Navigating Emotions Effectively: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

This session will focus on how to utilize skills in awareness to cultivate openness to our internal experiences, even those that are painful or challenging (e.g., sadness, anxiety). This session will also focus on the barriers that may arise when trying to pursue personally chosen values, as well as how one responds to these barriers. Participants will learn to willingly engage with difficult thoughts or emotions.

Learning Goals:

1) Apply the core psychological flexibility skills to one’s personal and professional context

2) Distinguish between “where I am” and “where I want to be”

3) Appraise thoughts and emotions with an observer perspective

4) Manage thoughts and emotions with intention

5) Examine effectiveness of one’s behaviors in terms of one’s personally held values