President: Russ Harris
Vice President: Darin Cairns
Secretary / Treasurer: Linda Bilich
Student Representative: Priscilla Almada
Members-at-Large: Julian McNally, David Mellor, Louise Shepherd, Carla Walton

Candidates with bios:
President:
Russ Harris
My mission: I aim to continue promoting ACT and RFT not just in Australia, but throughout Oceania, and to do so as a team-player, helping to build a vibrant and supportive ACT community, and to make ACT widely accessible and available to the general public and health/coaching professionals alike. While carrying out this mission, I will stand for authenticity, responsibility, openness, fairness, professionalism and passion.

My bio: Dr Russ Harris: Medical Practitioner - Psychotherapist - Executive Coach

Russ's background is in medicine, but over the years, he has trained in many types of therapy and coaching. When he discovered Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, he was so deeply impressed that he promptly went to the U.S.A. to train with its creators, Steve Hayes and Kelly Wilson. Since then, he has been back several times for advanced training, and is now an experienced ACT trainer.

Russ has a unique model for training, which he calls 'ACT Made Simple', because it covers so much material in a short space of time. (In fact, in November 2009, he has a textbook on ACT coming out, which is titled 'ACT Made Simple'.) He bases his training on three core values: simplicity, clarity, and authenticity. (There's also a big emphasis on having fun.)

Russ travels all around Australia, and internationally, providing workshops and training for a wide variety of health professionals, from coaches and counsellors, to psychologists and psychiatrists. He also regularly presents ACT workshops at a wide variety of national and international conferences. His ACT-based self-help book 'The Happiness Trap' is an Australian best-seller, available in all Borders bookstores. It has also been published in the USA, UK, New Zealand, Mexico, Korea, India, and most of South America. In 2009 it will be published in France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden and China.

 

Vice-President:

Darin Cairns

 

Secretary/ Treasurer:
Linda Bilich
I am a clinical psychologist and have almost completed a research PhD at the University of Wollongong. My project involved conducting an ACT intervention with NSW police officers. I have been involved with ACT in different ways since 2003, such as attending training / workshops and presenting at conferences (both in Australia and overseas), and have assisted Joseph Ciarrochi in numerous ACT projects that he’s been working on. I have been involved in and helped out with the formation of the APS ACT Interest Group, the ACT Oceania Conference in Wollongong, and the upcoming Kelly Wilson workshops.

There are many reasons why I’m putting my hand up for this position. The main one being that I want to contribute to the ACT community from which I have gained so much, both professionally and personally. I have acted in a Treasurer / Secretary role before in sporting community groups, and have a general sense of the workload that can be involved. In this position I will aim to assist in the development and promotion of ACT in Oceania, and provide support to the elected representatives and members.

Student Representative:
Priscilla Almada

 

Members-at-Large (4):
Julian Mcnally
I have been a counselling psychologist since 1994 and switched from a largely solution-oriented framework to ACT in 2003. I currently work solely in private practice and have previously worked in correctional, welfare and educational environments. I am currently the ACT_ANZO listserve moderator and previously ran the Melbourne ACT Peer Supervision Group. I currently supervise several practitioners here in Melbourne in the ACT approach and have provided an ACT training workshop for postgraduate psychology students. From 2010 I will be providing ACT training workshops in Victoria and further afield. I have trained in ACT with Russ Harris, Robyn Walser and attended both the ACT Oceania pre-conference workshops and conferences in 2007 and 2008, presenting a workshop at the latter. Outside the ACT community I am also a member of the Victorian Branch Committee of the APS College of Counselling Psychology and have experience working on similar committees.

David Mellor
I am a clinical psychologist currently working in AOD with 33 years practice. I was introduced to ACT only 4 years ago by my colleague, Jim Hegarty and found it brought my clinical life alive again. After a couple of years of rapid learning including a number of workshops (with Robyn Walser, John Forsyth, Georg Eifert and Kirk Strosahl) I am now trying to consolidate my skills by working slowly through several of the recently produced books about learning ACT and establishing a supervision relationship which extends supports this.

