Beyond the ACT Basics
How to bridge the gap between knowing ACT concepts and using it skilfully in practice
Many therapists I’ve spoken to reach the same frustrating point.
I’ve done some ACT training.
I’ve read some ACT books.
I understand the model.
But real sessions often feel different, trickier, messier.
A client talks in circles.
Defusion falls flat.
Values work appear vague.
You are not sure whether to slow down, go deeper, challenge, validate or shift direction.
You want to be more experiential, but you’re not sure how to do it well.
To bridge the gap between learning ACT and using it skilfully with clients, it helps to follow a guided developmental process. This can help you move from patchy application to greater coherence and consistency.
You can shift from self-doubt to clearer in-session choices and from relying solely on techniques to seeing context and function.
Whenever I train people in ACT, I follow my practitioner growth framework. I use it as a design tool. In fact, I am writing a book about it right now, which I hope to publish later this year.
It has five steps and is designed to help you stay grounded, think clearly and respond skilfully when you’re not sure what to do next. Here are the five:
1. Clarify – Focus on the problem you’re facing with a client.
2. Map – Draw the patterns that aren’t working.
3. Target – Identify a target to change
4. Practice – Select a skill to practice
5. Reflect – Grow your skills over time
This developmental framework allows me to deliver training that isn’t merely informational, but transformational. It allows you to be an active participant instead of a passive recipient of content-only learning.
My advanced ACT Training programme uses this framework as an underlying structure.
It’s a six-month course with built in group and 1:1 coaching, which helps you build the capacities that make ACT more natural, skilful and usable in real world settings.
It unfolds across three developmental levels and nine steps. It gives you a clear path.
Level one is foundation where we start with you as a therapist, getting to know your values, struggles, rules and self-stories that shape your own responding.
Level two is systematisation in which we build systems that improve your clinical work. This level is about reducing guesswork by observing your interventions, tracking what happens and making specific improvements over time.
Level three is proficiency and focuses on using ACT more skilfully. We practice functional analysis, shaping in-session behaviour change, working with stuck moments and much more.
For a fuller account, here’s a video overview of what to expect.
If you’d like to get a place for the May cohort, complete the application and if you’re eligible, we’ll arrange a time to chat. And, even if you’re not ready for this programme, I’ll recommend a different way forward.
Take care,
Jim
PS - I have a couple of places left for the May cohort starting in a couple of weeks, so don’t wait too long if you’re interested.