[Signup] – ACT Basics Evergreen – Praxis Continuing Education and Training (original) (raw)

Working with people who are struggling in life is not easy.

It means that every day, hour after hour, you encounter suffering. You face problems that can seem unsolvable.

And, as part and parcel of that experience, you likely also encounter stuff inside yourself that’s not so pretty.

Feelings of inadequacy, frustration, possibly even resentment. Things that maybe you’d rather not have.

ACT is not a magic wand that you wave to make those human problems disappear.

It’s a lens that helps you take a different perspective on those problems — to realize that life is much bigger than any one feeling or thought…

… And that, when we are willing to sit with thoughts and emotions as they are, without trying to suppress or change them, we’re given the opportunity to experience something much more meaningful.

The Monday after I attended my first weekend ACT workshop, I went into a session with a client I’d really been struggling with and asked if they would be willing to join me in an exercise I had just learned.

With that simple exercise, and the new perspective I was able to bring to our work, our whole dynamic began to change.

It took us on a path where their feelings were no longer a problem we were both trying to solve week after week.

It led us to a place where we could both say, “Maybe that pain doesn’t have to run your life.”

Instead, we got to ask: what would they choose to do? What steps would they take toward the things they cared about?

That’s a very empowering place to be as a clinician, and as a client. Pain is still hard. Suffering still shows up. But possibilities show up at the same time.

When you help your client see that a life worth living is not one that is free from pain, but one that is rich in the things that really matter, that creates space for possibility to take flight.

And, fortunately, making that shift doesn’t require you to be an ACT master.

In fact, part of the reason I’m so excited about training people in the basics of ACT is that I’ve seen how much can change when someone gets a solid understanding of the key principles and tools.

I’ve seen it in my clients, and the other helping professionals I’ve had the pleasure to instruct, as well as in myself.

I think this shows how powerful this model really is.

And my hope is that you’ll join me in this course to discover for yourself the possibilities it can open up in your work, and your life.