Commit and Act: What Process-Based Theory Means for ACT

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For decades, evidence-based therapies have been tested in randomized controlled trials for specific psychiatric syndromes that were assumed to represent expressions of latent diseases. Although the best of these protocols were more effective as compared to psychological control conditions, placebo treatments, and even active pharmacotherapies, further advancement in efficacy and dissemination has been inhibited by a failure to focus on processes of change. The idea that mental and behavioral health problems can be classified syndromes that will reveal latent diseases is doomed to failure. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has long given more central attention given to processes of change and basic principles. In this talk I will explain why the dominant perspective on evidence-based psychological intervention will soon be process-based therapy and why this opens up a number of opportunities for the ACT community of researcher and providers. Taking advantage of this opportunity will require a new idionomic approach to process-based functional analysis that is well telegraphed by the recent ACBS Task Force Report on the Strategy and Tactics of Contextual Behavioral Science Research. Psychological processes of change can be organized into six dimensions: cognition, affect, attention, self, motivation and overt behavior, as well as sociocultural and biophysiological levels of analysis. Tailoring intervention to target the appropriate processes in a given individual would be a major advance in evidence-based care and ACT should be leading the charge toward that more personalized future.

Commit and Act is a non-governmental organization working to bring psychotherapeutic support to communities in need in Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Liberia. Their goal is to build a renewed sense of trust in the people they work with. To help individuals find the courage to rebuild their lives according to their own vision and values. Their local professional therapists counsel individuals and community groups.

PraxisCET is proud to help support this work. Proceeds from this presentation will go directly to Commit and Act, providing vital funding for the health and education services they provide in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.

This training is worth 2 CE credit hours if attended live. While we can only provide CE to those who are present – i.e. logged in – for live presentation(s), all Praxis webinars are recorded for later viewing. Registrants may then access these recordings at any time for up to six months from the conclusion of the training to which they pertain.

Prior to registering, please review speaker-planner conflict of interest disclosures and complete CE information.