The vitality ACT has provided, peaked for while last year when both Jim and I ran the 2nd Oceania conference in Christchurch at which the energy for this Chapter became a reality and here we are, voting for officers. I am would be privileged to participate in and contribute to the Oceania Chapter of ACBS so that it maintains the momentum we already have and provides strong, diverse and expert development in both the academic and applied areas around ACT and psychological processes.

New Zealand now has around 300 - 400 people who have attended at least an introductory workshop in ACT. It is important that we include Kiwi ACTers in this exciting development and I am honoured to be the only NZ nominee. I would be delighted to see the Chapter ensure a certain future for regular conferences and trainings as well as the opportunity to meet and talk with like-minded people on both sides of the Tasman. If elected, I would do my utmost as the NZ voice to make sure that NZ, not only benefits from the larger numbers in Australia, but also contributes to the strength and purpose of the Chapter.

Louise Shepherd
I'm a clinical psychologist who graduated from USyd in 1997 and since then have worked in a range of clinical settings including at CRUfAD, in a private psychiatric hospital, in oncology and now at UNSW in student counselling. I trained originally in CBT and have been greatly interested in ACT since I first went to Melbourne in 2004 to see Steve Hayes. Since then I have been hooked and have attended the following training: 4 days with Robyn Walser in 2005; 2 days with Kelly Wilson & London conference 2006; 2 days with J.T. Blackledge in 2006: 2 days with Kirk and Patti in Wollongong in 2007 as well as the conference; Oceania conference in 2008 in Christchurch. I come away from every workshop or conference more passionate about this approach to living a fulfilling life! In the past couple of years I have also been extremely fortunate to have regular supervision with Robyn Walser (over Skype, not face to face :-). I also have been involved with the Sydney CBD ACT peer supervision group for the past couple of years and previously with the Bondi Junction group since it commenced.

My love of ACT really took off when I had the opportunity to work with Nat Glaser on her PhD which involved running a RCT comparing (group) CBT and ACT for anxiety. Since then I have gone on to develop workshops for students addressing stress and low mood / depression. There is never a dull moment! I also use ACT almost exclusively in my private practice.

I'm honoured to be nominated as a member at large. I have been thrilled in recent years to watch the ACT community grow in Australia, especially now that there are more opportunities for professional development and supervision as the wealth of knowledge and experience in Australia increases. I would like to help continue this growth and ensure that there is good coordination and awareness of ACT resources and collegial support (education, supervision, referral network, list serv, peer consultation groups etc). In the past I was involved in workshops committee (for the executive committee) for AACBT (NSW) where I was able to put my organisational skills to work!

Carla Walton
I am a Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Centre for Psychotherapy, a specialist service of Hunter New England Mental Health Service for Borderline Personality Disorders and Eating Disorders. I am involved in treatment provision (individual and group) and supervision in both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. I hold a conjoint lectureship in the School of Psychology at the University of Newcastle and also work in private practice, where I use ACT (almost exclusively). So many ‘I’s’ in that sentence that I feel the need to take myself off and do a Self as Context exercise!

I have been involved with ACT since 2003 and have attended ACT training with Kelly Wilson, Robyn Walser, Steve Hayes, Kirk Strosahl and John Forsyth and through this started on the receiving end of ACT and developing the principles in my own life before moving on to using them as a therapist (whilst still ongoingly utilising the therapy in my own life!). I co-ordinate the Newcastle ACT interest group and have run a number of workshops on ACT and lecture on the topic in the postgraduate clinical program at the University of Newcastle. I am particularly interested in doing and supporting more research into the use of ACT with clinical disorders so as to further develop the evidence base.

I connect with ACT personally more than I have with any other therapy and the impact on my life has been huge. I am proud and awed to be a part of the worldwide ACT community that is so sharing and supportive of each other. I am passionate about the idea that we need to be working on our own side of the ‘hexaflex’ every step of the way whilst we are inviting someone else too. I am really excited to be nominated as a Member at Large and would feel privileged to have a role in further contributing to developing within the Australian ACT community, the worldwide ACT culture of openness, sharing, compassion, humbleness (whilst also continuing to work on the same values in my own life). Apart from the ideological components, I’ll be able to put my analness to work with the associated paperwork on the housekeeping side of things for the Oceania Chapter!

