Polk, K. L., Schoendorff, B., Webster, M., & Olaz, F. O. (2016). The essential guide to the ACT matrix: A step-by-step approach to Using the ACT matrix model in clinical practice. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
The ACT Matrix revolutionized contextual behavioral science. Now, the creators of this pioneering new model present the first detailed, step-by-step guide to help professionals implement the ACT Matrix in clinical practice and improve clients' psychological flexibility.
The Essential Guide To The ACT Matrix: A Step-by-Step Approach To Using The ACT Matrix Model In Clin
If you're a clinician, you know that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is extremely effective in helping clients who are "stuck" in unhealthy thought patterns by encouraging them align their values with their thoughts and actions. However, the ACT model is complex, and it's not always easy to use. Enter the ACT Matrix, a seamless fusion of the six core processes of the ACT hexaflex--cognitive defusion, acceptance, contact with the present moment, observing the self, values, and committed action--into a simplified, easy-to-apply approach.
From the editors of The ACT Matrix, The Essential Guide to the ACT Matrix offers professionals a comprehensive guide to using the innovative Matrix model in-session. With this book, you'll learn how to help your clients break free from painful psychological traps and live more meaningful lives. You'll also learn how client actions and behavior should be viewed as workable or unworkable, rather than good or bad. Most importantly, you'll discover how this unique approach can be used to deliver ACT more effectively in a variety of settings and contexts, even when clients are resistant or unmotivated to participate.
In this workshop you get to practice the six-step approach to doing ACT with the matrix, a proven, highly effective approach to clinical practice, which has even been shown to be more effective than traditional ACT in a randomized controlled trial study for treating borderline personality disorder.
Cardiovascular (CV) toxicity is among the major causes of withdrawal of drugs or restriction in their labeling and has had an impact on public health and the rising cost of developing new drugs. Early identification and characterization of CV liabilities, better understanding of the predictive values of nonclinical models, and an integrated and iterative approach during drug development could greatly facilitate the development of safe and effective medicines for patients. This course will describe the current in vitro and in vivo methods for evaluation of functional and structural CV liabilities, and discuss the strategies that can be applied at early stages of drug development to help reduce attrition and to avoid unanticipated liabilities at later development stages in either animal studies or in the clinic. Study design and data interpretation will be discussed, as well as the advantages, limitations, and future directions of current methods involving both functional and structural assessments. Specific topics such as integration of functional CV endpoints into repeat-dose toxicity studies, methods for identification and characterization of cardiac arrhythmia, and special considerations for testing oncology and diabetes drugs and biologics will be covered. In addition, case study examples will be provided to highlight how these data can be used to inform decisions at different stages of development. A regulatory perspective on the challenges and gaps of CV safety evaluations and opportunities available to improve the overall CV safety assessment paradigm will also be presented. Overall, this course will provide participants with a broad overview of the types of drug-induced CV liabilities, the current nonclinical strategies and methodologies for early detection of CV liabilities, and a regulatory perspective on the impact of CV toxicity on the drug-development process.
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have become an integral part of numerous consumer products, cosmetics, building materials, medical devices, therapeutic agents, and environmental remediation. Global demand for nanomaterials and nano-enabled devices has been projected to surpass $3.1 trillion by 2015. The widespread use of nanotechnology-derived products presents opportunities for intentional and unintentional exposure to ENMs. The size and size-dependent novel physical and chemical properties that make ENMs unique compared to micro-scale products of similar chemical composition makes it difficult to determine their interaction with biological matrices. The recent flood of toxicology literature without proper physical and chemical characterization of ENMs proposes adverse to no health effects for certain common ENMs such as carbon nanotubes and metal oxide nanoparticles. The course will provide an overview of the issues facing nanotechnology that the scientific community must grapple with in regard to predicting toxicity and biological outcomes associated with nanoscale properties and the need to identify and integrate novel approaches for safety of ENMs. To begin, focus will be placed on the importance of incorporating physical and chemical characteristics of ENMs in interpreting biological data; high throughput in vitro approaches using multiple parameters to classify ENMs toxicity profile will then be covered. Altered proteomic profiles in a model in vitro system to understand molecular alterations will be explored. Finally, the interpretation of data from in vivo studies using inhalational routes of exposure will be discussed. The goal of this course is to encourage both the novice and the toxicologist trained in conventional toxicity assessment to think outside the box to design rational toxicology studies in evaluating the safety of ENMs that are currently in use, and to develop models to predict potential toxicity of second and third generation ENMs.
