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ACT for Kids:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Adapted for Children


Working Version (August 13, 2002)

Amy R. Murrell and Kelly G. Wilson


University of Mississippi

**This protocol is under development. Do not distribute without


permission.

Any correspondence should be addressed to either: Amy R. Murrell,


205 Peabody Building, Psychology Department, University of Mississippi,
University, MS, 38655, amy_murrell@hotmail.com, or Kelly G. Wilson, 205
Peabody Building, Psychology Department, University of Mississippi, University,
MS, 38655, kwilson@olemiss.edu
Working Protocol (8 tentative sessions) for ACT Group with Children

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by Amy R. Murrell
Session One
5 minutes Simple ice-breaker that allows members to learn names of leader(s) and
other group members, e.g. name game where clap and snap while saying
names to the beat- also establish group behavior rules at this time

10 minutes Children given a worksheet to complete individually with the outline of


two adults (nonspecific gender) with thought/speech bubbles- instructed to
fill in the adults' thoughts and speech with what adults who are important
to them would think and do about the reasons that they are in the group-
get "problems" from parent/teacher perspective clear

15 minutes Group provided with one true-to-life-size outline of a person- collectively


fill in the outline with thoughts, feelings, memories, and behaviors that the
group sees as related to the reasons that they are in the group- get
"problems" from self perspective clear

15 minutes Centering exercise and ask what want from group- eyes closed, deep
breaths, get quiet, and ask about if could wave a magic wand- ask what
your life would look like, how you would feel, what would you be doing,
etc.

Come out of exercise and get volunteers to discuss and leader writes down
things that come up

5 minutes Mud exercise- tell about how it will be and use actual mud in glass

5 minutes Tell that it is important, especially since it will be so hard, to feel safe and
that means everyone has to agree to let everyone show their feelings and
has to promise not to talk about what other people say with anyone who is
not in the group-get promise

Session Two
10 minutes Write a story (or draw a picture if more comfortable) about all the things
that you and adults in your life have done to make the "problems" go
away- include in your story or picture how those things worked

30 minutes Divide into pairs take turns in front of group and act out or pretend to do
one of the things that you and the adults have tried and what happened
then-discuss with group as each pair role-plays

10 minutes Mule in the well-learn and discuss

5 minutes Review names, rules, etc.

Session Three

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by Amy R. Murrell
25 minutes Allow the group to look at a model brain or a picture of a brain and write
down and discuss the important things that our brains do, emphasize the
benefit of mind when it is useful, use protection from getting eaten story,
etc.- tell that minds are kind of like symbols for brains and ask for things
that we don't need our minds to figure out-provide examples (dancing,
playing ball, etc.) if needed- discuss what the children list and make
reference to experience of the difference of when minds are helpful and
when they are not

30 minutes Go over how to hunt for our minds working- tell that minds look for ways
that things or situations are like other things or situations, especially ones
that happened to you before or that you think might happen to you- tell
that minds talk a lot and try to tell you what to do- tell that minds will try
to tell you if something is good or bad for you to do- tell that minds will
talk about the same stuff over and over, etc.

Have children search the room for one way that minds are useful- tell
them they can get up and walk around, look and touch objects, etc. as long
as they follow group rules and are back in their places in five minutes or
less (set a timer)- go around group and get examples

Have the children search for one card each from cards that have been
hidden around the room- tell them that they have to find one card and
come back to the group in five minutes or less (set timer)- cards should
include questions that address ways that minds work when they are not
useful, for example, “What does your mind say to you if you make a bad
grade even after you studied?” or “What does your mind do when
someone else says that you are really smart?”- get examples and reactions

Session Four
45 minutes Briefly review that we need our minds for some things but not all- tell that
other times it is important to use something else to guide us: values

Talk about that there are some things that we need like food and some
things that we really want because we care a lot about them and they both
are very important

Allow the group to look at a model heart or a picture of a heart and write
down and discuss the important things that our hearts do- introduce vital
by discussing vital functions of the heart- it pumps blood and keeps you
alive, etc.

Place a box shaped like a heart symbol in the center of the group-talk
about how this kind of heart is a symbol kind of like the mind is like a
brain-say that this heart is about the experiences, feelings, memories, and
behaviors that go with things that keep you alive in a different way by

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by Amy R. Murrell
being really important to you not for keeping your body alive but for
keeping those things that you really want because you care about them a
lot- introduce that some things are the opposite of that like they poison or
ruin or even kill what is really important to you

Have group members write the things that they wrote about in their
stories, the things that they have done to "fix the problem" and put them
in either the heart-shaped box or a bottle with a poison label

Have group members write the things that they do, think, or feel that go
along with the magic wand we talked about and put those in either the box
or the bottle

5 minutes Say that the things that show up in our hearts are called our values, what
we really care about and give assignment to write down their values for
the next session- may need to give guidance like write who you really like
or love, what things you really love to do, what things you think are
important to do, etc.

