Brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Sexual Health Issues

Presenter: Brittany Hudspeth

• Licensed Professional Counselor
• National Certified Counselor
• Certified Clinical Trauma Professional
• AASECT Certified Sex Therapist

CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 

Modern culture often does not support people who have individual sex issues due to harmful messaging around sex especially outside of couple’s issues (Buehler, 2022). This means that most people with individual sex issues enter treatment initially with physical health professionals who are not often trained in the emotional component of the sexual issues due to the specialized nature of the training (Buehler, 2022). This approach looks at Values, Identity, and Messaging that has prevented psychological flexibility within individuals in relation to their sexual health issues. An approach employing ACT to address an individual’s sexual health issues will be presented as a brief intervention tool. The Contextual Interview focuses specifically on the individual’s values, gender, and sexual identity while exploring any precipitating events, triggering factors, and maintaining factors along with workability in an individual’s sex life. Once a Contextual Interview is completed with a client, evidence of psychological inflexibility around their sexual issues will be explored. If the issue of psychological inflexibility can be approached, reframing can be attempted to create psychological flexibility and new value-oriented behavior.
Aims: To provide the audience working in individual counseling a streamlined approach using ACT to help those struggling with sexual health issues. All Levels of Clinicians

Workshop Objectives:

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Construct a Contextual Interview with clients
• Describe how ACT fits into Sexual Health Issues
• Be able to identify Psychological Inflexibility within the sexual health issue
• Create value guided actions for clients needs

Agenda:

• Intro to ACT with Sexual Health 10-10:45 AM
• Introduction to Contextual Interview for Sexual Health 10:45 AM -12 PM
• Psychological Flexibility and Values Guided Behavior 12:00 PM-12:30 PM
• Q and A 12:30 PM -1 PM

Recommended Reading:

• Buehler, S. (2022). What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know About Sex. Springer Publishing.
• Harris, R (2009). ACT with Love: Stop Struggling, Reconcile Differences, and Strengthen Your Relationship with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. (1 st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
• Robinson, P. J., Gould, D.A., & Strosahl, K. (2010). Real behavior change in primary care: Improving patient outcomes & increasing job satisfaction. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
• Strosahl, K., Robinson, P. Gustavsson, T. (2012) Brief Interventions for Radical Change: Principles and Practice of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. (1 st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
• The Leather Couch: by Stefani Goerlich

Citations that will be used in the workshop:

• Buehler, S. (2022). What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know About Sex. Springer Publishing.
• Harris, R (2009). ACT with Love: Stop Struggling, Reconcile Differences, and Strengthen Your Relationship with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. (1 st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
• Robinson, P. J., Gould, D.A., Strosahl, K. (2010). Real behavior change in primary care: Improving patient outcomes increasing job satisfaction. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
• Strosahl, K., Robinson, P. Gustavsson, T. (2012) Brief Interventions for Radical Change: Principles and Practice of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. (1 st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.