InterACT with Couples
Interpersonal acceptance and commitment therapy for work with intimate partners
Acceptance and commitment therapy has been extensively studied and utilized as an individual form of therapy, but its application to couples therapy has been rather limited so far.
However, a small but growing body of research (Ahmadzadeh, et al. 2019; Veshki, et al. 2017) suggests ACT can be just as effective in this context as cognitive behavioral couple therapy and integrative couples therapy.
Extended interpersonally, the psychological flexibility model offers a unique lens for case conceptualization and functional analysis when examining patterns of interaction between intimate partners.
What’s more, yearnings — the deep, enduring psychological needs that make up part of ACT’s theoretical base — are often primary motivators for one or both partners seeking therapy.
Individual and interpersonal yearnings compete for attention within relationships, as partners attempt to satisfy them in unworkable (that is, values-incongruent) ways that create conflict and disconnection.
In addition, humans are hardwired with attachment-based yearnings that impact how we show up in intimate relationships.
On the deepest level, we yearn to feel safe, seen, and heard in our attachments with others. When this is withheld in a person’s attachment history, or in their current relationship, it can undermine their ability to remain emotionally open and in contact with their values.
To maintain these flexible repertoires of responding, which are necessary for healthy relationships, clients need skills that allow them to step back, observe their patterns of behavior, and regularly reconnect with how they want to interact in the here and now.
These layers of context often drive the frustrating cycles of conflict partners experience.
And, without tools to address them, you may find sessions become another battleground for couples to play out the same conflicts they have at home. These patterns can show up again and again, and it can be difficult to know how to pivot into something more helpful…
With ACT, clinicians have a way of incorporating these rich layers of context into their analysis.
This will not only help you better understand the cyclical conflicts between partners — it will give you a way to organize skills-based work that addresses a couple’s core issues.
What You’ll Learn in the Course
In this 12-hour live online course taught by Lou Lasprugato, MFT, you’ll learn the groundbreaking InterACT model — a reimagining of the ACT hexaflex that extends psychological flexibility processes interpersonally for work with couples.
This extended model will help you to perform a comprehensive, multi-level functional assessment that incorporates psychological flexibility and yearnings, attachment-based relating, and sociocultural factors into your case conceptualization.
You will practice modeling, evoking, and reinforcing four foundational skills related to psychological flexibility, setting the stage for meaningful change in intimate relationships.
This includes classic ACT skills such as clients’ emotional openness to their own vulnerability as well as their partners’, defusing from judgments and criticisms they may have toward their partner, and the ability to take a broader perspective to consider their relationship as a whole rather than getting stuck in a me-versus-you dynamic.
You’ll also explore using creative hopelessness to pivot couples from inflexible to flexible pathways.
All of this will allow you to:
- Get at the root cause of conflict cycles for couples so you can break through unhelpful patterns
- Address psychological yearnings and attachment-based yearnings in your conceptualizations and interventions
- Structure intake sessions with the ACT matrix so you can start identifying unworkable behaviors from the start
- Create a safe space for emotional openness where clients can validate one another’s hurt without jumping into judgments and criticisms
- Help clients gain a better understanding of their own behaviors and the deep needs that underlie them
The workshop will include various activities for multi-faceted learning. This will include didactics, experiential exercises, video vignettes, demonstrations, and dyadic and small group practice.
And, while the case examples and practice will be focused on intimate partners, most of the principles and processes presented in the course are applicable to any interpersonal context.
As with most aspects of ACT, you may also find them useful in fostering openness and connectedness in your own relationships.
This training offers 12 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.
