Praxis Continuing Education and Training

Exploring
Values in ACT

ACT

Take a Deep Dive into
ACT Values

Explore values from an acceptance and commitment therapy perspective with Dr. Kelly Wilson through 11 hours of video and audio instruction, written materials, demonstrations, and exercises.

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For group purchases email courses@praxiscet.com. Group discounts are available for 5+ registrations.

Help Clients Cultivate Meaningful Lives

Using values to fuel connection, expand possibilities, and spark life-altering change

A letter from Dr. Kelly Wilson

There are moments in therapeutic work that expand our view of what’s possible.

When the client who came in dejected, filled with regret, and disillusioned with life itself finds a way to cultivate a new sense of purpose…

When the cancer patient who watched their life shrink to thoughts of “I’m going to die” connects with something transcendent…

Or when the person who’s lost a decade to addiction finally breaks the cycle and starts to build something new.

As practitioners of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), we know that values are at the center of these transformations.

When clients connect with a deep sense of what’s most important in life and what they want to stand for, all bets are off.

You feel the energy in the room shift. You hear it in your client’s voice and see it in their eyes.

And from there, momentum builds.

Your client takes one step forward, and another. And before you know it, they’ve enriched their life in ways that previously seemed beyond imagining.

I believe this kind of outcome is possible for every client who comes to see us.

But, of course, that doesn’t mean it’s automatic or guaranteed when you do values work.

In fact, while most ACT clinicians have personal examples like the ones above, much more often they struggle to explore values in a way that facilitates depth and movement.

And if you’ve had that experience yourself, you’re certainly not alone.

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Navigating the Vulnerability in Values

Most people spend little time thinking about what is most important to them on a deep, personal level.

In many ways, it’s easier to live according to who we think we should be, or according to others’ expectations.

This might seem surprising. But there’s a reason why it’s so:

Beneath values lies immense vulnerability.

Touching what you most yearn for in life carries with it a huge amount of risk. In hoping for something more, you must accept that you might not get it, that you might even lose it, or that you might actually be better off where you are now.

In behaviorist terms, this is precisely how aversive control works. It says that known suffering is less risky than the unknown.

People have a host of strategies for insulating themselves against vulnerability. Some of these strategies might seem familiar to you:

For example, resistance to values work, chronic “stuckness,” “I don’t know,” “nothing matters,” or stories about why they can’t reach for something more.

On the surface, these behaviors might look different…

… But functionally, they are the same.

They are protection in the form of fusion and avoidance.

Even if someone desperately wants to change, there is something safe about the way things are.

There is something known and comfortable in inertia — to the point where change feels dangerous and impossible.

When You Hit
the Wall…

This protective behavior is automatic, and it leads to many of the obstacles clinicians come across while doing this work.

Chief among those obstacles is when you hit an impasse with clients, which might look something like this:

  • Continued conversation yields only surface-level content that you can’t seem to dig beneath.
  • Each session brings a new crisis which must be managed before values work can proceed.
  • Sessions are blocked up by “I don’t knows” or insistences that nothing matters and nothing could matter.
  • Or, even if a value is on the table, the client returns time and time again without having made the tiniest movement.

We’ve all come up against these walls as therapists.

After a time, you might decide it would just be best to move on and put values to the side.

You might even consider referring the client to another therapist. Because no matter what you try, you can’t find any give in that wall.

But there’s something important in those moments, when you’re up against the wall, that is often overlooked.

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The Surprising Opportunity in Stuckness

It’s easy to feel like if we could only locate the right value, things would just burst open…

… That if only we could identify something big enough and deep enough, clarity and motivation would miraculously appear.

And so when things grind to a halt, we scramble for another worksheet, another exercise. We try to go around the stuckness.

But there’s another way to approach it:

As a process we need to go through. As a stop along the road.

Insight is not the fuel of values work; it’s the exhaust.

This work is not about divining the future, excavating the most important value, or weighing one value against another.

When we engage in that dynamic as clinicians, we often feed fusion and avoidance — even in ourselves.

Values work is about facilitating a liberated, creative approach to life that’s disruptive of that entire mindset.

From that perspective, there is gold in the moments when you feel most stuck.

In that darkness, you can see a glimmer of something longed for. Something that might even be more powerful because it’s so tightly bound and protected.

