CV

Ellen Excelmans is a licensed clinical psychologist and a contextual behavioural therapist. She is the president of the Flemish Association for Behavioural Therapy (VVGT) and participates in several workforces of the Flemish Association of Clinical Psychologists (VVKP). She combines her work in a private practice (De Braam) with a crisis-unit of a general hospital (GZA Sint-Vincentius). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) came on her way in 2005 and she trained and supervised multiple psychologists in this model. She also developed an app that can be used in combination with an ACT-therapy: Learn2ACT.

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT

WTF? What’s The Function of an addiction?
People with substance use disorders rarely suffer from an addiction alone. Comorbidity with anxiety, depression, PTSD and personality disorders is very high. Treating all these diagnoses separately is not recommended. We need a transdiagnostic model to deal with all these problems simultaneously. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT offers here a solution. ACT is a process-based psychotherapy which combines mindfulness with behavioural interventions. This presentation will explore how different symptoms can be explained within the 6 core processes of ACT: experiential avoidance, lack of clear values, fusion with unworkable thoughts, attention deficits, problematic self and passivity/impulsivity.