Ep 55 – Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Talking To Change - A Motivational Interviewing PodcastShow Notes
Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Glenn & Sebastian explore Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D. Robyn is the Director of TL Consultation Services, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and works at the National Center for PTSD. As a licensed psychologist, she maintains an international training, consulting and therapy practice. Dr. Walser is an expert in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and has co-authored 7 books on ACT including a book on learning ACT. She has most recently written a book entitled: The Heart of ACT- Developing a flexible, process-based, and client-centered practice using acceptance and commitment therapy. Dr. Walser has expertise in traumatic stress, depression and substance abuse and has authored a number of articles, chapters and books on these topics. She has been doing ACT workshops since 1997; training in multiple formats and for multiple client problems. Dr. Walser has been described as a “passionate, creative, and bold ACT trainer and therapist” and she is best known for her dynamic, warm and challenging ACT trainings. She is often referred to as a clinician’s clinician. Her workshops feature a combination of lecture and experiential exercises designed to provide a unique learning opportunity in this state-of-the-art intervention.
Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Robyn Walser explores the relationship between Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The conversation considers where the approaches overlap, including their attention to values, autonomy and client-centred practice, while also recognising important differences in their aims and methods.
Robyn discusses psychological flexibility, acceptance, values-based action and how ACT and MI can complement one another in clinical work. These themes connect with Acceptance in Motivational Interviewing, Empowerment and the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing.
In this episode
00:00 – Introduction and episode preview
07:23 – Robyn’s early ACT story and experiences with MI
12:35 – What is ACT?
18:00 – ACT and the MI spirit
24:40 – Noticing ambivalence and other human experiences
29:00 – Acceptance in ACT: Change through “addition not subtraction”
35:20 – Creative helplessness
40:30 – The therapeutic relationship in ACT: Compassion with consequences
48:15 – The role of language in MI and ACT
58:45 – A real-play with Robyn and Glenn
1:16:05 – Real-play debrief
1:27:30 – Learning more about ACT through brooks, podcasts, etc…
1:33:00 – More real-play debrief: Robyn’s use of directiveness
1:41:00 – MI in combination with ACT
1:43:40 – “Motivation follows behavior”
1:46:50 – Robyn’s interests in reducing impact of climate change
1:52:22 – End of episode
Links and contact information:
Twitter: @robyn_walser
Facebook: The heart of ACT
Robyn’s website and contact portal: http://www.tlconsultationservices.com/
Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) website: https://contextualscience.org/acbs
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