Session 1 | September 5, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
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- Yearnings
- Interpersonal Psychological Flexibility
Session 2 | September 12, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
- The ACT Couples Matrix
- Intake Interview
Session 3 | September 19, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
- Multi-Level Assessment
- Case Conceptualization for Couples
Session 4 | September 26, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
- Self-As-Instrument of Change
- Shaping Four Foundational Skills
Session 5 | October 3, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
- Process-Based Functional Analysis
- Creative Hopelessness for Couples
Session 6 | October 10, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. EDT
- Bringing it All Together
- Navigating Challenges
Participants will be able to:
- Demonstrate how to extend the ACT core processes interpersonally within couples therapy
- Describe at least one experiential exercise designed to build a bridge of psychological flexibility between partners
- Explain the central role that yearnings play in couples therapy, including how individual yearnings compete for attention with interpersonal yearnings
- Formulate a functional analytic case conceptualization for couples that situates yearnings as drivers of behavior
- Explain how to facilitate a couples therapy intake interview utilizing the ACT Matrix to evoke awareness of painful private events, (shared) values, and overt behaviors
- Discriminate between behavior under aversive versus appetitive control within couples’ repertoires
- Explain how functional relations, influenced by sociocultural factors and driven by survival mechanisms, between partners can create and maintain contextual clash cycles
- Discuss how to conduct a multi-level process-based functional assessment that examines patterns of interaction within intimate relationships
- List features of the InterACT Assessment Zones that combine attachment-based relating, psychological flexibility processes, and survival mechanisms
- Explain how to shape four functional classes of behavior that can disrupt unworkable patterns of interaction and promote fulfillment within relationships
- List the steps of creative hopelessness for couples that can function to evoke a shift from inflexible to flexible repertoires
- Describe how to engage self-as-instrument of change as a couples therapist
Please review complete CE and conflict-of-interest disclosure information prior to registering. This live online course is sponsored by Praxis Continuing Education and Training and is approved for 12 CE Hours by the following listed below. There was no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Praxis CET maintains responsibility for the program with the CE approvals outlined below:
Joint Accreditation: In support of improving patient care, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 12 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Nursing: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this activity for a maximum of 12 ANCC contact hours.
Physicians: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc designates this live activity for a maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 12 clinical continuing education credits.
National Counselors: Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6759. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Praxis Continuing Education and Training, Inc. is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
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Ahmadzadeh, L., Vaezi, M., Sodagar, S., & Golmohammad Nazhad, G. R. (2019). The effect of acceptance and commitment therapy adopted for couples compared with integrative couple therapy on marital conflicts of couples with breast cancer. Iranian Journal of Breast Diseases, 12(3), 47-59.
Ghahari, S., Jamil, L., Farrokhi, N., & Davoodi, R. (2021). Comparing the effects of emotion-focused couple therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on marital conflict and emotion regulation. Practice in Clinical Psychology, 9(2), 121-132.
Hayes, S. C., Hofmann, S. G., & Stanton, C. E. (2020). Process-based functional analysis can help behavioral science step up to novel challenges: COVID-19 as an example. Journal of contextual behavioral science, 18, 128-145.
Joulazadeh Esmaeili, A. A., Karimi, J., Goodarzi, K., & Asgari, M. (2020). Comparison of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment-based Couple Therapy and emotionally focused couple therapy on unadjusted couples’ attachment styles. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 9(2), 1-30.
Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group (2023). Promoting appetitive learning of consensual, empowered vulnerability: a contextual behavioral conceptualization of intimacy. Front. Psychol. 14:1200452.
Sabouri, H., Samavi, A., & Amir Fakhraei, A. (2020). Comparison the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy on the Quality of Life and Tendency to Betray in Married Students with Tendency to Infidelity. Iranian Evolutionary and Educational Psychology Journal, 2(3), 184-199.
Timmerman, G. M. (2009). A concept analysis of intimacy. Issues Ment. Health Nurs. 12, 19–30.
Veshki, S. K., Shafiabady, A., Farzad, V., & Fatehizade, M. (2017). A comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral couple therapy and acceptance and commitment couple therapy in the couple’s conflict in the city of Isfahan. Jundishapur Journal of Health Sciences, 9(3).
We understand, sometimes things come up!
Praxis will offer a full refund to registrants of both live and live-online trainings who cancel their registration up to 14 days before the course or workshop start date, minus an administrative processing fee of $30 for a 2-day workshop or online course, and a $50 fee for a 4-day workshop. If cancelled within 14 days, no refund will be issued, however, a credit for the same amount will be applied toward another learning product, which expires within 1 year. Please email us at online@praxiscet.com to cancel a registration.