This section contains news and updates from the Australia and New Zealand ACBS Chapter. To view a news item, click on the links listed below.

Presentations will be added as and when I can get them, can find the time to put them up and the site is responding enough to receive them We appreciate your comments either here or on the listserve. Some of these presentations have already been placed on the ANZO files page. Joseph has added his separately. Larger presentations could not be uploaded until recently and I have now loaded all the presentations I have available. David Mellor

The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Chapter of ACBS put on a conference in Melbourne, Australia on November 13-15, 2009 with record turnout.

Over 300 people attended the conference, but more could have been possible as the venue simply could not safely hold more than 300 attendees; and the conference sold out a month in advance. Conference coordinators said that this record attendance rivals that of even much older and more established organizations 'down under'.

What made this conference special? Of note were the diversity of both the attendees and the conference program as well as the sense of community engendered by the conference.

Joseph Ciarrochi, ANZ Chapter President was particularly impressed by the diversity of folks who have become interested and the new frontiers of exploration evident in the conference presentations. “People are coming into ACBS from everywhere: psychology, counseling, education, organizations.” ANZ Chapter Vice-President Russ Harris added that the list of attendees at the conference included “general medical practitioners, psychiatrists, nurses, coaches, counselors, teachers, psychologists, social workers -- and even a physiotherapist.”  

Ciarrochi, among others, was amazed to hear how much was being done.  “People are conducting top research in both ACT and RFT, and people are creating new materials (e.g., ACT comic book for kids, new ACT songs, websites),” Ciarrochi said.  He continues, “people are stepping into some difficult populations with the attempt to reduce suffering and promote caring relationships.”

Although most of the conference workshops and talks were given by ANZ members themselves, conference organizers also welcomed members of the international ACBS community who traveled ‘down under’ to share their knowledge and experience: Patty Bach, JoAnne Dahl, Jason Luoma, Patti Robinson, Kirk Strosahl, and Rob Zettle.

Indeed, Strosahl and Robinson of Mountainview Consulting Group, USA kicked off the conference with a 2-day intensive workshop to help attendees “supercharge” their case conceptualization skills and practice them with many types of clients.

The conference program for the three following days was packed with thoughtfully crafted workshops that branched out into different areas that reflect the creativity and larger work being done.   

Rather than emphasize the application of ACT to a particular circumscribed problem, the ACBS-ANZ conference focused heavily on the process of therapy (e.g., integrating the model, bringing experiential work and psychological flexibility to supervision practices, and approaching termination from an ACT perspective) across problems (e.g., conducting powerful brief psychotherapy, applying case conceptualization skills, using defusion skillfully, and engendering values clarification).  

Even within workshops for ‘typical’ clinical problem areas such as OCD, substance abuse, and social anxiety, there was a focus on a particular aspect of the problem (e.g., compassion and shame in addiction, the importance of mindfulness and self-esteem in social anxiety). Also, areas that are not often typically found in training programs were evidenced at the conference such as sexual functioning, psychosis, chronic pain, multi-problem clients, and working with troubled youth.

The importance of bringing an ACT perspective on mindfulness to general medical practice was evidenced by both formal workshops presented and the informal daily discussion on the topic facilitated by psychiatrist and ANZ member Rob Purssey. Conference presenters also thoughtfully linked ACT to other practices such as the Eight-Fold Path in Buddhism and Gestalt therapy.

Some exciting new work in the area of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) added to the depth of the conference experience. Darin Cairns, ANZ member from Perth, Australia, conducted a workshop Raising a Flexible, Adaptive & Empowered Child: Applications of RFT in Child Development, in which he showed attendees how to apply RFT to healthy child development in a way that Harris described as “simple, interesting and, yes, even entertaining!”  