We can even use a client’s protective strategy as an entrypoint to find our way to someone’s heart.

We just need to know how.

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Principles for Transformative Values Work

As you can imagine, taking a creative approach to this work means we can’t treat it like a cake recipe.

There is no one approach we can carbon copy and use with every client.

But there are certain principles that help us disrupt fusion and avoidance and open up more powerful conversations:

Slow is Fast

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Slowing down can help you go deeper with clients

Slow is Fast

Slow the pace. Moving slowly is the fastest, and often only, way to do this work. Here’s why:

When you ask a client questions about what they long for in life, very often they’ll launch into a well-worn narrative about who they are, how they’ve tried and failed before, and what they’re allowed to have in life.

This story is typically full of words like “always” or “never.” It unfolds at a fast clip, and takes up a lot of the room’s oxygen.

We can do something very simple and gentle to disrupt that protective repertoire:

Slow down.

Literally — slow your speech, and the client’s speech, down to the point where you can hear the space between the words. Ask the client not to answer right away, to just take a deep breath and sit with each question. Sit with them. Inhabit the questions.

This might sound trivial, but slowing down destabilizes the protective armor a client has put up around what they care about.

Sometimes clients become emotional simply from that change of pace. It allows other repertoires to surface that might otherwise be denied breathing room. And it has a flavor of acceptance, because moving slowly requires sitting with experience rather than skimming over it with the problem-solving mind.

From there, it’s easier to drop down into a meaningful conversation where you and the client can be fully present.

Small is Big

Get granular. Fusion and avoidance thrive in abstractions and generalizations, but values live in the details.

If a client persists with a story about feeling dissatisfied at work, for example, there’s clearly a value behind that. But to get at it, we need to get the texture of the lived experience of that problem.

To do that, take the client into a moment where they can help you get the grit and grain of what a value actually means to them or what a problem looks like. You might ask, “Could you tell me about a particular time you felt dissatisfied at work?” Then go slowly — take it frame by frame.

In those granular experiences, you’ll find both loss and longing.

Even seemingly superficial values can yield something meaningful if you go into the details in this way.

If someone values money above everything else, ask them about a specific instance where that felt important. Almost always, there will be something else behind that, like a longing to be seen and heard, or the ability to care for a struggling family member, to be a provider.

In digging into the details of lived experiences, we can turn virtually any conversation into a values conversation and build a genuine connection with those yearnings.

Small is Big

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We find meaning when we look closely at the details

Take action off the table

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When we take action off the table, we clear the way for progress

Take action off the table

Most ACT clinicians know that values are about process rather than outcome. But when the client articulates a value that seems promising, we tend to want to jump straight into committed action.

When we do this too quickly, we can place values in the future instead of grounding them in the present.

And the future is a scary place! If you’re working with a client who has put up a thick layer of protective avoidance, just thinking about action will trigger their defenses.

Committed action is about choice, not “have to.” The inevitability of needed action often prevents clients from even opening the door to the possibility of change.

In many cases, taking action off the table entirely and explicitly can be an important first step in being present in moments of pain.

Instead, we can spend time simply appreciating a value, examining it like a precious object, exploring its details, and using imaginal exposure to forge a real connection with it.

From a space of appreciation, resting in the present moment, moving slowly, and getting granular, the next thing to do often reveals itself naturally. Committed action becomes a choice.

Meet clients in the work

Because values work involves making contact with vulnerability, we want to be sensitive and kind in our approach.

We can do that by putting ourselves fully in the work — not only by engaging with our own values, but by applying exercises and questions to ourselves before we voice them to a client. Slowing down gives us space to build that into our conversations.

We also want to tread with permission.

Don’t make a client go where they don’t want to go. There are other ways in.

For example, you can draw attention to the pain of not being able to touch something you care about (in a way, gently drawing awareness to those defenses). You can connect inside that disconnect.

In our willingness to be uncomfortable, wobble, and fall with our clients, we can help them practice openness to those experiences as well.

Meet clients in the work

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Connection can be found inside vulnerability

Assume magnificence is possible

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Believing in our clients helps to open up their possibilities for themselves

Assume magnificence is possible

Sometimes this work will feel like struggling against a foregone conclusion. At times, clients might even try to convince us that’s the case!

