Mary Bell has been a social worker and also a mindfulness practitioner for many decades. She has worked with adolescents and their parents in clinical and private practice settings in Toronto and in Singapore. She is co-author with Dr. Sheri Turrell of two ACT books and is currently the lead of The ACT Alliance, an initiative to introduce and expand the use of ACT in clinical care at SickKids.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy from the Inside Out
Saturday, May 2, 2020 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
This 60 minute workshop offers a very brief introduction to ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.) It provides an opportunity to experience the ACT Matrix both as a mental health clinician, for those participants attending who work in the field, and as a person, noticing, allowing and opening in willingness to be with whatever shows up in the room and whatever shows up inside.
This workshop offers participants the basic theory and philosophy of ACT, including a brief review of empirical findings.
It introduces the ACT Matrix, a tool that fosters present moment awareness, grounded in self-compassion. The Matrix pulls into plain view for us the pre-programmed human patterns we all have in our behaviour that can lead to suffering, and offers us the opportunity to learn to pause and make new choices.
It can help not only with our public behaviour, that seen by others, but also our private behaviour, known only inside ourselves. It can open us to powerful self-compassion in the face of the shame or other unwanted emotions we may experience after developmental injuries or trauma.
The ACT Matrix can re-connect us to our own deeply held values and help us keep these front of mind while we are making everyday choices and interacting with those around us.
The Matrix can be helpful for individuals, couples and families and as part of a group organizing method known as Prosocial, it can even be used in larger groups and communities to provide a clear lens on balancing individual with collective interests. This workshop leads participants through the actual practice of a personal ACT Matrix. The experience can be helpful to participants regardless of context and can be used by anyone, including practitioners or consumers of mental health services, in the workplace, at home and elsewhere.
Participants will come away with:
- Understand the ACT model highlighting the process of mindfulness
- Practice using the ACT Matrix to conceptualize personal struggles and experiment with making changes in an ACT framework
- Explore the applicability of the ACT Matrix to a variety of contexts