Learning to Thrive (Without the Hexaflex): What personal adversity and two decades of clinical practice have taught me about ACT as Behavior Analysis Hosted by the AzABA ACT/RFT SIG
1.5 CEU will be available for attendance
Location: Zoom (Login will be emailed prior to the presentation)
Presenters: Dr. Evelyn Gould
Summary: ACT-based interventions have the potential to produce powerful, socially significant outcomes across populations and settings. However, a reliance on mid-level terms and lack of clarity around what ACT actually is (among other factors), has raised important conceptual, ethical and practical concerns for behavior analytic practitioners attempting to integrate ACT into their practice in a way that is consistent with their specific scope of competence and practice. In this talk, Dr Gould presents ACT as a lens or approach that can be adopted regardless of role or work context, and that keeps the practitioner firmly rooted in behavior analytic philosophy, theory, research and practice. Dr Gould will outline the foundational assumptions required for working ethically and effectively from this perspective, including sensitivity to context and the relational nature of our work (the context for our analyses) and adopting psychological flexibility, social justice and prosociality as primary intervention targets (the purpose of our analyses). In addition, Dr Gould emphasizes the explicit use of functional assessment (FA) as necessary for any intervention said to be behavior analytic and is required for the design and implementation of effective, context-sensitive ACT interventions. Dr Gould will present multiple opportunities for participants to ‘try on’ this approach, which includes considering oneself as a primary context for all our work - a context that is observable and manipulable and always part of our analyses too.
Registration: AzABA Members: Free Non-Members: $10