But if someone is stuck and in therapy, then they’re not merely stuck.

Like emotion, belief comes and goes. It resists control.

Assumption, on the other hand, is a choice. When we choose to assume more is possible, even for clients who are the most diminished and despairing, we can loosen self-stories about stuckness.

We might even loosen the hold of stuckness itself, revealing it as just another process instead of a state of being.

When we hold this kind of unrelenting curiosity on behalf of our clients for what remarkable changes might be possible for them — laying just out of sight — we can alter the entire context of our work and help clients envision a different future.

When we bring these principles into sessions, we can enter completely different conversations than we would otherwise have.

We can unravel fusion, break through avoidance, and help clients see options beyond running from the things they care most about.

By practicing in this way, and being willing to go where it’s dark and sit with our clients in that rich territory, we’re more likely to do work that makes movement possible.

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Answering the Most Important Question: “Why?”

Years ago when I worked with Steve Hayes, Kirk Strosahl, and others on developing acceptance and commitment therapy, it became clear that process-based therapy needed to answer a big question:

“Why should our clients do this?”

That is, why should they do the hard things we ask them to do?

We knew the answer had to go beyond symptom reduction. It had to contend with deeper motivations — with the basic human yearnings that give life meaning.

As I see it, the other ACT processes are made practical in the service of creating meaning and purpose in life. That’s why every ACT conversation I have is also a values conversation that follows these principles.

Over the years, I’ve led countless workshops all over the world on the topic of values and how we can help people find purpose even in the most dire situations. I’m excited to share a similar training, with all of my latest thinking, in this new online course.

Inside, you’ll develop a deep understanding of values and how to make clients’ quests for meaning more central to your ACT work.

And you’ll gain insight into what to do when you hit that wall — to not only meet it but to put it to work for you and your clients.

I hope it allows you to be part of more transformational moments that could make your heart burst.

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About the Trainer

Dr. Kelly Wilson is a co-founder of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and expert in applying behavioral principles to the topic of fostering values, purpose, and meaning in life.

In addition to leading workshops on ACT values at events all over the world, Dr. Wilson has served as Professor of Psychology at the University of Mississippi and as President and Fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. He has also published over 100 articles and chapters as well as 11 books on ACT, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change, The Wisdom to Know the Difference: An ACT Workbook for Overcoming Substance Abuse, Things Might Go Terribly, Horribly Wrong: A Guide to Life Liberated from Anxiety, and Mindfulness for Two: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy.

Introducing…

Exploring Values in ACT

Exploring Values in ACT is an online course taught by Dr. Kelly Wilson, a co-founder of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and expert in helping others build lives of profound meaning.

Inside the course, Dr. Wilson will guide you through an in-depth exploration of values from an evidence-based, ACT perspective and will unpack common roadblocks clinicians face. You’ll take part in experiential and written exercises to help you embody the work yourself and will see key principles demonstrated in teletherapy-style values conversations. You will also benefit from Dr. Wilson’s unique insight in detailed debriefs of these conversations.

After completing the material, you’ll have a deep understanding of values and how to make them a more central, natural, and integrated component of therapy so you can more deliberately bring about moments of life-altering change.

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Course Format

Exploring Values in ACT is an on-demand online course that was filmed remotely.

The 6 modules will be released on a weekly schedule, and you can complete the material any time throughout the week, as your schedule permits. Since you will have lifetime access to all course content, you’re also welcome to work through the modules more gradually or revisit them at any time in the future.

The course includes filmed video instruction, written materials, and exercises you can also use with clients. You’ll also see Dr. Wilson explore values with real people — volunteers who are also mental health professionals — so you can see the central principles at work in a teletherapy-style context. For each of these values conversations, Dr. Wilson will provide a detailed debrief of important moments, what he sees and hears in the flow of conversation, and why he decided to make certain decisions.

Through this combination of materials, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of how to make values a more powerful and central part of your work — even when you come up against obstacles.

Course content and materials are in English, including the quizzes, which will be conducted at the end of each module and will cumulatively serve as the CE-required post-test. All videos will include subtitle options in English and Spanish.

Course Structure

The first three modules of the course will focus on expanding your grasp of values from an ACT perspective and how to approach them in a powerful, authentic way. In particular, you’ll take a deep dive into the central components of values, core operating principles for exploring them in sessions, and how to use other ACT processes to support and enhance your values work.

