ACT and Applied Behavior Analysis: A Practical Guide to Ensuring Better Behavior Outcomes Using Acceptance and Commitment Training

As a board-certified behaviour analyst (BCBA), you work with a wide range of clients, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some of these clients may not be verbal at all on one end of the spectrum, while some may have very advanced language skills on the other. For these clients and their families, you need a flexible and adaptable therapeutic framework to ensure the best behaviour outcomes. Drawn from relational frame theory (RFT)-the psychological theory of human language-acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can help.

With this definitive professional manual, you'll learn to conceptualize your cases using ACT, create your own exercises, generate metaphors, be present with the unique individual learner in front of you, and practice the core ACT skills flexibly to ensure better behaviour outcomes for clients and their families. You'll find an overview of the theoretical connections between behaviour analysis, RFT, and ACT, as well as the core act skills, including present-moment awareness, flexible perspective taking, committed action, and values work. Finally, you'll find information on cultural competency and diversity to help you service a wide range of clients.

If you're like many BCBAs, you need specialized resources when working with linguistically sophisticated clients, as well as their parents and caregivers. Let this book be your comprehensive guide to incorporating ACT into your work.

Tom Szabo, PhD, BCBA-D, is a faculty member in the hybrid master's degree program for Professional Behavior Analysis at the Florida Institute of Technology, an internationally recognized acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer, a practicing board certified behavior analyst, and a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, where he studied under Steven C. Hayes and W. Larry Williams.

Over the last decade, Szabo has focused his practice on teaching people ways to ignite behavioral flexibility in their personal lives and with others in clinical practice, schools, boardrooms, shop floors, and community centers. He is particularly interested in teaching people ways to use the "psyflex model" to support individuals with high functioning autism and their families. With the Commit & Act Foundation, Szabo has trained therapists in Sierra Leone working with individuals who've committed acts of gender-based violence and he is currently conducting funded research on ways to reduce intra-familial violence. With his students, Szabo investigates ACT training and clinical RFT. He has published empirical and conceptual papers, as well as several book chapters.

Jonathan Tarbox, PhD, BCBA-D, is director of the master of science in applied behavior analysis program at the University of Southern California, as well as director of research at FirstSteps for Kids. He is editor in chief of the journal, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals related to autism and behavior analysis. He has published four books on autism treatment; is series editor of the Elsevier book series, Critical Specialties in Treating Autism and Other Behavioral Challenges; and author of well over seventy peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in scientific texts. His research focuses on behavioral interventions for teaching complex skills to individuals with autism, applications of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) training inside of applied behavior analysis, and applications of applied behavior analysis to issues of diversity and social justice.