Less Avoiding, More Doing: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workshop for Chronic “Later‑ers”
Master Clinician 4 - Less Avoiding, More Doing: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workshop for Chronic “later‑ers”
Saturday, June 27, 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM PDT
Location: Yerba Buena Salon 2, B3 Level
Earn 2 Credit
Keywords: ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), Transdiagnostic, Anxiety Level of Familiarity: All Recommended Readings: Zurita Ona, P. E. (2021). The ACT workbook for the anxious procrastinator: How to accept yourself, get things done, and do more of what matters. Jennifer Kingsley Publisher., Harris, R. (2007). The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. Boston, MA: Trumpeter / Shambhala., Stoddard, J. A. (2020). Imposter No More: Overcome Self-Doubt and Imposterism to Cultivate a Successful Career. Balance Publications., ,
Director East Bay Behavior Therapy Center Walnut Creek, California, United States
Procrastination is a psychological struggle in therapy, with far-reaching consequences for clients’ careers, studies, friendships, and overall well-being (Rozental & Carlbring, 2014; Glick & Orsillo, 2015).
In this workshop, we’ll explore a contextual-functional perspective and unpack the psychological process behind procrastination behaviors. We'll go beyond the cliche messages of "just get things done, get better at time management, or use post-its as reminders." Instead, we'll focus on acceptance and change-based skills - derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - to help clients get things done, build new patterns of workable behaviors, and compassionately accept themselves as they are, not as they wish to be (Gilbert, P., & Procter, S. (2006).
Specific skills will be presented to guide clients in nourishing compassionate accountability, unhooking from problematic reasons and rules (Scent & Boes, 2014), managing self-criticism, dealing with overwhelming emotions, starting simple and complex tasks, staying focused, and approaching deadlines.
Through case vignettes, experiential exercises, and role-plays, participants will learn contextual-functional interventions to tackle all types of procrastinating behaviors.
Learning Objectives:
Describe the six psychological drivers of chronic procrastination from a contextual‑functional perspective.
Guide clients in developing compassionate accountability while still taking responsibility for their public and private behaviors.
Use a single metaphor in session to help a client differentiate between primary pain and secondary pain related to procrastinating behaviors.
Implement two compassion‑focused strategies to help clients respond more skillfully when approaching task demands.
Use a single metaphor in session to help a client differentiate between primary pain and secondary pain related to procrastinating behaviors.