The latter three modules will take a close look at how to support behavior change from a values perspective. You’ll examine the relationship between values and committed action and how to support forward motion — even when clients get stuck or come up against sticking points, like values conflicts.

Throughout the course, you’ll develop a deep understanding of values and how to explore them with clients, which will allow you to…

  • Lead more conversations where the energy in the room shifts and you hear in your client’s voice that you’ve touched on something deep, powerful, and human
  • Develop an ear for opportunities where you can fluidly drop into values conversations at any given moment
  • Continue and deepen your work even when inquiries seem to go nowhere, clients present topical values, or you encounter guilt, shame, or other difficult emotions
  • Make values more natural, central, and integrated to your work throughout therapy because you understand how they interact with and inform other underlying processes
  • Help clients create patterns of valued action in everyday life — even if they fail or come up against internal or external conflicts — so they can build lives of expansive meaning

Curriculum

Module 1: What Are Values?

  • Explore the five central components of values from an ACT perspective
  • How values differ from goals (and how this distinction can help guide our work)
  • Why values and vulnerability are at the heart of the therapeutic alliance
  • Complete two written exercises, which you can also use with clients, that can help foster a more flexible view of values

Module 2: Building Values

  • Learn the classic signs of aversive control and how to disrupt it
  • Two powerful operating principles that help clients see their stories from different perspectives
  • How to shift conversations from a context of limitation to a context of possibility
  • Discuss common roadblocks clinicians face when moving into values-based conversations
  • Examine our mindset when responding to clients and how we can make our approach more dynamic

Module 3: Integrating Other Processes

  • How to understand the different ACT processes as lenses for viewing behavior (rather than separate behaviors)
  • Why present moment and self-as-context are integral to values work
  • Learn how values can inform and be informed by acceptance and defusion
  • Gain a brief preview of how to make committed action less intimidating to clients
  • View a teletherapy-style conversation with a counselor who longs to channel a sense of awe in her daily life and work

Module 4: Committed Action

  • Gain a deeper understanding of committed action and why it has nothing at all to do with the future
  • Learn how to help clients take small steps forward, even if they’re going in the “wrong” direction
  • How building self-kindness can get clients moving
  • Complete a written exercise for exploring value-based actions in a way that disrupts aversive control
  • Watch a values conversation with a mother who experiences feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy about her parenting

Module 5: Stuckness

  • Complete a worksheet that helps reveal the role of fusion in stuckness
  • Discuss why people get stuck — and what a chronic lack of motion might mean
  • How to respond productively in sessions when a client can’t seem to move forward
  • Why advice and problem solving won’t get the wheels turning (and what to do instead)
  • View a values discussion with a mental health practitioner who is struggling to kick a lingering habit

Module 6: Values Conflicts

  • Learn about what is going on behind the scenes when clients present conflicting values
  • How to approach values conflicts that arise between clients and their partners, family members, or others when the clients start pursuing valued behaviors
  • Explore an alternative perspective that allows us to see values as complementary rather than competing
  • How to help clients address indecision and let go of values areas when necessary
  • Complete a final exercise that invites you to explore the connection between different valued areas
  • Watch a values conversation between Dr. Wilson and a colleague who feels like she’s at a crossroad in her career

Course Sample

The instruction in this course was filmed remotely using state-of-the-art recording equipment. This allowed us to produce a training experience of the highest visual and audio quality, which you can sample in the excerpt below.

In this video, you’ll learn how a moment of stuckness can become an opportunity for life-changing values work.

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Supplemental Materials

In addition to the 6 core modules, this course also includes three supplementary learning materials to help support you in your journey.

Bonus #1: Private Facebook Group for Course Members

At in-person trainings, the built-in sense of support and community with your fellow attendees can notably enhance the learning experience.

To help recreate that environment inside this course, we’ve created a private Facebook Group for course participants. This is a space where you can share thoughts and resources, network, and participate in an ongoing discussion about how values can shape your work and change your clients’ lives.

(Note: Participation in the Facebook Group is entirely optional and not required for course completion.)

