ACT and Political Stress: Finding Values and Committed Action

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Sciences (MAC-ACBS) is proud to sponsor:

ACT and Political Stress: Finding Values and Committed Action

When: Friday, September 5th from 12pm-2pm EST

Where: Virtual event

Speaker: Robert Ortega, PhD

2 CEs Pending from ACBS and NASW

Detailed Schedule:

12:00- 12:20: Introductions of major concepts and statistics

12:20- 12:30: Theoretical Underpinnings

12:30- 12:45: Critical Consciousness

12:45- 1:25: The “Activist Ideal” and tailoring interventions

1:25- 1:55: Radical Hope

1:55-2:00: Conclusions, next steps

Cost:

$75- Standard Registration with CEs

$60- Standard Registration (no CEs)

$20- Student/Emerging Economy (for clarification on emerging economies, please see Tiers 2 and 3 as listed on ACBS- https://contextualscience.org/wc2025_registration_tiers)

Target Audience: Beginner and Intermediate

This activity is pending approval to offer CEs for psychologists, licensed counselors, and social workers. You must attend the course in its entirety in order to receive continuing education credits. Attendees who miss more than 15 minutes (e.g., arrive more than 15 minutes late, leave more than 15 minutes early) will not be given CE credits. CE credits are given for 2 hours of instruction time. Partial credit is not available. CEs are awarded contingent on timely post-event paperwork submission by event organizers.

Refunds: A $25 processing fee will be charged for registration refunds up to September 5th. For cancellations after September 5th, participants will be offered a 50% refund. If you need a refund, please contact us via email at info@macacbs.com.

There is no commercial support for this CE program.

Course Description:

Americans are increasingly overwhelmed by their sociopolitical environment, leading to a host of negative physical and mental health outcomes (APA, 2022; 2024). This lecture and follow-up workshop focus on exploring research-supported treatments for political stress through emotional processing and value-oriented community behaviors. Treatments include developing hope, agency, and community in the face of perceived oppression from sociopolitical forces. Specifically, Radical Hope (Moseley et. al., 2019) and Critical Consciousness (Freire, 1992) will be discussed as frameworks for developing hope, agency, and action as mediators to political stress. The workshop will include lecture and breakout sessions through which providers can discuss how to effectively implement strategies from this workshop with their own clients.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify research-supported techniques for treating populations navigating political stress.

2. Discuss the complex relationship between sociopolitical action and mental health symptoms.

3. Describe approaches to help clients find value-aligned strategies to engage and support their communities.

Instructor Bio:

Robert Ortega completed his BA at Georgetown University. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oregon after completing an APA-accredited clinical internship at American University. He currently owns RIO Therapies, where he works in clinical practice. He has published research in the fields of critical consciousness and his dissertation explored the relationship between political action behaviors and mental health symptoms. Americans are experiencing a rapidly increasing level of stress from social and political issues, leading to a variety of negative mental health outcomes. This workshop will explore the complex relationship between sociopolitical stress, emotional processing, and value-oriented community activity with regards to mental health treatment.

For any questions about this event, you can reach out to MAC-ACBS at info@macacbs.com.