Name: Reimagining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) 2026
Start: 2026-03-28
End: 2026-03-29
Location: Midwestern University

OVERVIEW

Reimagining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) 2026 is organized by The Institute for Better Health (IBH) and will be held from Mar 28 - 29, 2026 at Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona, United States of America.

Program Description:
This workshop redefines ACT by integrating the EEMM, which organizes psychological flexibility processes into several dimensions and domains. It also expands the psychological flexibility model by adding the sociocultural component and biopsychosocial elements. You will learn more about each of these areas and how they fit in with and expand the classical ACT model Each dimension and level is also tied to a core human yearning. These yearnings act as selection criteria for our evolution as complex beings.

Each of the processes will be linked to basic behavioral principles as extended by relational frame, underneath the overall umbrella of evolutionary science. Each will be linked to the analytical assumptions of functional contextualism, and the existing database drawn from more than 1400 randomized controlled trials, and several thousand additional studies on these principles and processes.

Participants will explore how these processes and yearnings manifest in their own lives and therapeutic relationships, using experiential exercises, small-group discussions, case demonstrations, and case examples. This workshop is ideal for practitioners seeking to deepen their ACT practice, embrace a process-based approach, and align therapy with clients’ unique needs and contexts.

Learning Objectives
Day 1 Participants will:

Describe the Extended Evolutionary Meta-Model (EEMM) and its role in reimagining ACT as a process-based therapy.
Identify the eight core psychological flexibility processes and their corresponding yearnings or needs.
Explain how yearnings can serve as selection criteria for processes of change in evolving systems.
Be able to apply experiential exercises to explore emotional and cognitive flexibility in personal and therapeutic contexts.
Be able to demonstrate techniques for linking attentional flexibility to the yearning for orientation and self-related flexibility to the yearning for belonging.
Analyze sociocultural and biophysiological flexibility processes in case examples.
Display skills for reading psychological flexibility processes in session, using verbal and nonverbal cues.

Day 2 Participants will:

Utilize ACT techniques and other interventions to target and move psychological flexibility processes in therapy.
Explain how the therapeutic alliance is thought of in process-based ACT.
Explain the role of emotional flexibility in fostering non-attachment to both positive and negative emotions.
Demonstrate the ability to enhance cognitive flexibility and address the yearning to understand.
Assess the impact of sociocultural processes on interpersonal and community connection in therapy.
Design values-based interventions that align with clients’ yearnings for chosen meaning and competence.