ACT For Couples

This 2-day workshop will to some extent follow the structure of Russ’s self-help book for common relationship issues, “ACT with Love“, but will also include plenty of new material, especially on the links between attachment and mindfulness. If you have already attended other workshops with Russ, you need not fear that this will be “more of the same”. Russ guarantees you will find plenty of new material here. (This is the ‘most fun’ workshop he has ever run.)

The workshop will be intensely practical. You will get to observe, practice, reflect on, and develop the core skills of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy and their application in common relationship issues.

In this workshop you will learn:

• The five core pathological processes involved in common relationship issues, and how to effectively target them with ACT
• Five simple ways to cultivate acceptance of your partner
• The therapeutic use of mindfulness with common attachment issues
• How to handle painful, complex situations with no easy answers
• How to use mindfulness and compassion for increased intimacy and openness
• How to manage anger, fight fairly, and resolve conflicts with defusion and values
• How to effectively apply ACT to a wide range of common issues, including: sexual problems, infertility, different parenting styles, infidelity and betrayal, hostility and aggressiveness, withdrawal and avoidance, passivity and defensiveness, resentment and blame
• How to build or rebuild “mindful trust’ (as opposed to “blind trust’)
• How to establish powerful forgiveness processes
• How to help clients choose whether or not to stay or leave a relationship
• How to use acceptance and defusion for dealing with insecurity, vulnerability, jealousy, attachment issues, and fears of rejection, abandonment or intimacy
• Using mindfulness and values to overcome vicious cycles (e.g. pursuer vs distancer)
• A simple 4-step formula for applying ACT to any relationship issue

About Russ Harris

Dr Russ Harris, author of the best-selling self-help book ‘The Happiness Trap‘, is an internationally-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, and he now works in two different, yet complementary roles: both as a therapist and as a coach. 

Since 2005, Russ has run over 700 two-day workshops and provided ACT training for over 50,000 health professionals, including therapists, coaches, counsellors, doctors, and psychologists. He has authored  four ACT textbooks (ACT Made Simple, Trauma-Focused ACT, Getting Unstuck in ACT, ACT Questions & Answers), and four ACT-based self-help books (The Happiness Trap, The Reality Slap, The Confidence Gap and ACT with Love). He has also co-authored two self-help books (The Weight Escape and The Happiness Trap Pocketbook). The Happiness Trap is now the most widely-translated ACT book in the world, with over one million copies sold worldwide and editions in over 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 textbook on ACT, titled ‘ACT Made Simple’. To download the first chapter, click here.) He 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 )