Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, Co-Founder of ACT

The Poetics of ACT: Finding Beauty in the Midst of Darkness

November 9–11, 2026 • Moab, Utah

12 APA-Approved CE Hours • The Red Earth Venue

Workshop Description

Something has shifted in the rooms where we do this work. Our clients carry what the world is carrying — and so do we. The question of how to remain present, how to stay open without being swept away, how to act with integrity when the ground is uncertain — these are not abstract clinical questions right now. They are the texture of the work itself. We chose Moab deliberately. There is something about the scale of canyon country — the deep time written in the rock, the quality of light, the particular silence — that creates conditions for a different kind of learning. Space to slow down. Room to see clearly.

Seeing clearly, though, is not simple. Human motivation is often opaque and rife with contradiction. We are shaped over time by the questions we encounter — some spoken plainly, others embedded in the quiet demands of family, work, love, and culture. Much of what we call identity emerges in response to those pressures. Although we are aware of some aspects of this shaping process, a great deal of learning and motivation occurs outside the bright, dumb light of awareness — in our clients, and in ourselves.

It is because so much of human experience unfolds outside awareness that the therapist's quality of attention matters. Poetics is a response to that complexity — a way of keeping the science answerable to the person it is meant to serve.

Within the therapy room, poetics can discipline our sensitivity to the tone, form, rhythms, textures, and unfolding of lived experience. A poetic stance does not rush to explanation or correction. Instead, it slows, listens, and follows the living structure of experience as it reveals itself in relationship. In that shared light — between therapist and client, teacher and student, human and human — complexity is not reduced but honored. When we are willing to remain present to uncertainty, without collapsing into the certainty of pedagogy or technique, paths appear that are dignified, meaningful, and worth the pain they require. Poetics, in this sense, names the creative and ethical discipline of staying with what is alive long enough for transformation to arrive.

This workshop will approach ACT as the lived practice of a poetic stance, rather than protocol. It will be experiential and creative. Work with self and identity will be woven throughout acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, values, and committed action — not as an add-on, but as a central thread. We will examine these processes from the inside out.

Although this workshop is not an introduction to ACT, it will be conducted in plain language, with an emphasis on staying close to lived experience. No prior background in ACT is required. For those familiar with ACT, the workshop will deepen understanding of core principles and expand the capacity to use them flexibly in the service of therapeutic connection. The workshop is appropriate for beginners and veteran therapists alike.

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