THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE

ACT MATRIX:
SIX STEPS TO PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY

Put the power of ACTs six core processes to work for you and your clients: contact
with the present moment, acceptance, defusion, values, committed action and
observer self.

With over 150 Randomized Clinical Trials to date, Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy (ACT pronounced as a a single word) has become a leading third-wave
approach effective for a broad range of psychological and behavioral difficulties.

However, ACT can at first blush seem complex and its intervention strategies
difficult to apply.

In this workshop, Benji Schoendorff will make ACT simple and effective while
meeting your needs as a practitioner who wants to use ACT to help your clients lead
a valued life. Benji & will guide you through the ACT matrix model, an intuitive
diagram that can be shared with your clients and supercharge your ACT practice.
Having explored highly effective clinical skills, youll leave this workshop with
strategies to put to use the very next day.


Need

Third wave psychotherapies are becoming an integral part of psychosocial

intervention, in private practice, public health settings and in coaching and
organizational contexts. Practitioners need intervention-focused trainings in which
they can apply and practice and the innovative intervention strategies soon as they
leave the workshop.

This 2-day experiential/clinical workshop offers a good grounding in acceptance and

commitment therapy through the practice of the matrix model. It is aimed at
practitioners at all level of skills: beginners, intermediate and advanced who seek to
streamline and potenitalize their practice through the use of the ACT matrix.

Learning objectives

After this workshop, youll be able to :

1. Conduct an ACT-congruent evaluation interview and use the Matrix Life

Dashboard worksheet.

2. Present the ACT point of view through the matrix.

3. Present and promote ACT-congruent therapeutic objectives.

4. Present the ACT model of psychopathology and define psychological

flexibility.

5. Present the difference between toward moves and away moves.

6. Present the difference between 5-senses and inner experience.

7. Conduct a functional analysis with the ACT matrix.

8. Present the two rules, that of the world of 5 senses and that of the world of
inner experience.

9. Practice Yessing, a highly effective form of validation.

10. Present Hooks and use the Hooks worksheet.



11. Practice Verbal Aikido and use the Verbal Aikido worksheet.

12. Promote self-compassion through the use of the mother cat exercise.

13. Helping clients step out of their comfort zone while staying in their self-care
zone.

14. Use the teleportation interview.

15. Exchange reinforcing appreciations with client.

16. Name the main process scales and questionnaires of interest to ACT.

17. Describe the evidence base suggesting ACT as an effective approach.

Workshop length

This is a 14 hours workshop over 2 days. This workshop is part of the ACT basics
module of the Contextual Psychology Institutes supervised clinical training
program.

Prerequisites

None.

Workshop description

This 2-day clinical/experiential workshop presents acceptance and commitment

therapy through the ACT matrix model. The ACT model, its theoretical
underpinnings and evidence base will be presented. In this workshop, the ACT
processes mindfulness, acceptance, defusion, values, committed action and self-
as-context are applied and explored using an innovative method in which
practitioners get to practice through their own experience exercises that they can
directly export to their clinical or intervention practice.


The participants will explore and practice a transdiagnostic ACT protocol in six
steps :

1. The point of view. Presenting the ACT point of view through the matrix.
Practice of noticing the difference between actions to move away from what
one does not want to think and feel and action to move toward who and
what is important. The central role of noticing.

2. The Stuck loop. Functional analysis of away moves, the workability criterion.

3. Control and hooks. Control as the problem and the two rules. Experiential
presentation of the difference between 5-senses and mental or inner
experience. Hooks (cognitive fusion). Calibrating toward moves outside the
comfort zone and inside the self-care zone.

4. Verbal Akido. The Verbal Aikido worksheet and practice of the yes, and
questions around the matrix. Experientially contacting values.

5. Self-compassion. Practicing self-compassion through the mother cat exercise.

6. Perspective-taking. Using the power of self-as-context and perspective-taking

to get clients to conduct self-interviews that will get them unstuck.

Small group exercises will help you recognize the ACT processes in the moment and
help you practice how to put them in action. Through the small group exercises you
will also explore the properties of the ACT therapeutic relationship and learn how to
best use the therapeutic relationship in the service of your helping your clients get
unstuck. You will leave this workshop with new skills and strategies to use with your
clients, including the most difficult ones.

Learning methods

Didactic presentation and Powerpoint

Videos

Role play

Small group experiential practice



Trainers

Benjamin Schoendorff, BA, MSc, is the director of the Contextual Psychology

Institute, a licensed psychologist in Quebec and lecturer at Sherbrooke University in

Montral. An ACT pioneer in the French-speaking world, Benji is a sought-after

international ACT trainer who has given close to 200 workshops on five continents.

Hes renowned for his ability to make complex notions easily graspable, his warm

sense of humour and above all his uncommon ability to transmit effective clinical

skills to his trainees. ACT changed Benjis life and he now dreams of bottling the

essence of psychological flexibility and handing it out on street corners so as to

spread peace, love and understanding the world over. Right now hes most proud of

the six-step approach to the ACT Matrix, which is detailed in the ACT practitioners

guide to the ACT Matrix.

Attendance certificate and CE credits

An attendance certificate stating the number of hours attended will be given to

participants at the end of the workshop.

Public

Clinicians : psychologists, therapist, counsellors, social workers, psychiatrists, MDs,

nurses, mental and behavioral health professionals, coaches, dieticians, guidance
counselors, teachers and students in related fields.

Evaluation

Participants are invited to fill-in an online questionnaire to assess the quality of the
training, facility and trainer as well as the stated learning objectives, followed by a 3-
months and 6 months follow-up questionnaire on the learning objectives.


Selected Bibliography

Hayes, S.C., Strosahl, K.D., & Wilson, K.G. (2012). Acceptance and commitment
therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd edition) New
York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Polk, K., Schoendorff, B., Webster, M., & Olaz, F. (2016). The ACT Matrix: A New
Approach to Building Psychological Flexibility Across Settings and
Populations. Oakland: Context Press/New Harbinger.

Polk, K. & Schoendorff, B. (2014). The Essential Guide to the ACT Matrix: A Step-by-
Step Approach to Using the ACT Matrix model in Clinical Practice. Oakland:
Context Press/New Harbinger.

Ruiz, F. J. (2010). A review of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) empirical

evidence: Correlational, experimental psychopathology, component and
outcome studies. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological
Therapy, 10, 125-162.

Tirch, D., Schoendorff, B., & Silberstein, L. (2014). The ACT practitioners guide to the
science of compassion, tools for fostering psychological flexibility. Oakland,
CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Wilson, K. G., & DuFrene, T. (2009). Mindfulness for Two: An Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy. Oakland,
CA: New Harbinger.