INTENSIVE ONLINE TRAINING ON VALUES
Fostering Meaning and Motivation with ACT and RFT principles
May 31st and June 7th 2024 from 10am to 2pm (US Pacific Time) on Zoom
The sessions will be recorded and accessible to participants attending at least one session.
All clients come to therapy because they want something to change. Often, however, they are so focused on eliminating painful feelings, thoughts, or sensations, that they don’t know what they want their lives to be about beyond not having these experiences. In some cases, clients are too focused on specific outcomes or social approval to find a sense of purpose and freedom. Sometimes, clients have even lost all sense of purpose, and as a result, they can’t find meaningful satisfaction anymore. There are many methods that help clients manage painful feelings and engage in effective actions, but without a meaningful life direction, these strategies can lack vitality, and behavioral changes don’t sustain. For this reason, helping clients foster a deeper sense of meaning in their lives is key to the therapeutic process, which can be done through values work.
In this training based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), you will learn to help clients explore, clarify, and build their own values, and identify actions directed toward these values. You will learn techniques step-by-step through short practical didactics, video demonstrations of in-session interactions (including formal exercises and natural conversations), and practical exercises.
In practice, you will learn to:
- Help your clients clarify and build values
- Help your clients identify broad patterns of valued actions
- Increase your clients’ motivation to engage in valued actions
- Increase your clients’ satisfaction as they engage in valued actions and reflect on what they accomplished.
- Apply these techniques through formal exercises and through natural conversations.
The structure of the training is intended to build clinical competence, not just knowledge. Didactic presentations will be pragmatic and opportunities for practice and feedback will be emphasized. Learning activities will include video demonstration and analysis, behavioral rehearsal of micro-skills, guided self-assessment, and planning for continued improvement. This training is appropriate for healthcare providers at all levels of expertise and working with any population in any treatment setting.
Fees: US$200/ $100 for low & middle income countries (see the list of countries here)
Registration: contact matthieu.villatte@gmail.com
INTENSIVE ONLINE TRAINING ON SELF-AS-CONTEXT
May 28, June 4 , & June 11 2024 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (US Pacific Time) on Zoom
The sessions will be recorded and accessible to participants attending at least two sessions.
The self is a central issue in all psychological problems we treat in therapy: most clients struggle with self-awareness, at least to some degree; many struggle with self-criticism or a lack of self-efficacy; others struggle to feel whole and stable; some struggle to find a balance between attachment and differentiation in their relationships; others struggle to engage in new actions that contradict their self-concepts.
From a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) perspective, all these problems arise from a lack of differentiation and connection in the way people relate to their psychological experiences (emotions, thoughts, sensations). When clients identify with what they think, feel, and do, they lose the freedom to live a rich and meaningful life because experiences that inevitably accompany self-growth are perceived as too threatening. Conversely, when they reject or ignore significant experiences, they develop a fragmented sense of self that prevents them from finding harmony in life. Developing a sense of self that integrates and transcends all psychological experiences is the goal of the therapeutic process based on RFT.
In this workshop, you will learn to use RFT principles to help clients build a sense of self that allows them to find stability and flexibility; responsibility and self-compassionation; connection and differentiation. We will focus in particular on perspective taking and integrative thinking processes activated through experiential exercises and clinical conversations.
The training will include didactics focused on clinical skills, experiential exercises allowing you to apply RFT principles to yourself, analyses of therapy demonstrations, and role-plays. In order to best benefit from the training, you will be encouraged to personally engage in experiential exercises and to explore clinical techniques that may challenge your usual practice.
AUDIENCE
This workshop is intended for mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.) at all levels of expertise and working with any population in any treatment setting. Some prior exposure to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) or other 3rd wave therapies is encouraged but not absolutely necessary.
Fees: US$250/ $125 for low & middle income countries (see the list of countries here)
Registration: contact matthieu.villatte@gmail.com
Past trainings that will be offered again in the future…
6-Month Online Clinical RFT Course
March 14th 2024 to September 12th 2024
Registration: Contact matthieu.villatte@gmail.com
What is this course about?
This 6-month online course is designed to turn you into a clinical RFT expert! Step by step, you will learn the basic principles of RFT and how to use them in psychological interventions. The course will be facilitated by Matthieu Villatte, PhD, clinical trainer and author of Mastering the Clinical Conversation: Language as Intervention, and of a number of articles and chapters on RFT for clinical practice. The course will be directly based on this best selling clinical RFT manual.
How will this course work?
We will use a variety of resources such as videos, podcasts, Powerpoint presentations, articles and chapters, live talks, and listserve discussions. Each week, you will receive a training post with optional work assignment to help you progress at your own pace. You will receive personal feedback on your practice and answers to all your questions once a week through the listerve. In addition, 10 1-hour online live sessions will be provided during which you will have the opportunity to deepen your understanding of clinical RFT concepts, discuss clinical cases, and practice skills through role plays.
