This training explores the self-doubt many clinicians experience — feeling like you should know more, questioning decisions, or overthinking mistakes. Using a behavioral and ACT-informed lens, participants will learn practical strategies to respond more flexibly to difficult thoughts, stay grounded in their values, evaluate competence boundaries, and continue growing without needing perfection or certainty first.

Too often, progress stalls not because parents aren’t capable, but because BCBAs haven’t found a way to truly partner with them. Real change takes more than clinical skill. It takes collaboration. The ACT Matrix offers a clear, practical tool to transform caregiver consultation: uncover values, align goals, and empower families to act. Learn to use it to spark conversation and develop meaningful goals.

Learning Objectives 1. Identify the four functions of behavior (escape, attention, access, sensory) and the limits of relying on function alone. 2. Describe six core yearnings—belonging, competence, coherence, self-directed meaning, orientation, feeling—through an ACT-informed lens. 3. Examine an assessment tool for evaluating how core yearnings show up for clients, for a more neuroaffirming picture of the behavior.