Workshop 6 – ACT, Idionomics and a Process-Based Approach (in English)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training (ACT in either case) is an intervention approach that targets and holds itself accountable to the creation of greater psychological and life flexibility across biopsychosocial domains. Grounded in functional contextual philosophy, and in behavioral principles as expanded by relational frame theory and evolutionary science, ACT is a process-oriented approach, driven by contextual behavioral science as a knowledge development strategy and idionomic analysis as a primary applied empirical extension. In this workshop I will explain how ACT can be used by evidence-based clinicians to use process-oriented strategies to enhance their work with clients. Rather than emphasizing ACT as a novel framework, this workshop will dive into actionable ideas that integrate seamlessly with attendees existing therapeutic approaches, enabling clinicians to apply ACT’s core processes directly whether they think of themselves as "using ACT" or not. Participants will learn how to identify and target psychological inflexibility, and to use exercises and metaphors to foster mindfulness, values-driven action, and emotional openness. Drawing from ACT’s robust evidence base —over 1,400 randomized trials and thousands of studies of other kinds — this workshop offers concrete methods to assess and shift clients’ relationships with their struggles, empowering therapists to better create rapid, lasting change. Finally this workshop will peek into a process-based and AI driven future that goes beyond ensemble statics psychometrics to a world of idiographic assessment with known treatment utility and non-distortive application to a culturally and personally diverse world. By adopting a multi-level, multi-dimensional biopsychosocial evolutionary approach we can enter into a humble, genuine, and purposeful conversation with humanity itself about how best to use behavioral science in combination with all forms of knowing to alleviate suffering, to promote human prosperity, and to create a more loving world