Moving The Field Forward

By Beverly Baker, MBA
PACT Institute Executive Director

Are you curious about what goes on behind the scenes? About how events are produced or what goes into an art exhibition? As a logistics nerd, I am just as fascinated by the process as the result. Any event I attend, from art galleries to sporting events, intrigues me not only by what it is but, just as importantly, by how something can be presented in its best light.

This holistic view deepens my appreciation of a well-executed event. When I see a less than thoughtful display, it takes me out of the experience. One of my biggest pet peeves is a thick ornate gold frame that dominates rather than highlights a piece of art. It is a distraction and negatively impacts my experience and the true star, the work itself. 

Watching the Olympics and Paralympics with my family this year gave me fuel for my logistical curiosity. From field prep to crowd management, I was in awe. But it was logistics in the form of support given to athletes, the true stars, that caught my attention. Observing the quick mat wipe-downs between rounds of boxing and judo to ensure safety. Watching how a coach spotted a gymnast on the uneven bars, and how smoothly they left after the most dangerous moves were completed. The list goes on.

Leveraging PACT Like the Olympic and Paralympics Pros

My husband Brian and I marveled at the Paralympic competitors and how they adapted to make a sport their own. The executive director in me also soaked up the activities of the logistical teams, managers, and even spectators. They all had a supporting role in leveling the playing field.

• Some swimmers opted into receiving light taps via a pole to the shoulder from their coaches to signal the end of the pool.
• Guide runners sprinted with visually impaired Paralympians to the finish line.
• A respectful quietness of the crowd during blind soccer allowed players to focus on the ball and each other. 

As I watched how the athletes were supported, both in policy and practice, I was inspired to keep asking myself, “How, as the executive director of the PACT Institute, can I leverage our administrative team to support clinicians in our trainings?”

We have initiated abundant PACT efforts over the last several years – and we still have room to grow. As an institute, we want to reflect not just the field of couples therapy but also support the expanding range of clients who turn to PACT clinicians for help. 

Addressing PACT’s Vulnerabilities

In June of this year, we hosted a diversity, equity, and inclusivity brainstorming session and invited any and all from the PACT community to attend. We are grateful to the folks who came and shared their experiences and expertise. If you are interested in the conversation, you can view my notes from the discussion here (it has been lightly edited to protect the identity of some who spoke vulnerably about specific experiences).

Two main areas that we discussed in that meeting were: 

• The PACT model
• Organizational structure and policies at the PACT Institute

The PACT Model

The PACT model, almost by definition, has access challenges. There are things we can’t control, like the U.S. model for healthcare, and plenty we can control. 

As one person commented in the meeting, “The PACT frame is not built for the financial realities of a shorter time frame.” We recognize that and want to make PACT more financially and temporally accessible for anyone who wants access to the PACT model of therapy. Stan is currently working on ways to do PACT in the usual 50 minutes, and some of our PACT certified clinicians have already been making progress on this. If you would like to be a part of that conversation, please email me and I’ll put you in touch with the right people!

Another important point raised in the brainstorming session was the challenge for visually impaired PACT clinicians to observe their clients physical reactions and changes during sessions. We received great insight on this challenge and are currently working on how best to integrate visually impaired clinicians into the PACT model.

Over the years we have updated the PACT model based on your feedback: the manual and training slides have been updated to indicate “partner A” and “partner B” rather than assuming gender. In fact, we’ve updated all PACT written material to be more gender neutral. When PACT was identified as not being poly-friendly in the book, polysecure, Stan reached out to the author to expand the model for these scenarios. A replay of their recent conversation is available in the PACT+ subscriber library. 

PACT’s Ongoing Improvements

We are currently in the early stages of creating more opportunities for PACT students, PACT certified clinicians, and PACT faculty to contribute to the model. We want the organization and the PACT model to reflect you and the communities you serve!

Organizational Structure and Policies

As the executive director of the PACT Institute, this is where I can really get to work.

