Dates: October 30 & 31 (Thursday and Friday)
Times: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm EST both days
Format: Hybrid
- Livestream via Zoom, or
- In person: UNC School of Social Work, 325 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
CE Credit: 12 CEs, read for full information on credit types awarded.
Fees: $180 (scholarships available)
Description:
In times of uncertainty, both clients and clinicians can struggle to stay connected to what matters. Shame, self-criticism, and emotional overwhelm can lead to disconnection—from values, from others, and from the work itself. This training offers a space to reflect, reconnect, and practice therapeutic approaches that support alignment and compassion in the face of these challenges.Holly Yates will introduce key strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) to help participants strengthen self-compassion and values-based action—both in their clinical practice and in the lives of those they serve. ACT supports values identification and committed action in the presence of difficult internal experiences, while FAP brings this process into the therapeutic relationship through moment-to-moment connection and shaping. Participants will explore when and how shame shows up and how to help clients develop self compassion and values-based living.
Participants will leave with
- A stronger foundation in ACT and FAP processes
- Effective skills to support self-compassion and values alignment
- Hands-on experience using the ACT matrix and FAP-based relational techniques
- Teach and shape connection with our clients and each other
- Processes to support clients to be in connection with others (vital in the “pandemic of loneliness”)
- Practical strategies to bring compassion into therapy, especially when it feels most difficult
Through a mix of teaching, experiential practice, and guided reflection, this workshop invites participants to meet shame and avoidance not as flaws to correct, but as human responses to pain.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the training participants will be able to:
- Name the six core processes of ACT and describe how they function.
- List and experience the five rules of FAP and ACL framework.
- Identify the three clinically relevant behaviors in FAP and how they function in a client’s life.
- Explain how the therapist-client relationship is the change agent in FAP.
- Conduct a functional analysis to explain how consequences drive behavior.
- Demonstrate how the ACT matrix works in moving through ACT’s 6 core processes.
- Explain how the FAP matrix works.
- Apply the FAP matrix to clinically relevant behaviors.
- Identify the basics of functional analysis.
- Identify the 5 rules of FAP.
- Explain what self-compassion is and is not.
- Integrate self-compassion therapeutically within ACT and FAP.
- Create a brief plan to return to values and compassion during moments of disconnection.
Presenters:
Trainer: Holly Yates MS, LCMHC, Certified Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) Trainer
Holly Yates has been in private practice in North Carolina since 2004. Her specialty areas are working with adults both individually and in groups as well as couples addressing depression, anxiety, mood disorders and life stressors through clinical intervention and skills training. Holly’s practice centers on third wave therapies most specifically Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She is a founding facilitator of the online ACT Peer Intervention Network sponsored through ACBS and a Certified FAP Trainer through University of Washington. Holly received supervision from Mavis Tsai, Ph.D., Robert Kohlenberg, PhD. (developers of FAP) and Gareth Holman PhD., in attaining her FAP certification and remains under their mentorship. She is currently under the mentorship and supervision of Matthieu Villatte, PhD. as she moves toward ACT Peer Review Trainer. Holly presents FAP and ACT workshops and trainings locally and around the country. Holly is Co-founder of North Wake Counseling Partners in Raleigh NC.
References:
- Burnette, C. B., & Davis, H. A. (2024). A case for integrating self‐compassion interventions targeting shame and self‐criticism into eating disorder treatment: Commentary on Paranjothy and Wade. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 57(8), 1642–1645. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.24220
- Cepni, A. B., Ma, H. Y., Irshad, A. M., Yoe, G. K., & Johnston, C. A. (2025). Addressing shame through self-compassion. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 19(2), 194–197. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276241292993
- Etemadi Shamsababdi, P., & Dehshiri, G. R. (2024). Self-compassion, anxiety and depression symptoms; the mediation of shame and guilt. Psychological Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941241227525
- Lear, M. K., & Luoma, J. B. (2025). A case study on transforming shame: The role of acceptance and commitment therapy in fostering psychological flexibility and self‐compassion. Journal of Clinical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23810
- Luoma, J. B., Kohlenberg, B. S., Hayes, S. C., & Fletcher, L. (2012). Slow and steady wins the race: A randomized clinical trial of acceptance and commitment therapy targeting shame in substance use disorders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80(1), 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026070
- ShamsAlam, B., Farahani, H., Watson, P., & Bagheri, S. (2025). A network approach to shame: The central roles of self-criticism, self-compassion and self-forgiveness in an aged-diverse sample. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 20, 100890.
UNC Chapel Hill – Clinical Institute Program