Yucky Stuff
with Tina Long
Behavior Bites Podcast - Episode 06Jan 25, 2023What does yucky stuff mean to you?
In today’s show— Tina and I chat about being aggressively neutral and how we can incorporate psychological flexibility in all aspects of our lives.
Tina Long is an instructional designer, behaviorist, coach, crisis manager, and is a Certified ACT/ProSocial Matrix Facilitator, and an ACES Trainer.
Excerpts from the Episode
(*Paraphrased highlights)-
Yucky stuff comes from the ACT matrix which was created by Dr. Kevin Polk as a visual process for psychological flexibility… Yucky stuff is the yucky thoughts, feelings, or just sensations that show up on the inside of humans like: fear, being tired, sick, anxious… stuff that we would prefer to avoid; not eat, not experience, not smell, not have, and stuff we would move away from, or push our plate away, or shove to the edge of the plate because we don't want to eat it.
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I often say that if I've done nothing good in my career, it was one thing that I did to help a learner who wanted to interact with other humans. They were in high school and would just stop in front of people and stare, and wait for the person to initiate an interaction.
Other professionals had tried to do communication devices or forced them to speak because there was vocal language that would come out, just not in public in front of other people.
I thought, what about a business card? What if we just put, “Hi, my name is ___, have a great day,” and these parents were willing to try it.
The individual would walk up and hand it to a person, and many times there was an initial reaction of like, what are you handing me? Once they saw it and noticed it was really positive, it even brightened up their days.
The individual started carrying their own wallet and making sure it was packed with the cards, and it really opened up a lot of experiences and created comfort for people around them.
Then COVID hit and they weren’t able to get close enough to hand out cards anymore…
ABOUT Tina
Tina Long, M.Ed, BCBA, LBA, IBA, Educational Behaviorist (she/her)
* Check out her trainings at: TheSortingSchool.com and TeachMeACT.com.
* Connect with her on Instagram: @learn_with_tlc or Facebook.Tina Long has been in the education field for over 20 years - even longer if you count the days of her childhood where she lined up her stuffed animals to be students and recruited her friends at daycare to play school. She has worked in public schools, family homes, community based, and clinic settings to provide high quality instruction and behavior interventions across the lifespan (toddlers to senior citizens).
Tina works to promote Psychological Flexibility with acceptance and commitment training and Psychological Safety with prosocial, shared purpose communication training.
Tina holds a Masters of Education from George Mason University, along with graduate certificates in Applied Behavior Analysis and Assistive Technology. She was certified as a behavior analyst in 2013, is a Certified ACT/ProSocial Matrix Facilitator, and an ACES Trainer.
She has contributed as an author on multiple books including:
- Your Inner Game for Executive Coaching and Crisis Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Collaboration, Success, and Relief from Burnout
- From RFT to Verbal Aikido: Turning Sticky Words into Peaceful Actions With the ACT Matrix
- Matrix Mind Stretch! An Activity Book for Psychological Flexibility using the ACT Matrix
- How To Build and Market Your Business with The ACT Matrix Academy: 10 Steps for Building and Marketing a Sustainable Business (with Your Imposter Syndrome) that Protects Your Time and Health
- Coaching for Individuals with The ACT Matrix
Tina also hosted a 13 episode podcast series titled The Burnout Battle.
Visit my Podcast page to learn more about Behavior Bites!
