Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Peer Clinical Consultation Group

Every 2nd Friday of the month, the Portland Peer consultation group meets online from 3:30-5:30pm. This group is a forum for clinicians to engage in didactic and experiential consultation about the clinical use of ACT. It is mainly composed of professionals working in the mental health field, but graduate students pursuing a mental health-related degree are also welcome.

The group is egalitarian in that members take turns being responsible for keeping the group on track. The first hour is devoted to announcements, news, ACT-related questions, brief consultation questions, and other miscellaneous business items. The second hour is  focused on ACT skill development, usually taking the form of an experiential exercise or role play focused on a clinical case without the use of names or identifying information. Unlike traditional case consultations in which the focus is on providing ideas or suggestions regarding particular clinical case, the focus of this portion of the group is on providing an opportunity for one person who has volunteered to be the “skill builder” practice an ACT skill or process. While the therapist presenting the case often receives experiential and didactic consultation on the case they have presented, the main function is to provide the “skill builder” with an opportunity to practice. Other group members also benefit from seeing a demonstration of ACT skills demonstrated by the “skill builder” and there is a technical discussion of the demonstration after the exercise has concluded.

We have a particular outline and group roles that we use. If you are interested in seeing those, they are listed below:

• Portland ACT consult group meeting outline
• Portland ACT consult group role descriptions
• Hexaflex Monitor form
• ACT Consult Group Transition Form

How Do I Join?

The consultation is an open group, and people may attend whenever they are able. As we discuss clinical cases in this group, we do limit attendance to those who are licensed healthcare professionals seeing clients in a clinical context (e.g. LCSWs, LPCs, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, registered dieticians, etc.) or those in training who are working under supervision towards becoming a licensed healthcare professional (e.g. graduate students, interns, psychologist residents, etc.).

If this is your first time attending the group, we simply ask that you read over the ACT Peer Consultation Group Mission Statement prior to attending so that you are aware of the mission and values of our group. We also ask that you email Cordelia Kraus, LPC, CADC 1 ([email protected]) prior to coming to the group for the first time so that we can orient you a bit to the group and so that we can answer any questions you might have.