Even more impressive, Cairns shared astounding results in his work using RFT-enhanced interventions to the children he serves in his clinic with Autism. Ciarrochi excitedly reported that Cairns’ data shows that many of his students go from “not being able to relate at all, to being able to have empathy and connectedness with their parents.” And the clinic appears to be outperforming other (non-RFT) behaviorally-oriented clinics.

Ciarrochi continues, “[Cairns] is changing lives with RFT...and his workshop convinced me that we can absolutely not have ACT without RFT. RFT is (gasp) practical!”
 
Ciarrochi, not surprisingly, was very excited about both how well Cairns explained RFT to his audience, as well as how clear the application has been to the improvement of the human condition. Much more work is needed, but in the meantime, Ciarrochi and Harris eagerly await Cairns’ published results. They hope that Cairns and the many dedicated RFT researchers in the ACBS community at large will continue to find creative ways to bring RFT further into mainstream behavioral science approaches.

Even beyond the diversity of the conference program, both Ciarrochi and Harris were impressed by the sense of community engendered by the conference.

Harris spoke of the incredible outpouring of helpers to make the conference possible.  “We had far more volunteers to help out with the conference than we could actually utilize; so many folks chipped in to make it all run smoothly, with folks like Julian McNally, Louise Shepherd, Linda Bilich, Shelly McQuade, Carla Walton, David Mellor, and Louise Hayes putting in many hours of tedious work for the greater good.”

Follies nights at ACBS conferences are always great times to build community, loosen up, and practice the art of not taking ourselves or the work too seriously. The first ever ANZ Follies night was no exception; reportedly it was an event of epic proportions. Conference attendee Emma Hanieh reports that Ciarrochi’s “emotional investment in the success of the follies reached new heights”, but it certainly paid off. Skits did not fail in their creativity and reach; setting up Lego role plays, examining the relational frames associated with RFT (ahem, boring? never!), applying ACT to Dog Whispering and reducing the stress in our Feathered Friends, and the ACT/RFT Terminator film cleverly crafted by Luoma's colleagues in Portland, OR, USA. These and the many other skits presented (and perhaps the tears of laughter associated with them) will be fondly remembered by all for quite some time.

However, to borrow a phrase from Gestalt therapy, the whole of the conference was more than the sum of its parts. The camaraderie felt by conference organizers and attendees alike helped some reach a level of connection with the work they didn’t think possible.

Ironically, Ciarrochi was one of them.  He admits, “really, I am in shock. I mean, I always give these idealistic talks at the ACT conferences, but (I am embarrassed to admit) my mind is telling me that there is no way we can really improve the human condition.”  

And yet, in a moment of defusion, Ciarrochi would be the first to let his thoughts do what they will around this issue. His experience (like that of anyone who attended the conference) tells him that the ANZ Chapter, thorough its members’ dedicated work in ACT and RFT, is well on its way to doing just that.

With the shock of a successful conference comes elation -- and a willingness to dive in to plan the next one. We can echo the cry of ANZ member Louise Shepherd: “Bring on Adelaide, 2010!”

Indeed Ciarrochi’s idealism may be more than simply a pipe dream. It appears to already be a reality.

But don’t take my word for it…

The final 3 day PROGRAM for ANZACT 2011 held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Sept 30 - Oct 2 is attached (and available via the link at the beginning of this line).

ACT “conferences” are unusual – comprising many half day workshops, with a practical clinical and coaching skills-building focus.

Go to www.anzact.com to book your best opportunity this year to build your ACT skills, learning directly from the best in the world.

ANZACT 2011 will be a feast of clinically focussed, and coaching oriented, skills building ACT workshops, with sessions for;

ACT beginners; PTSD; ACT for Coaches (many perspectives); Child, Adolescent and Families; Kindness and Self-Compassion – for anxiety, depression, etc; Organisational Behavior Management; Eating Disorders; Self-help – for all disorders; Borderline Personality Disorder; Chronic Pain; Chronic and Terminal Medical Conditions; OCD; Couples; Addictions; Psychoses; ACT and RFT clinical links; Autism and Schizophrenia; ACT and FAP; how the science underlying ACT clarifies how Drugs really work on Human Behavior; and much more!

