ACT for Substance Use and Addictions

How “close” is addiction to your life right now?  

How many of your clients struggle with the role substances play in their lives? 

Do you have family members or close friends who know this struggle? 

Perhaps you’ve even brushed up against it yourself? 

The ubiquity of substance use and addiction is such that clinicians will inevitably encounter it, whether this is their area of expertise or not. 

They’ll have clients who describe using alcohol, cannabis, or other substances in ways that cause tension in their lives. 

These clients might say it contributes to demotivation, conflict, anger, or defensiveness, or that it compels them to lie or otherwise hide from others. You might even see these behaviors unfold with you in the therapy room, which can create a strained dynamic.  

And if a client mentions using opioids or other “harder” substances, there might be alarm bells going off in your mind… 

I’m not qualified to address this, you might think. 

They need more specialized help. 

What if I do something wrong? 

Addiction can have a big “scare factor” for clinicians. The stakes are high, and it can feel like you never have enough tools to confidently address it.   

But, like any other behavioral pattern, substance use serves a function for clients. Addiction grows from underlying needs that may or may not seem obviously related at first. 

The sooner you can look at substance use through a functional lens, the sooner you can gain a deeper, practical understanding of the problem and take action, rather than trying to work around it because you fear you don’t have the right tools.  

Whether you identify as a specialist in this area or not, you need to be able to engage with it effectively. 

That’s exactly what Dr. Daniel P. Johnson teaches in this brand-new course. 

Using acceptance and commitment therapy and contextual behavioral science as a framework, you’ll gain a foundational — and functional — understanding of substance use and addictions as well as strategies for offering flexible, compassionate, and authentic support to clients with these struggles. 

What You’ll Learn 

In this course, you will be empowered to address substance use and addiction using the principles of contextual behavioral science and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). 

Using the three ACT pillars — open, aware, engaged — as anchors, you’ll learn effective techniques for addressing common clinical presentations, such as managing relapse, working through cravings, and defusing from “addict” self-narratives. 

The course will also discuss finding common ground between ACT and mutual help groups, such as 12 Step, SMART Recovery, and others.  

Through a functional contextual lens, participants will examine the impact of historical, sociopolitical, and cultural influences on addiction as well as the underlying function of related behaviors, both in and out of the therapy room. 

All of this will allow you to: 

• Skillfully address substance use and addiction using a range of tools, even when you feel discomfort or uncertainty around these issues 

• Build flexibility skills to keep clients moving toward change in the face of relapse, cravings, and limiting self-narratives  

• Identify root causes of lying, ambivalence about change, or reactive anger, and apply a trauma-sensitive response to these difficult behaviors when they show up in therapy 

• Create stronger therapeutic alliances by noticing and undermining substance use stigma and encouraging more openness and compassion in your interactions 

• Keep yourself from burning out by contextualizing difficult client behaviors that show up in therapy, so you can take them less personally and work from a place of flexibility 

Each session will introduce new learning material, including concrete skills to share with clients, like dynamic visual learning aids, for example, as well as enlivening small group and breakout discussions and experiential practices to bring key concepts and interventions to life.  

Throughout the learning process, Dr. Johnson will support you in looking inward, to identify areas for growth and sources of strength. You’ll also be part of a community inside the course, which will aim to tap into the collective wisdom and experience of participants. 

This training offers 10 CE hours if attended live. We can only provide CE to those who are present via Zoom for the live sessions. However, the sessions will be recorded and available to watch later. Registrants may access these recordings at any time for up to nine months after the live training ends.

Before registering, please review conflict of interest disclosures and complete CE information here.