What I Learned at ACBS world conference 2025 Day 1: ACT, Self-Compassion, and Contextual Science
✨ Reflections from ACBS WorldCon 2025 ✨
I had the honor of attending the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Conference in New Orleans, and I’m still buzzing with gratitude and inspiration. Here are the biggest takeaways from each of the incredible sessions I attended:
Idionomics: One Size Fits None
Dr. Baljinder Sahdra’s powerful plenary reminded me that honoring individual variation is not a statistical nuisance—it’s the heart of compassionate care. Let’s rethink what evidence-based means. Group averages don’t tell individual stories. Idionomics offers a way to capture real human diversity in therapy by analyzing people’s lived data—not just randomized controlled trials.
Acknowledgment of Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences (NSEs)
I was deeply moved by research that explored the complex layers of acknowledging sexual harm—from survivor to person causing harm, or both. I learned more inclusive language like DNSE (dual nonconsensual sexual experience) and explored how people’s relationship to their experiences matters as much as the label itself.
🗣️ Acknowledgment isn’t black and white—it’s contextual, complex, and deeply personal.
Social Work SIG Luncheon
A powerful gathering of social workers from across the globe. We shared ideas for future collaborations and how to center social justice in our private practices.
🌍 Private practice can still be purpose-driven.
Mastering Creative Hopelessness (Rikke Kjelgaard)
This was glittery greatness. I learned how to compassionately help clients let go of control strategies that don’t serve them. It’s not about removing pain—it’s about helping clients change their relationship with it. With warmth, humor, and metaphors that stick, Rikke reminded us:
🐄 “We’re the only species that keeps our butt on the electric fence.”
🎶 And that repetition is the mother of all learning.
Social ACT: Therapy for the Spaces Between Us (Megan Kelly & Maria Karekla)
This session taught me how ACT can be used to improve connection—through social committed action, mindfulness, and self-compassion practices. I loved the tantruming kids in the backseat metaphor—our difficult thoughts can come along for the ride, but they don’t get to steer the car.
→ Favorite quote: “What kind of coach do you want to be for yourself?”
Lessons About the Brain (Lisa Feldman Barrett)
This blew my mind: The brain doesn’t react—it predicts, regulates, and updates. Emotion is constructed, not automatic.
🔮 You’re not just “feeling” emotions—you’re predicting them based on your body and past. Even thirst takes 20 minutes to register.
💥 So much knowledge, and that was just Day 1.
And in between all the learning? Connection, laughter, and a renewed commitment to doing meaningful work, guided by values and fueled by compassion. The NOLA backdrop could not have been more warm and welcoming. The outpouring of kindness, love, and creativity embraces you from the minute you arrive.
💛 To everyone I met, learned from, and shared space with—thank you. I left feeling not only more knowledgeable, but more compassionate and connected to others as well as to myself.
🌟 What I’m Taking Home
Embrace nuance in lived experience
Reframe what it means to grow
Slow down and stay in process
Let go of fixing—move toward meaning
#ACBS2025 #ACT #ContextualScience #MentalHealthMatters #CreativeHopelessness #TraumaInformedCare #TherapistLife #SocialWork #Idionomics #HealingThroughConnection #Acceptance #Commitment #Therapy
