Treating Trauma with ACT: Revitalizing Interrupted Lives

Summary

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a principle-based behavioral intervention that addresses human suffering from a mindful and compassionate perspective. While ACT has been applied to a wide variety of problems, it’s especially powerful for treating trauma. Trauma is experienced by nearly half the population and is a key factor for psychological difficulties in many who present to psychotherapy. The aftermath of war, interpersonal violence, natural disasters, childhood trauma, and others can have long-term psychological effects. The painful emotional experiences found in the fallout of trauma often leads to symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety, and other issues related to life functioning, including a variety of behavioral problems ranging from substance abuse to relationship dysfunction.

ACT seeks to reduce rigid attempts to control negative emotions and thoughts associated with trauma by fostering acceptance through mindfulness and defusion techniques. ACT revitalizes client lives by defining personal values and committing to taking actions guided by those values. The ultimate goal in ACT is to support clients in recovery through increasing psychological and behavioral flexibility in the service of a meaningful life.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Walser is Director of TL Consultation Services, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and works at the National Center for PTSD. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains an international training, consulting and therapy practice. Dr. Walser has expertise in traumatic stress, depression and substance abuse and has authored a number of articles, chapters and books on these topics. She has been doing workshops since 1997; training in multiple formats and for multiple client problems. Dr. Walser has been described as a “passionate, creative, and bold ACT trainer and therapist” and she is best known for her dynamic, warm and challenging trainings. She is often referred to as a clinician’s clinician. Her workshops feature a combination of lecture and experiential exercises designed to provide a unique learning opportunity in this state-of-the-art intervention.

Learning Objectives

Persons attending this workshop will be able to:

• Add ACT principles to your trauma treatment repertoire
• Discover the power of leveraging the therapeutic stance and the therapeutic – relationship in the context of trauma
• Review the current state of the research on use of ACT in treating trauma
• Learn ways to navigate client challenges specific to trauma
• Learn how to integrate ACT and other exposure-based therapies