ACT and Adolescents

Dates and Times:

• 5th November 2021
• 9-12 pm

What is ACT:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy.

ACT has two major goals:

1) We foster acceptance of what is, at the moment, including negative thoughts and feelings, so that

2) Action can be taken toward committed goals.

ACT for adolescence has been an area of great interest and growth over the last ten years. There are now many clinical guides, self-help workbooks, and programs devoted to using mindfulness and acceptance approaches with teens.

About the Training:

This webinar will highlight some of the more interesting and useful applications of ACT with this age group. Case presentation and experiential exercises will demonstrate strategies for eliciting clinically useful information, for helping teens organize their own “stories” in new and useful ways, and for orienting our young clients toward valued goals. Issues of Informed consent and confidentiality will be touched on, as these are particularly salient for work with adolescents. A bibliography will be provided.

How will your clients benefit:

• Learn to set achievable goals related to values important to the teen
• Skills for emotional regulation
• Learn essential problem-solving skills

About Dr Chris McCurry:

Chris McCurry, Ph.D. is a clinical child psychologist in Seattle, Washington. He specializes in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders and parenting challenges generally. Chris received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he studied with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy cofounder Steve Hayes in the early days of ACT. He completed his predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. In the past 20 years Chris has given over 50 ACT-based webinars, workshops, conference presentations, and in-services for both professional and lay audiences.

He is the author of several books. His first, published by New Harbinger in 2009, is Parenting Your Anxious Child with Mindfulness and Acceptance. This was followed by a clinician’s guide, Working with Parents of Anxious Children: Therapeutic Strategies for Encouraging Communication, Coping & Change (2015) from W.W. Norton. In 2016 Chris and Emma Waddington, Ph.D. saw the publication of four small books for children and parents: Why must I eat my greens?, Why are people different colours?, Why do I have to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’?, and Why don’t we all live together anymore? (Francis Lincoln). Along with coauthors Sheri Turrell and Mary Bell, Chris published The mindfulness and acceptance workbook for teen anxiety, through New Harbinger, in 2018.