Bonus #1: Private Facebook Group for Course Members

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Join our private members’ group

Bonus #2: Flexibility and Inflexibility Reads Exercise

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Receive the Flexibility and Inflexibility Reads Exercise

Bonus #2: Flexibility and Inflexibility Reads Exercise

A major benefit of an on-demand course format is that you have the opportunity to review the sample conversations and see an “action replay” of important moments. In the context of values work in particular, this can help acquaint you with inflection points that are often hard to catch (and impossible to revisit) during live workshops.

In this bonus exercise, you’ll revisit a segment of one of the teletherapy-style values conversations from the course and practice using what you’ve learned to “read” those inflection points and what they reveal about the person’s psychological flexibility around values. Dr. Wilson will then explain what he saw in the stream of conversation, so you can gain an even richer understanding of the interaction.

Bonus #3: Case Consultation (Live Webinar Recording)

Dr. Wilson has a unique perspective when it comes to this work, and practitioners typically find it very helpful to see how he works through especially challenging cases.

To provide another opportunity for you to see his thought process in action, you’ll get access to a recorded one-hour case consultation-style webinar, during which Dr. Wilson has a one-on-one conversation with a course member.

During the conversation about struggling with a client, Dr. Wilson guides this clinician in how to work in a situation where there is not an immediate solution, then provides strategies for helping clinicians remain present during client sessions.

Bonus #3: Case Consultation (Live Webinar Recording)

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Get access to the Case Consultation Live Webinar Recording

CEs

Upon completion of the core course content and supplemental materials, plus evaluations and post-test as required, participants will also be eligible for 13 CE hours approved for the following professionals:

Counselors
Psychologists
Nurses
Physicians
Behavior Analysts
Substance Abuse Counselors
Social Workers

Prior to registering, please review complete CE information by clicking here: CE Details

Enroll in Exploring Values in ACT

When you enroll in the course, you get lifetime access to all course materials.

What’s included:

  • 6 core modules
  • 11 hours of video and audio instruction, including teletherapy-style conversations and debriefs
  • Experiential and written exercises you can also use with clients
  • Written course materials
  • Video subtitle options in English and Spanish
  • Lifetime access to all course content
  • Bonus #1: Private Facebook Group for Course Members
  • Bonus #2: Flexibility and Inflexibility Reads Exercise
  • Bonus #3: Case Consultation (Live Webinar Recording)

To join, select one of the following options:

A one-time payment of
$449 (USD)

OR

5 monthly payments of
$99 (USD)

For group purchases email courses@praxiscet.com. Group discounts are available for 5+ registrations.

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14-Day Money-Back Guarantee

In order to make course enrollment risk-free, all enrollees will be fully covered by a 14-day refund policy:

If you decide for any reason the course isn’t right for you, email our support team at courses@praxiscet.com within 14 days of enrolling, and we will be happy to refund your entire course fee, unconditionally.

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What Course Members are Saying

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One of the best ACT learning opportunities out there! The course highlights relationships between the ACT processes while providing an intimate journey towards the (re)discovery of our shared humanity. It provides ample scientific information and demonstrations of how it can be applied in a manner that is considerate of the complexity of each individual case. Very few courses have had such an impact on my work and even fewer on my personal life. Highly recommended!
Eugen S., Psychotherapist

This is an excellent course for anyone who wants to learn how to explore values with clients in a truly experiential way. Kelly Wilson is absolutely AMAZING, and I started using everything I learned from this course right away 💖. I highly recommend it if you are a clinician, it gives plenty of tools and a wonderful compassionate perspective on clients and ourselves.
Karenina A., Psychologist

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A very heartfelt and engaging course for attuning to the process of values exploration - not just with clients but with ourselves. Appreciated the invitation to slow down and to linger, to inhabit the question within the moment. It's great to have the videos which can be reviewed and Kelly's commentary on the case presentations to enhance the learning.
Mai M., Psychologist

This course would be best suited to someone working or training in counselling and psychotherapy, perhaps with some familiarity with ACT. In particular, its values focus helps the practitioner to slow down and pay attention to the moment, allowing for an openness to feeling and possibility. Kelly guides and models this perfectly and the course has already made a huge impact on my work, especially in how I take more time and care and pay more attention to myself and those I work with. I notice that I am less distracted by my head and am more present. The online 'at your own pace' approach has been extremely important to me as my work and study life are so busy. I have been able to take my time and savor the learning process, which, given the content, is highly appropriate! I consider this course to be a classic of its kind and I am very grateful to everyone who worked to make it happen.
Will H., Teaching Assistant and Trainee Counsellor

