Building Flexibility with ACT

Course overview

Building Flexibility with ACT is a 3-hour video continuing education (CE) course focusing on mindfulness-based behavioral therapy that emphasizes acceptance, cognitive defusion, and values-based action. This comprehensive course provides clinicians with a thorough understanding of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles, processes, and techniques. The course is divided into three parts, each focusing on a different skill: Part One discusses Cognitive Defusion, the act of seeing thoughts as mental events rather than facts. Dr. Edery provides a detailed example of defusion, explaining how this helps reduce the influence of unhelpful thoughts. Dr. Edery then draws the participants' attention to acceptance, the ability to embrace emotions without avoidance, and helping clients to build resilience. A mindfulness technique for fostering acceptance is shared and case examples are provided. Part Two explores Values and Committed Action and how to align one's behavior with purpose. The participant is taught how to distinguish values from goals and how to create specific, value guided action plans. Techniques such as using SMART Goals, barrier planning, and exposure are discussed. Part Three asks participants to reflect on Self-as-Context and Present Moment Awareness. Dr. Edery explains how to separate self-as-context (observing self) from self-as-content (conceptualized self) and shares the goals and benefits for this. Dr. Edery offers a thorough explanation of self-as-context and techniques for maintaining psychological flexibility. Participants of this course will learn how to apply ACT to a variety of clinical presentations and develop effective interventions for individual and group therapy. Course #31-43 | 2025 | 3 one-hour videos with handouts | 20 posttest questions