Friday Night Conversation: Open, Aware, Engaged

ACT and Meeting Your Own Suffering in the Group

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Hosted by:

Darren McCall, LPC

Description:

Therapists, like our clients, encounter regular challenges in life and can struggle with our feelings about these challenges. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) posits that suffering happens when we struggle with normal life pain, or “clean pain,” and the result is “dirty pain,” which feels unbearable. One consequence of dirty pain experienced while facilitating a group is that we might become impaired in effectively managing the group process. In this evening discussion, we will explore these concepts and experiment with mindfulness meditation and practices from ACT designed to help us come to presence, open to our thoughts and feelings, and act according to our values. The discussion facilitator, Darren McCall, will share from his own experiences as a group leader who has Parkinson’s disease.

About the Presenter(s):

Over the past 20 years, Darren McCall has worked in the field of behavioral health in various capacities: case manager, outpatient addictions treatment counselor for HIV+ dual-diagnosis clients, HIV risk reduction counselor, Prevention Program Manager at AIDS Services of Austin, and private practice. Over this time, he has been happily disabused of the notion that his job is to fix people and make them happy. In its place, he has discovered the delightful array of expressions of humanity, and that no one, including himself, needs to be fixed. An interest in Taoism and Buddhism, along with 25 years of off-and-on mindfulness meditation practice, has made ACT a natural fit. Darren feels vital when engaged in his work and when sharing ACT with clients and other providers.

Charge: There is no charge for this event.

Note: Space is limited to 20 (Please note that if you cannot attend for any reason, we ask that you notify us so that we can make space available to those on the waitlist.)