Lively panel sessions will consider ACT in relation to Traditional CBT; the Triple P program, ACT and RFT; Positive psychology, Coaching, and ACT - Common themes and goals; Contextual Behavioral Supervision; and Research perspectives.

Our sixth annual conferene was held at Australian Catholic University from November 30 to December 2, 2012. In contrast to earlier conferences, this comprised a set of two day workshops followed by a single day of seminars and workshops together with a stimulating poster session.

Following is the program of the conference along with links to the presentation materials and handouts provided by the presenters/speakers. Where these are not provided, reasons are noted in the description of the presentation.

November 30 & December 1: Workshops

1. Dr Louise Hayes & Darin Cairns:
The adolescent self: A functional account of their developing self. Handouts

2. Dr Benji Schoendorff:
Clinical Functional Contextualism - Integrating ACT and FAP with the Matrix. Powerpoint and Handouts. Bridging form, Day 1. Bridging form, Day 2.

3. Dr Kirk Strosahl & Dr Patricia Robinson
Brief Interventions for Radical Change: Principles and Practice of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT). 

• Slides
• FACT Timeline worksheet
• FACT True North worksheet
• Patient Tools
• Dealing with Downers Exercise
• Life Path Class Session Protocol
• Provider Burnout Self-Assessment Tools
   

December 2: Seminars

Rob Purssey: ACT on Drugs - Functional contextual pharmacology. Slides
Darin Cairns: Symbol Wars: The Fight for the Last Word...
Baljinder Sahdra, Sarah Marshall, & Joseph Ciarrochi: Letting Go, Becoming Free: The Role of ACT in Promoting Nonattachment. Slides
Rachel Collis: Using Contextual Behavioural Science in Executive Coaching. Handout
Claire Edwards & Dianne Tucker: Taming the Angry Beast. Slides. Resources for working Mindfully and Creatively with children and families.
Mary Sawyer & James Duguid: Rule Governed Behaviour and ACT. Slides- Duguid, RGB
Henry Schmidt III: Chain Analysis in DBT. Slides
Russ Harris: The Reality Slap. Slides
NeLi Martin & Paul Atkins: Buddha As a Contextual Behaviourist. Slides
Jane Morton: Wise Choices: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for People with Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms.
Emma Hanieh: ACT with the Australian Aboriginal Population. To protect the privacy of individuals, no slides were provided, however Dr Hanieh is happy for people with questions to contact her directly: admin@theactcentre.com.au
Matthew Smout: ACT Research in Context. Slides
 

2015 ANZACBS Conference - Victoria University, Wellington

Conference Resources

Resources that have been given to us by our presenters can be found at this dropbox link.

 

Conference Overview on Slate

Also, Daniel Farrant shared the following with us:

I was also experimenting with a new way of taking notes at the conference, and spent some time trying to present them in a way that would be engaging and memorable.

After doing that I thought I’d share around what I came up with. If you would like to have a look, please follow the link below.

(Just a tip, it won’t work in the browser Explorer, so you’ll need to use Mozilla, or Google Chrome etc.)

https://slate.adobe.com/cp/0q3uB/ 

I have a monthly ACT peer supervision/interest group meeting at Randwick. This group has been meeting for some years now and we have a core group of clinicians attending regularly.

The meeting usually follows along these lines:

• I begin with an initial experiential exercise,
• Practice one of the core ACT skills usually from the Learning ACT text
• Sometimes watching a DVD with one of the more expert ACT clinicians
• Role play with someone being a client they are stuck with
• Some reflective practice and discussion
• A demonstration with me (Mary) as the ACT therapist General networking with our colleagues
• Learning about RFT and Functional Contextualism

We are a friendly bunch of people who have a genuine passion for being the best ACT clinicians and meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month, 6.30-8pm.