Live sessions are scheduled on the following Fridays at 9am (US Pacific Time):
March 29, April 19, May 10 & 31, June 14 & 28, July 19, August 2 & 23, September 9.
What will you learn in this course?
- The basic RFT principles involved in clinical work
- The framework for using RFT in clinical practice
- How to conduct psychological assessment using RFT
- How to activate and shape behavior change with RFT
- How to build meaning and motivation with RFT
What people are saying about this course:
“In my opinion, relational frame theory represents one of the most important scientific advances in facilitating a deep understanding of human psychological functioning, how we can struggle, and how we can be helped. Matthieu’s clinical RFT course has been invaluable in helping me to develop an understanding of RFT and how to apply it in my clinical practice, and almost immediately his course began to result in improvements in the depth and precision of both my therapy practice and in the clinical supervision I provide, both of which are focused in Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT). Given that language is the medium in which nearly all psychotherapy plays out, I cannot imagine the therapist whose craft would not be enhanced by this training.”
— Russell Kolts, PhD, USA.
“Matt’s 6-month online RFT course is amazing!! Learning ACT is like learning to play a beautiful piece of music. Learning RFT in Matt’s course enables you to COMPOSE beautiful music. Applying what I learned in Matt’s RFT class fundamentally enhanced my clinical work and my clients are benefiting greatly. I highly recommend this course!!!”
— Cathryn Campbell, MBA, MSS, LSW, PCC, USA
“I thoroughly recommend Matthieu Villatte’s online course on the application of RFT in clinical settings. It has taught me to apply new practical skills not only in clinical cases, increasing the effectiveness of my therapeutic practice, but even in everyday life. The interaction between Matt and students was great and the course was flexible, allowing me to follow things at my own pace while having the unique chance to learn from a prestigious clinical psychologist and researcher while studying in my home country of Brazil.”
— Diana Ferroni Bast, PhD, Brazil.
“Since I started my training in RFT I was looking forward to a course in which I could really understand the basic concepts and at the same time their applicability to clinical situations in a friendly way. Matt, you did it! For those interested in learning about RFT and its clinical applications I strongly recommend to participate in Matt’s courses. A lot of readings, videos, supervision, in a warm and supporting setting!”
— Fabián O. Olaz, PsyD, Argentina.
Fees: US$400 / $200 for low & middle income countries (see the list of countries here)
THE THERAPY OF EVERYTHING
How to Integrate Philosophy and Spirituality into Your Clinical Practice
This course focuses on the integration of philosophy and spirituality into the therapeutic process. We will use a framework organizing RFT principles and philosophical assumptions of functional contextualism into a behavioral model of transcendence. We will also explore ways to connect psychotherapy processes with other disciplines (e.g., art, physics, sport, history) in order to facilitate the transition between clinical work and everyday life for both client and therapist.
Here are some of the key themes we will cover during the 10 weeks:
- How to assess worldviews and philosophical assumptions in therapy
- How to apply the core concepts of Functional Contextualism in session (a-ontology, monism, pragmatism)
- How to make spirituality a universal goal of therapy
- How to completely let go of outcomes and develop unshakable trust in on-going processes
- How to connect everything all the time without losing focus
- How to integrate your personal life into your therapeutic work and vice versa
The course will be organized as follows:
- 10 1.5-hour live sessions on zoom over 10 weeks. Each session will focus on a specific theme.
- 1 didactic podcast (30 minutes max) will be sent every week to prepare for the live session.
- Each session will begin with a discussion and a demonstration of skills and principles presented in the didactic podcast.
- You will then practice the skills in groups of 2-3.
- We will then debrief and troubleshoot with the whole group.
- The session will end with an activity geared to integrating clinical skills into our personal lives.
The groups, limited to 10 participants, will meet for 1.5h on the following dates (Seattle time):
Group A
Mondays at 1pm on February 12, 19, 26; March 4, 11, 18, 25; April 1, 8, 15.
Group B
Wednesdays 9am on February 14, 21, 28; March 6, 13, 20, 27; April 3, 10, 17.
Group C
Wednesdays 3pm on February 14, 21, 28; March 6, 13, 20, 27; April 3, 10, 17.
The sessions will be recorded when possible (depending on content). It will occasionally be allowed to switch groups (no more than 2 participants at a time, so the groups will never be bigger than 12). This way, you will be able to deal with occasional schedule conflicts.
Fees: US$400 (15 hours of training)
$200 for low & middle income countries (see the list of countries here)
Registration: contact matthieu.villatte@gmail.com
language as intervention 