Do you have clients who suffer from psychosis? Wondering if ACT – and mindfulness in general – can help? Trying to figure out how to adapt ACT and tailor your mindfulness interventions for such challenging issues?
If so, you can’t afford to miss this workshop with Dr Eric Morris, an entertaining and charismatic presenter, a world expert in ACT for psychosis (ACTp), and co-editor of the cutting-edge new textbook, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness for Psychosis.
In this one-day, advanced-level, skills-building workshop, Eric will help you to develop the core skills and knowledge to help people recover from psychosis, using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Psychosis (ACTp).
Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and a limited capacity for perspective taking, all play major roles in the distress and disability associated with psychosis. ACT offers a pathway to better psychological health and wellbeing through the cultivation of experiential openness, self-awareness, engagement in life, defusion from hallucinations, delusions and other unhelpful cognitions, self-compassion, acceptance of pain, and actions based on personal values. Due to the emphasis on values-directed action and personal meaning ACTp is consistent with recovery principles and is highly acceptable by clients.
Eric’s work on ACT with psychosis has been influenced by broader developments in the psychological understanding of psychosis developed in the United Kingdom, where he has lived for the last decade.
The workshop will incorporate plenty of case material to illustrate the use of ACT in community, inpatient, and early intervention settings.
In this workshop you will learn how to use ACT to:
- Understand the problems of psychosis using a psychological flexibility formulation
- Engage people with psychosis in recovery-oriented conversations and action plans
- Foster personal recovery from psychosis, using individual and group interventions
- Adapt ACT metaphors and exercises for people with psychosis
- Develop group work to promote mindfulness and values-based action
- Introduce a pragmatic perspective to mental health team reviews and case formulations
You will receive:
- A comprehensive handout of key exercises from Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Psychosis
- An outline of a brief ACT group program for people with psychosis, and their carers
About the Trainer
Dr Eric Morris is a Senior Lecturer & the Psychology Clinic Director at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He previously worked as a consultant clinical psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, UK, where he was the lead psychologist in early intervention for psychosis. Eric completed a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, researching psychological flexibility and auditory hallucinations, as well as the investigation of ACT as a workplace intervention. His research group has recently completed two trials on ACT groups for people recovering from psychosis and carers, as well as the investigation of ACT vs mindfulness as workplace interventions.
Eric has been practising Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for nearly 20 years and is a highly experienced trainer and supervisor of therapists using contextual cognitive behavioural therapies. He is a Fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS), and Past President of the Australia & New Zealand Chapter of ACBS.
Eric is a co-editor of the textbook, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness for Psychosis, and co-author of the self-help guide, ACTivate Your Life: Using acceptance and mindfulness to build a life that is rich, fulfilling and fun.
Eric recently authored a new book “ACT for Psychosis Recovery: a practical manual for group-based interventions using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” (actforpsychosis.com).
WORKSHOP PRICES
Prices are less for advance payment. Hover over or click on a workshop to get the current price.