2-Day Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Workshop

Credit

Program Information

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Speaker

Jacob Martinez, LPC Related seminars and products

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Jacob Martinez, LPC, is a licensed professional counselor in private practice in Wisconsin. He is an active member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), the international organization for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with over 8,000 members worldwide and served on the board from 2023-2025. Jacob specializes in the ACT Matrix and creating novel ACT interventions, with a mission to help clinicians “think outside the books” through engaging presentations on psychological flexibility, along with ongoing training and supervision of clinicians.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Jacob Martinez maintains a private practice. He receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Jacob Martinez is a member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.

 

Additional Info

Program Information

For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.

Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

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Objectives

1. Explain how the origins of human cognition and language via evolution is relevant to the ACT model.     
2. Identify Transformation of Function & Rule Governed Behavior. 
3. Define Functional Contextualism as it applies to clinical practice. 
4. Define Process Based Therapy.
5. Develop a functional analysis of behavior using a three-term contingency model.
6. Utilize the ACT Matrix to help clients identify unworkable patterns of behavior.
7. Identify three goals of brief therapy in Focused ACT.
8. Choose metaphors that promote behavior change.
9. Appraise cases using the Hexaflex Model.
10. Define Values in ACT.
11. Determine Processes of Change via Network Diagramming.
12. Examine Process Based case conceptualization trans-diagnostically.

Outline

ACT Foundations: Understanding the Big Picture

• What do we mean by “behavior” – from molecules to meaning
• Why we move toward some things and away from others
• How evolution shapes behavior: variation, selection, and retention
• ACT as an open-source, open-science model: what that means for you
• A Quick history of ACT: where it started, where it’s going
• Understanding the Relational Frame Theory (RFT)
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

The Human Story: Why the Contextual Roots of Behavior Matter in Therapy

• Why looking at our ancestors helps us understand behavior today
• What makes Homo sapiens unique in how we think and relate
• How we assign meaning and function – often arbitrarily
• 2000,000 years of advancement

A Philosophy of Function: Seeing Behavior Differently with ACT

• Radical behaviorism: not what you think
• Predict-and-influence: the heart of behavioral science
• The Three-Term Contingency; a therapist’s lens
• Creative hopelessness: turning stuckness into possibility
• Appetite vs. aversion: how context changes everything
• Helping clients analyze their own behavior functionally
• Demonstration

ACT as a Process-Based Therapy

• What Are Processes, Really?
• Psychological flexibility: the “container” for change
• Different ways to conceptualize it:
  • The Three Pillars/Focused ACT
  • The ACT Matrix
  • RFT’s three core strategies
  • DNA-v model
  • The Hexaflex & Core Yearnings
  • Extended Evolutionary Meta Model

The Intake Session: Setting the Stage for Change

• How to balance intake goals with therapeutic momentum
• Using the ACT matrix to promote rapid insight
• Identifying treatment goals that actually work
• Giving clients hope from the very first session
• Setting homework that sticks
• Case demonstration

ACT in Short-Term Therapy: Making Every Minute Count

• Why short-term therapy can be powerful
• Simplifying your ACT toolbox
• Focusing on three key change agents
• The Brief Contextual Interview
• Easy-to-learn metaphors that make a big impact
• Live Case Demos

Using Language as Intervention in ACT

• How to craft and co-create metaphors with clients
• Tips for making metaphors come alive in session
• Case demonstration

“Set Piece” Interventions that Target Multiple Processes at Once

• Present moment contact
• Experiential acceptance
• Cognitive defusion
• Self-as-context
• Values clarification
• Committed action

Values: The Great Transformers

• Defining values in functional terms
• Helping clients clarify what truly matters
• Linking values to vitality and motivation
• Case demonstration

Case Conceptualization: What Process Am I Targeting?

• Using the Hexaflex & Core Yearnings to guide your work
• Making process “reads” in real time
• The Problem-Procedure-Process-Outcome framework
• Network diagramming for complex cases
• Case Demonstration

Target Audience

• Social Workers
• Counselors
• Psychologsits
• Physicians
• Addiction Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Registered Psychotherapists
• Case Managers
• Nurses
• Mental Health Professionals