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Sometimes it is easy to get lost in the theory and technique of ACT, to forget to see the human and begin to apply intervention and explanation like steps to a recipe. This training brings you back home to the heart and soul of ACT. It reminds you that "Fast is slow and small is big" and that our clients are not problems to be solved. Rarely have I been so impacted by a training, or seen such immediate and dramatic changes in the way I practice. It is a training about values, yes ... but ultimately it is about the art of simply being present and connected. And like the very best applications of ACT it doesn't show you this, it gives you the experience. Take this training. You won't regret it.
Joe V., LMHC

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Questions and Answers

Q. Do you offer group rates?

Yes! We provide a discount for groups through our Group License.

This license allows you to purchase as many memberships as you need through one transaction and gives each individual access to their own account and the ability to earn CEs. It’s designed for groups in which each person should have their own login with the ability to go through the entire course on their own. There’s a 10% discount off the total price for 5–9 accounts and a 20% discount off the total price for 10+ logins.

Our Group License also allows you to purchase access to a course in advance.

This means that if you would like your current clinicians to get started on a course but know there will be a few more individuals added to your team in the near future, you could purchase all the memberships you need now and once the new clinicians are ready to get started, you can simply send us their names and email addresses and we will get them enrolled.

To purchase a group license and take advantage of group rates, email us at: courses@praxiscet.com (Group rates cannot be purchased using the standard checkout on this page.)

Q. How much ACT experience will I need to take this course?

This course does not provide an introduction to the ACT model or theory, so you will benefit from an understanding of its principles before joining. If you already use ACT in your work (even if not exclusively), it’s very likely that the level of this course will be appropriate for you.

Even without formal previous ACT training, you are welcome to explore values with us in this course. However, if you’re looking for more of an introduction to the acceptance and commitment therapy model, you can learn the basics in an introductory training like ACT Basics, or take a deeper dive into the model with ACT Immersion, and then revisit this course when you’re ready.

Q. I don’t only use ACT in my practice. Will this course be a good fit for me?

Just as ACT’s process-based foundations make it easy to integrate with other therapies, the principles you’ll learn in this course will be applicable across methodologies to motivate and sustain change. You will come to understand, for example, how values work can track with exposure, mindfulness, self-compassion, and other widely applicable interventions.

That said, the instruction and demonstrations inside the course are ACT-focused, and you will need at least some experience with the model and its principles to benefit from the material. If you have taken previous training in ACT and/or are currently using it in your practice, this course will help you develop a more nuanced understanding of values and how to use them effectively in your work.

Q. Is this training evidence-based?

Values are a central process within acceptance and commitment therapy, an evidence-based model whose efficacy is supported by a large, growing body of research. Dr. Wilson is a co-founder of ACT as well as a widely cited researcher and scholar, former President of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Mississippi, so all of his instruction is firmly grounded in evidence-based methods. While this course uses both personal and theoretical content throughout to illustrate teaching points, at its base it follows a process-based account of how to facilitate behavior change that is well supported in the literature.

Q. I’m not a psychologist. Could this course be helpful to me?

If you have some experience using ACT and your work involves helping others lead more liberated, meaningful lives, this course can absolutely help you become more effective.

You will see a therapy application inside the course, but the principles you learn will be useful in many settings where values-based behavior change is the goal and you have the ability to converse one-on-one with your clients, such as in coaching, social work, and other disciplines focused on motivating and sustaining change.

Q. Will this course help me work with complex cases?

In the course, you will develop a deep and nuanced understanding of values and how to use them in your work, even when you encounter obstacles like conflicting values, social resistance, or patterns of stuckness. This will absolutely help you navigate work with complex cases. Dr. Wilson also directly discusses how to approach clients who are especially resistant to values work, which would also be helpful in many complex scenarios.

Q. Will course videos have subtitles?

All video content will have subtitles available in English and Spanish (and you may also slow down or speed up video playback if you wish). Additional language options will be considered seriously in the future, depending on interest.

Q. Will the course be available in other languages?

All course content and materials are in English, but to help make the training accessible to our international community, subtitles in Spanish and English will be available for the video content, including the values conversations. (You can also slow down, or speed up, the video playback if you wish.)

