Morning All!

We are excited to announce that the first book to be published under the RIACT Press label is set to release on November 1st!! by none other then our own Todd Schmenk!

It is set to release on November 1st, 2026.

You can pre-order this book here

Paperback version will be available on November 1st as well.

Here is more about this book:

The Art Is in the Moment

You know the six core processes. You’ve used the metaphors, taught the exercises, and watched Acceptance and Commitment Therapy transform the work you do.

The Subtle Essence of ACT is for clinicians ready to move beyond simply doing ACT and into the deeper work of embodying it.

Featuring a foreword by Steven C. Hayes, PhD, originator and co-developer of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, this book returns ACT to its living center: function, context, process, and the moment-to-moment interaction between therapist and client.

Todd J. Schmenk, LMHC, ACBS Peer-Reviewed ACT Trainer, invites clinicians to look beneath familiar ACT terms and interventions to the clinical stance that makes the work effective. Rather than treating ACT as a collection of metaphors, exercises, or scripts, this book explores how acceptance, defusion, values, self-as-context, present-moment awareness, and committed action come alive in the subtle details of therapy: a pause, a breath, a shift in posture, a moment of silence, or the clinician’s own urge to fix.

Grounded in Functional Contextualism and Relational Frame Theory, The Subtle Essence of ACT emphasizes clinical flexibility, idiographic attention, supervision, and the careful reading of function as it unfolds in real time.

Inside, clinicians will learn to:

  • Use themselves as instruments of change
  • Recognize function in the smallest clinical moments
  • Notice when technique becomes ritual instead of treatment
  • Shape language to evoke rather than merely explain
  • Track behavioral patterns across time and context
  • Distinguish values-based movement from therapist-pleasing compliance
  • Bring ACT principles into supervision, training, and clinical community

Written for therapists, supervisors, trainees, and ACT-informed practitioners, this book is especially useful for clinicians who want to deepen their ACT practice without losing their own voice, relational style, or existing clinical wisdom.

This is ACT as a way of practicing, not just a set of things to do.

You know the map. Now step into the territory.