Ep. 54: ACT for Occupational Therapists - Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Any OT Setting

ACT for Occupational Therapists: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Any OT Setting

Have you ever worked with clients who seem stuck? The ones who don't follow through on goals they set themselves, the ones often labeled with judgy terms like "non-compliant" or "unmotivated"? As occupational therapists, we're often called in when all else has failed. But when psychosocial barriers keep people from engaging in meaningful occupations, we need tools that work with the internal experiences creating those obstacles.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers occupational therapists a powerful, trauma-informed framework for helping clients unhook from difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations so they can move toward the occupations that matter to them. Whether you practice in physical rehab, pediatrics, mental health, persistent pain, or community settings, ACT can integrate into your OT approach.

In This Episode, I Discuss:

- The experience of clients being "hooked" and moving away from meaningful occupations despite having goals they care about

- The ACT choice point model: toward moves versus away moves and what that means for occupational engagement

- How the six core processes of ACT break down into mindfulness-based tools and values-based action (aka meaningful occupation)

- The four ACT processes that help clients be more flexibly responsive to difficult internal experiences

- Why ACT feels aligned with trauma-informed, humanistic, collaborative approaches to occupational therapy practice

- How "open up, be present, do what matters" translates to occupational therapy

- Practical ways ACT fits into OT sessions across different practice settings

About My Practical ACT for OTs Course