Q. How much time will I need to dedicate to this course?

The 6 modules will be released weekly, and you can expect to spend approximately 1.5 to 2.5 hours watching videos and doing exercises per module. The duration of the course as a whole will depend in part on you, since it’s self-paced. The modules are released at a weekly interval to give you time to absorb the material before moving on. You can keep pace with the weekly schedule, or move through at a slower pace, if that suits your needs better. Enrollment includes lifetime access to all materials, so there’s no need to rush.

Q. How long will I have access to the course?

Enrollment in Exploring Values in ACT includes lifetime access to all course materials, so you can work through the modules at your own pace and revisit videos and exercises at any time in the future. You’ll also have access to any future updates made to the course.

Q. I’m in the middle of another training; can I join now and start this course once I’m finished?

Yes! Since enrollment includes lifetime access to all course materials, you can enroll in the course now and get started whenever it’s convenient for you. The course is entirely self-paced, so you can move through the modules on your own schedule and revisit videos and exercises at any time in the future. You’ll also have access to any updates made to the course.

Q. Is this course eligible for CE credit hours?

Upon completion of the core course content and supplemental materials, plus evaluations as required, participants will be eligible for 13 CE hours, approved for the following professionals:

Counselors
Psychologists
Nurses
Physicians
Behavior Analysts
Substance Abuse Counselors
Social Workers

Prior to registering, please review complete CE information by clicking here: CE Details

Q. Do you offer scholarships?

We have a limited reduced-fee program to help make this training accessible to those who would otherwise be unable to enroll, with priority given to practitioners in countries with developing economies and those who are facing financial hardship. To learn more about this program, please email us at courses@praxiscet.com.

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Who should consider this course?

Exploring Values in ACT will be a good fit for you if…

  • Your work involves helping others create lives of profound meaning and connection — whether it happens in the therapy room, treatment centers, in-patient services, or another setting
  • You have some experience using ACT but want to make values a more central, authentic, and powerful part of your work
  • You’re eager to lead more discussions that infuse your work with energy and motivate your clients to transform their lives
  • You want guidance in how to overcome obstacles that prevent your clients from taking meaningful steps forward
  • You’re passionate about helping people take a new perspective on life that helps expand their possibilities and precipitate life-altering change

If the points above resonate with you, this course will be helpful to you.

Enroll in Exploring Values in ACT

When you enroll in the course, you get lifetime access to all course materials.

What’s included:

  • 6 core modules
  • 11 hours of video and audio instruction, including teletherapy-style conversations and debriefs
  • Experiential and written exercises you can also use with clients
  • Written course materials
  • Video subtitle options in English and Spanish
  • Lifetime access to all course content
  • Bonus #1: Private Facebook Group for Course Members
  • Bonus #2: Flexibility and Inflexibility Reads Exercise
  • Bonus #3: Case Consultation (Live Webinar Recording)

To join, select one of the following options:

A one-time payment of
$449 (USD)

OR

5 monthly payments of
$99 (USD)

For group purchases email courses@praxiscet.com. Group discounts are available for 5+ registrations.

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Closing Thoughts from Dr. Wilson

When working with our toughest clients, we have a choice to make:

Will we approach them like math problems or like sunsets?

Sometimes, clients secretly, or not so secretly, want to be a math problem that we give up on.

That way, their story about how stuck, broken, and unsolvable they are will be confirmed. That end is painful but it is, at least, settled business.

I can trace that back in my own experience, when I was in such a spiral of addiction that I believed I could never change, even as I watched myself hurt the people I most cared for.

And inside that, I told myself: “They would be better off if they left me.”

To get at the heart of values, and this work more generally, we don’t need to be one more person treating our clients like a problem to be solved.

We need to be disruptive of that entire narrative.

What if we could instead treat them like sunsets — like something to be witnessed and appreciated?

What if we could help them take that on and embody it? What as-yet unknown life might rise up?

“What if?”

That is a powerful question that I hope to infuse into all my work with values, especially when any positive outcome seems entirely out of sight.

In that simple inquiry lies liberation — all the potential of our lives and this world, possibilities we couldn’t anticipate if we tried.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey to see where it leads.

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