Hometown Science, a public charity engaged in science for the public good. He is one of the co-developers of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Dr. Wilson has devoted himself to the development and dissemination of ACT and its underlying theory and philosophy for more than 21 years, publishing 40 articles, 34 chapters, and 10 books including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 2ed., Mindfulness for Two: An ACT Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy, Things Might Go Terribly, Horribly Wrong: A Guide to Life Liberated from Anxiety, and The Wisdom to Know the Difference: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workbook for Overcoming Substance Abuse. He has central interests in the application of behavioral principles to understanding topics such as purpose, meaning, values, therapeutic relationship, and mindfulness. Dr. Wilson has presented workshops in 23 countries, and has participated as co-investigator in a wide range of research projects in the U.S. and around the world. Kelly Wilson 
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Growing Psychological Flexibility
July 30-August 3, 2012
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based therapy that mixes mindfulness, values, and behavioral activation in order to build psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility, like physical flexibility, allows you to bend when life asks you to bend.
This experiential workshop will focus on the interface between mindfulness and values work in ACT. The interventions that will be practiced can be used in a full ACT protocol or can be interwoven into many other therapeutic models. Experiential exercises include both ACT-oriented mindfulness work and also practice at mindful interviewing skills. Participants will learn to shift from typical conversations to transformational conversations.
In this course, we will look at the ways ACT works with unhelpful patterns of thinking using acceptance, defusion, and mindfulness interventions. Mindfulness alone has been shown in recent meta-analyses to produce large effects for those diagnosed with anxiety and depression. ACT uses mindfulness strategies in innovative ways—combining both relatively traditional mindfulness practices with other in-session interventions that involve momentary touching of mindfulness processes within ongoing therapeutic work. ACT’s defusion strategies often provide active and surprising alternative means of working with difficult cognitions.
One thing that has been well-demonstrated in the psychological literature is that activity is good medicine. In ACT behavioral activation occurs with values and commitment work. ACT eases clients back into the stream of life, focusing on getting them active in large and small ways in domains of living that are meaningful to them. Because of its roots in the behavioral tradition, ACT involves shaping patterns of activation. We begin where the client is, no matter how restricted, and shape, sometimes starting with the tiniest engagements in lived values. Over time, we help clients to actively author growth in valued domains of living.
Join me for a week and learn about ACT from the inside out. We will take an experiential walk around the ACT model. We will learn ways to bring ourselves into the present moment. We will learn ways to accept the sweet and the sad. We will learn ways to let go of limiting stories about ourselves and about the world around us. We will learn to intentionally author a valued direction. And, finally, we will practice the lovely human art of returning in kindness to our own lives.
Monday
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy introduction to the model
Tuesday
Growing the Gift of Perspective
Wednesday
Mindfulness and Acceptance Work
Thursday
Mindfulness and Values Work
Friday
Case Conceptualization and Discussion
