grounded in functional analysis.
9. Describe how observing and stimulus orienting is a critical foundational skill for psychological flexibility and executive functioning.
10. Define component repertoires of behavioral variability, perspective taking (including empathy, compassion), selfing, hierarchical framing, curiosity and valuing
11. Describe/define rule-governed behavior from an RFT perspective.
12. Describe the relationship between rule-governed behavior and psychological flexibility.
13. Describe how component repertoires are learned over time and contribute to the composite repertoire of psychological flexibility.
Meeting Dates
• Introductions: September 4, 11:30 am-12 pm Eastern (this is an initial meeting of just 30 minutes, to meet each other and get oriented to the platform)
• Module 1: Sept 18, 11:30 am-12:30 pm Eastern
• Module 2: Oct 2, 11:30 am-12:30 pm Eastern
• Module 3: Oct 16 , 11:30 am-12:30 pm Eastern
• Module 4: Oct 30, 11:30 am-12:30 pm Eastern