If you want to join us, please ring Mary on 02 9388 9669 or email msawyer@onetoone-counselling.com.au

Kia Ora We are group of mental health professionals who meet once a month (3.45pm - 5pm on a Thursday) at the Princess Margaret Hospital for training and peer supervision in ACT. We would love to hear from you if you are in the area and interested in learning more about ACT as we muddle our way through! We welcome new members. Contact kathryn.whitehead@cdhb.govt.nz What we do:Sessions include experiential exercises, looking at the ACT core processes, discussion of chapters and papers, and peer consultation on cases. We respond to the needs and interests of group members. This group has been meeting for three years (since 2008) in a range of forms, becoming much more ACT focussed in the past year.

We meet once every 4-6 weeks to exchange information, resources, experiences on a particular ACT topic.  You are welcome to join us if you are in our area and have done at least an Intro ACT training.

Call Linda at SESIAHS 4421 8002

For the past three years the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Pain Management Cente has run multidisciplinary pain management programmes based on ACT. There are two programmes; three week fulltime and eight weeks part time. Our data shows large, clinically significant gains that are maintained at up to six months follow-up. We will soon have enough data to comment on twelve months follow-up and hope to run an RCT in the next year or so. If you would like more information feel free to email me on Tony.Merritt@sswahs.nsw.gov.au.

We have a thriving research community at the University of Wollongong. Here are some of our current projects related to ACT.

Evaluating the efficacy of ACT with the NSW police. A wait-list control trial (Bilich, Bayliss, and Ciarrochi).

Developing and validating the Survey of Life Principles, a new measure meant to support the values component of ACT (Ciarrochi & Bailey). We have collected substantial data already with adults (Stefanic & Ciarrochi; Frearson & Ciarrochi). We will be collecting a large amount of data with older adolescents (aged 17 or so) by November 2008.

Evaluating a web-based ACT intervention for people diagnosed with cancer (Ciarrochi, Lane, and Blackledge)

Evaluating the personal values questionnaire (Blackledge & Ciarrochi)

An ongoing longitudinal study of the role of mindfulness, experiential avoidance, thought suppression, alexithymia, and other ACT-related variables in predicting social and emotional well-being amongst adolescents. This project is now in its sixth year. It involves many researchers , including Ciarrochi, Heaven, Leason, Jordan, Supavadeeprasit

We have a variety of projects involving couples, and another involving kids in foster care. We do our best to get ACT-relevant variables into the studies

EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCEPTANCE PROCESSES IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RECOVERY FROM ENDURING MENTAL ILLNESS

AUTHORS: • VINICIUS R. SIQUEIRA, BA (UNIPAR – BR), Specialist (Lato Sensu) in Behavior Analysis and Functional Analytic Therapy (UNIPAR – BR). University of Wollongong, Psychology Masters Research Student.
• LINDSAY G. OADES, B.A.(Hons) Adel, PhD (Woll), MBA with Distinction (Wollongong) - Senior Lecturer (Clinical Psychology). University of Wollongong.

INSTITUTION: School of Psychology & Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong - AU.

ABSTRACT of Research:
• Objective: The concept of Recovery has been generating significant interest in mental health contexts, as has the new behavioral change approach of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) within psychotherapy contexts. This study examines the role of psychological acceptance (PA) and experiential avoidance (EA), two core concepts of ACT, in the psychological recovery process of people with enduring mental illness.
• Methods: Forty-five published recovery narratives were analyzed seeking to investigate the frequency and role of EA and PA given by those narrating their recovery journey. Two case studies were used to illustrate how EA and PA occur within narratives and how their use may vary across different stages of psychological recovery.
• Results: Observing the frequency and role of PA in self-reported successful recovery in the publish narratives and its appearance in higher stages of recovery in the case studies, it can be seen a possible corroboration of data that lead to the idea that the prevalence of PA in a person’s recovery seemly correlates with positive developments in ones journey of recovery. Conversely EA is seen through its frequency and role in the publish narratives and case studies as possibly associated with failures when dealing with aspects of mental illness.
• Conclusions: This study showed preliminary data on PA and EA in the recovery process, however further quantitative research is required to support and validate the initial findings of this study.

(For more information on the research please be free to contact: Vinicius Siqueira at ssnezao@yahoo.com.br)