The study of toxicant-induced epigenetic modifications is greatly expanding in complexity and scope as new tools of measuring these changes become available. Fundamental questions (e.g., how best to quantify changes) become enigmatic with DNA methylation, histone modifications, and microRNA epigenetic modifications that can affect imprinted, coding, non-coding, and global regions of the genome. Understanding these questions is important in interpreting species/strain-specific responses. This advanced course is a practical guide to techniques used in epigenetic research with respect to toxicology for in vivo/ex vivo screening of rodent models, post-fertilization, embryos, developmental biology, and human disease states. Topics range from advancements in techniques to screening strategies and tools, and include techniques to correlate epigenetic changes to gene expression and apical end points, use of imprinted genes as biomarkers, and profiling DNA methylation in human population-based research. For screening tools to determine species-specific responses, a variety of novel technologies will be analyzed such as epigenomic profiling of DNA methylation in mouse tumors, pyrosequencing to examine the activity of endogenous retroviruses (e.g., IAP), and assays to explore miRNA and histone modification changes. In addition, cutting edge techniques such as deep sequencing technologies of bisulfite-converted DNA will be discussed as these have enabled the characterization of methylation changes at the genome level; however, the significant challenge in using this technology is dealing with the massive amount of information obtained and making sense of the observed methylation changes. Scientists in academia, industry, and government will leave this course with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of available epigenetic tools, how these tools can be best used in screening and mode-of-action experiments, as well as insight into future potential of mechanistic epigenetic toxicology.
Analyzes computational needs of clinical medicine reviews systems and approaches that have been used to support those needs, and the relationship between clinical data and gene and protein measurements. Topics: the nature of clinical data; architecture and design of healthcare information systems; privacy and security issues; medical expertsystems; introduction to bioinformatics. Case studies and guest lectures describe contemporary systems and research projects. Term project using large clinical and genomic data sets integrates classroom topics.
We conducted an exploratory qualitative study using semistructured interviews and focus groups with PEs and people living with diabetes and/or hypertension. Interviews were recorded and conducted in Khmer script, transcribed and translated into the English language, and uploaded into Atlas.ti for analysis. We used a thematic analysis to identify key facilitators and barriers to disease management and opportunities for mHealth content and format. The information-motivation-behavioral model was used to guide data collection, analysis, and message development.
We used the information-motivation-behavioral (IMB) theoretical framework [30] to guide data collection and mHealth message development. The IMB is a well-established behavior change model that has been applied to other diabetes self-management interventions to improve clinical and care outcomes [31,32]. Figure 1 shows our modified IMB model for this study. The IMB suggests three main determinants of starting and maintaining health behaviors: (1) accurate information (which includes reducing misinformation) that can be easily translated into health behavior changes, (2) personal and social motivation to act on this information, and (3) behavioral skills to implement the health behavior with confidence and effectiveness [30]. Our study will gather information on facilitators and barriers to chronic disease management to craft mHealth messages that can improve knowledge, motivation, and skills for self-management. Improving these three behavioral determinants can then improve chronic disease care (medication adherence, regular monitoring of blood pressure and glucose, regular doctor consultations, and regular visits with PEs) and ultimately clinical outcomes (controlled blood pressure and blood sugar). In addition, improved health outcomes can in turn motivate people to maintain change, which may reduce intervention fatigue and improve the sustainability of the intervention. 2ff7e9595c
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