From Research to Practice: Seven Acceptance and Commitment Training Practices You Can Begin Using Today

Abstract At present count, there are at least 29 peer-reviewed empirical studies using within-subject design strategies, 5 conceptual papers, and 4 books written on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr) in applied behavior analysis (ABA) settings. A trend analysis of the frequency of keynote addresses, webinar courses, and podcasts shows an increasing interest in ACTr among practitioners and students of ABA. Nevertheless, few behavior analysis graduate programs currently teach ACTr. In this talk, we will discuss six ACTr-consistent practices that are within behavior analysts’ repertoires. We strongly advocate for graduate schools to begin integrating ACTr and the basic science that undergirds it, relational frame theory, into their course sequences. Yet, we recognize that this will take some time. In the interim, we offer these four practices as takeaways from the extant empirical literature as a starting point to help the field begin integrating ACTr where doing so could improve clinical outcomes.