Functionally Speaking #14 - Interview with Norman Gustavson

Speaking to Ingrid Ord was a wonderful opportunity to get a perspective of how a Christian views Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and about her book, ACT with Faith.  I have a history of working the the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP; the organization that was highlighted in the Academy Award winning movie, Spotlight), and have worked with very distraught Christians and understand the obstacles of applying ACT to people of certain faith.  Ingrid wrote a really neat book to help unravel those types of issues.  I hope you enjoy the podcast.  I have a few trainings coming up during 2016, and a lot of exciting projects for 2017.  Contact me for more information. September 12 & 13, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training New York City, NY September 15 & 16, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Portland, ME September 19 & 20, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Honolulu, HI September 27, 2016 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Everyday Practice Syracuse, NY September 28, 2016 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Everyday Practice Rochester, NY September 29, 2016 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Everyday Practice Buffalo, NY October 3 & 4, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Seattle, WA October 6 & 7, 2016 ACT I: Two-Day Training with Praxis Columbus, OH October 13, 2016 Keynote Speech at the BSN Conference: Building Leadership Commitment Jacksonville, FL October 20 & 21, 2016 ACT I: Two-Day Training with Praxis Pittsburgh, PA October 24 & 25, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Sacramento, CA October 26 & 27, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training San Francisco, CA November 3-6, 2016 ACT BootCamp with Steve Hayes, Robyn Walser, Kelly Wilson, Tim Gordon, Matt Boone, Emily Sandoz, and Thomas Szabo Tampa, FL November 15-16, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Des Moines, IA November 17-18, 2016 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: 2-Day Intensive ACT Training Omaha, NE

Norman Gustavson is an ACT therapist and trainer working in Afghanistan. He tells of his experiences working with clients and trainees in Kandahar, and about the state of mental health treatment in that region.  He also talks about how mindfulness meditation helps him with his job and explains how he uses The Matrix with clients, as well.  

Brandon Gaudiano has done a great deal of research in contextual behavioral approaches related to clinical work. His website at Brown University is a treasure trove of great publications that you can download, read, and apply.  He also has a new book titled Incorporating Mindfulness and Acceptance into the Treatment of Psychosis: Current Trends and Future Directions. It is available on Amazon, and you can get to that bookstore by clicking through the ACBS website.  Whether you treat individuals with serious mental illness or not, Brandon discusses important points for anyone applying the ACT model in treatment. Enjoy!

I am very excited to have Tony Biglan on Functionally Speaking.  He wrote a fantastic book called The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives & Our World.  I highly recommend the book, and you can order it by going to the ACBS Click-Thru page first.  Check out his cool website that hosts a neat video about the topic, and even shows endorsements from many scholarly people, including Senator Jeff Merkley.  Tony’s answers to my questions are really enlightening, and I think you’ll find this podcast particularly interesting.  And, if you like this interview, check out Tony’s interview on Trent Codd’s CBT Radio podcast.  I look forward to your feedback.  

Beate Ebert is doing a remarkable job helping reduce suffering and improve quality of living for people in Sierra Leone.  She’s helping establish mental health infrastructures, training professionals in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and doing important implementations of public health initiatives to reduce the spread of Ebola in West Africa.  She and I worked together with Joanne Dahl presenting ACT workshops in Sierra Leone.  Beate and I reminisce about that experience and talk about the challenges of disseminating the contextual behavioral sciences.  Beate explains how she used ACT to influence people’s actions to reduce the spread of the Ebola virus.  (Check out Steve Hayes’s blog about this topic here.) We also discuss our experience in the amputee camps, conversations with adults who were child-combatants, prevention measures, and our interaction with Father Peter Conte, a great community organizer in Freetown. (To read a little bit about Peter, look here).  If you’d like to assist in this Beate’s initiatives, check out the Commit + Act organization’s website and Facebook page.

Lauren Porosoff, a junior high school teacher in New York, blends the ACT model into her curriculum.  I always admire people who do something pioneering with the ACT work. She and I talk about how she does it, and she provides resources for weaving ACT into educational scenarios.  Check out her book, Curriculum at Your Core: Meaningful Teaching in the Age of Standards, and her website, Teaching Tolerance.  If you'd like to learn more about her approach, she wrote a neat article, Systems vs. Heaps: Aligning Professional Development with School Values.  She's also giving a workshop on Friday, May 1, 2015 about giving English teachers ideas for designing a values-based curriculum.  It's called The Story Your English Course Tells and you can register for it here.

This was the most fun I've had doing a podcast.  Joann Wright, my friend, colleague, and "Big Sister" in graduate school talks with me about compassion and group therapy.  She and Darrah Westrup have a book coming out this year on ACT and group psychotherapy (New Harbinger Publications).

This edition of Functionally Speaking includes two interviews.  They were both done back when I was more involved with this podcast a few years ago, but just because they are old, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t put them out for folks to listen to!  Kelly Wilson joins me to talk about his book Mindfulness for Two and then I interview Julie Vargas, B.F. Skinner’s daughter, about her book Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching.  Enjoy!!   For folks interested, I’m doing several trainings in the next few months: CBT & Mindfulness Kalamazoo, MI – December 9, 2014 Grand Rapids, MI – December 10, 2014 Lansing, MI – December 11, 2014 Sacramento, CA – January 27, 2015 Oakland, CA - January 28, 2015 Palo Alto, CA - January 29, 2015 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Macon, GA - February 9, 2015 Norcross, GA - February 10, 2015 Marietta, GA - February 11, 2015 Tuscon, AZ – March 10, 2015 Scottsdale, AZ - March 11, 2015 Phoenix, AZ - March 12, 2015 Treating OCD & Hoarding Tinley Park, IL - April 29, 2015 Lisle, IL - April 30, 2015 Arlington Heights, IL – May 1, 2015 If interested in my scheduled dates about SAFETY or LEADERSHIP training, or for information on how to register for the above events, please feel free to email me: [email protected].  Thanks for listening! 

It’s the triumphant return of Functionally Speaking! After several years of dormancy, the podcast is back and featuring an interview with Dennis Tirch.  He’s an awesome contextual behavioral scientist, compassionate therapist, and passionate mindfulness enthusiast.  He and I speak about the book he coauthored with Benji Schoendorff and Laura Silberstein, The ACT Practitioner’s Guide to the Science of Compassion: Tools for Fostering Psychological Flexibility.  If you enjoy the podcast, or have feedback... or a request related to what I should talk about, tweet me! @drdjmoran  AND - Click here to help raise funds for ACBS when you shop on Amazon

Before the Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences conference in The Netherlands, there were many requests to record the workshops.  Joanne Dahl, Jennifer Plumb, Ian Stewart, and Tobias Lundgren led a fantastic workshop entitled The Art & Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy.  They wrote a book with  the same title published by New Harbinger, and it is excellent.  This is Part Two of the workshop.  Just to clarify, all I did was record this workshop and asked for permission to post it here on the Functionally Speaking website.  Enjoy! D.J. Moran