Session Five
5 minutes Recap last session and say that we are using what we put in the heart and
wrote down on our assignments (our values) as our guide for the day

50 minutes Use a Velcro target-explain that the bulls-eye is like following your values
perfectly and living exactly like what is in your heart (can velcro the
papers that the children used in the heart exercise over the center of the
target to make more concrete)

Ask each child to write and share what they would have to do to live like
their values would have them do, emphasize specificity by telling them to
write and talk about the exact things that they would need to do to have
that value feel complete in their lives- Ask each child to individually come
up to the target and place a ball on it at the place that they actually are
from living those values, say something about if this is exactly right and
vital, how are you acting now- after the placement, discuss the distance
and what that means, how it affects them, others that they care about, etc.

Session Six
5 minutes Review mind and values distinction

45 minutes Play “ways of being” game- create a board with some squares for picking
question cards and some squares for picking action cards- tell children that
they are to take turns rolling a die and moving around the board and either
answering or role-playing, depending on the color square that they land
on- tell them that they may get one chip for each card that they answer or
act-out and that to earn a chip they must tell whether that thing that they

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by Amy R. Murrell
do or pretended to do makes them feel closer or further from their values,
emphasize that there is not a “right” or “better” answer- just what it feels
like in their hearts with respect to getting close to or far from what is
important to them (depending on how time progresses say that they have
to have five chips to go to the finish square) - cards should address ways
of being in certain situations, for example, a question card would say,
“What do you do when things are going really well for you?” or “How do
you act when you don’t get your way?” and action cards would address
common ways such as, “Act out being polite” or “Act out being cool”, etc.

Discuss reactions to game and process as play

Session Seven
30 minutes Ask collectively how the distance from values talked about in last session
during the game feels and ask for volunteers to discuss specifics

Ask collectively when you do those things that came up in the game, what
do other people do and get examples- explore and discuss as willing all
thoughts, feelings, memories connected to that-introduce protective factors
and costs as they arise

Ask children to close eyes and play a video in their heads about the last
time that they did one thing that showed up during the game (perhaps
guide group with common response or common feeling that elicits
response if there is such)- ask how did you feel, could you feel anything in
your body, how did your face look, what happened, what did the other
person do, how did it end up, did it work like you wanted it to, etc.

25 minutes Ask if those things feel vital by asking if they bring you closer to the
target or move you further from it- introduce the need to do other things
that do work when feels further-ask for ideas about what those other things
might be

Write two paragraph-long stories, ending in being exactly on target and


very far away- get examples to share the ending of stories with the group

Session Seven
25 minutes Discuss that you don't want to have the behaviors that put you off-target
but that the feelings that usually go with acting that way are really
important-tie to values listed by children and use examples of how the
ways of being are elicited by feelings of unworthy, alone, etc. and how
that relates to their value by using information from previous sessions

Key metaphor- have paper keys that each child will individually write or
draw on to represent the "negative" thoughts, feelings, memories that
he/she can relate to ways that they have acted

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by Amy R. Murrell
Review mule-in-the-well briefly

30 minutes Review distinctions of mind/not mind and vital/not vital by using


examples that were given in previous group

Tell that there is a difference between deciding and choosing-minds give


reasons to decide but values and vital are what guide choices

Ask children if willing to choose to move toward the bulls-eye by adding


new things to do/ways to act to what they do

Get verbal commitments from each child to the group about one specific
behavior to work on before the next session-get specifics about how that
would look, what they would have to do, how they would know that they
were doing it, etc.

Session Eight
10 minutes Review commitments of group by individually checking-in

10 minutes Get group members to agree to get other people in their lives “on their
team” or help them live what they value, emphasize that they may have to
“clean-up” with people that they have failed to keep promises or
agreements about their behavior with before

10 minutes Discuss that even when really commit, will still “mess-up some”,
emphasize that stuck is ok and that they can recommit

20 minutes Final commitment exercise- have kids share with the group what they
value, what they have been doing that makes them far away from that, and
what they will do to be closer to that

Page 6 of 6, ACT with Children and Adolescents Manual, v8-13-02, Copyright © 2003
by Amy R. Murrell

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