In watching the Olympics and Paralympics, I kept asking myself, “How can we provide support to folks with different abilities, access points, and lived experiences so they can shine?” Said another way, what are those leverage points that will allow us to set the goal then get out of the way so the clinician can shine?

Again, the answer primarily points to access. Even after taking our training online, the folks we talk to say there are still barriers to access further training. Time commitment and cost seem to be the biggest hurdles. While our Level 1 training is still four weekends long, we have reorganized it. The goal is to not feel rushed but to have time for difficult conversations about diversity, trauma, and other issues as needs arise. 

While prices all around us keep going up, we have kept the price of training the same. We continue to look for ways to mitigate costs for you. Currently, our efforts include revamping PACT scholarships so they go to students with the most need and serving the most marginalized clients, offering SAM reimbursement for government employees, and adding low cost CE-earning workshops on specialty topics. 

Aiming for Equity on All Levels

In 2025, our Level 1 experience will have more options for participants who are visually and hearing impaired. We’ve revamped our prerecorded videos to ensure they have closed captioning and are available in Spanish. Both are now options for live training as well. We’re now also including the manual and other written materials in Spanish and are collaborating with Zoom to identify hotkeys and shortcuts to support the visually impaired. 

Also in Level 1, we now share inclusion training material for both coaches and students on unconscious bias that includes a range of individual topics: ageism, religion, disability, race, sexuality, and gender. We also require anyone becoming certified PACT clinicians, which is a prerequisite for becoming a faculty member, to participate in training on inclusivity. This is an ongoing PACT priority. An important part of our policy as an organizational structure is to ensure that our coaches and faculty are sensitive to the needs of all students. 

Another barrier to training? The fear of being an “only other” in PACT training and seeing a lack of diversity among faculty and coaches. A few years ago when we started making our first attempts to be more diverse and inclusive in PACT trainings, we made a number of mistakes. My heart broke when one meeting attendee shared their experience as the “only other” in that training. The training was uncomfortable for them, but they muscled through. 

We don’t want anyone to have to “muscle through” again!

By 2022, we created a whole new role of PACT training manager. This role was developed to support the logistics of the training and to support students during the training. Evie Hunter is our training manager and works with students to ensure their success. As one of her early initiatives, she created guidelines on in-training affinity groups. Some of her initiatives this year include working with visually impaired students on accessing training materials and supporting students who require accommodations for religious observances. If you require support accommodations during training, contact Evie with your questions. Let’s collaborate and come up with a plan!

We do recognize that our current PACT faculty isn't representative of our current PACT students. We're actively working to change that. We are proud of our teaching faculty, and we want to add more diversity to the PACT faculty and overall leadership. And, we still see stumbling blocks. As we meet each week and reflect on how we’re doing as a team, we only recently realized a mistake that has been thwarting this goal. We put a lot of thought and effort into scholarships for Level 1 and Level 2. But it wasn’t until this summer’s masterclass snuck up on us that we realized we haven’t offered scholarships for the masterclass or for Level 3 training. 

Big oversight. 

Your Feedback Matters

Since training to become a PACT instructor takes years of professional development, we’ve identified the masterclass and Level 3 as two leverage points that can help folks get there faster. We want to get any barriers out of the way so we can make these goals sooner and scholarships are one way to help do that. To support the aims of a more diverse faculty, we are reducing the barriers to access in 2025 and beyond. We also value the feedback we’ve received from independent affinity groups who provide the Institute with feedback on ways we can support the communities they serve. We appreciate their trust and the open dialogue. 

Being inspired by the logistics of the Olympics and in particular the Paralympics was a game changer for me and Team PACT. In our view, reaching more inclusivity at the PACT Institute is a worthy aim. While a physical challenge may be visually obvious during an athletic competition, at the PACT Institute we understand that folks come to training with a range of their own potential challenges from language barriers, being an “only other” in a room, sense impairments, and needs for religious accommodations. 

Are we where we want to be? No, but we’ve come far, and we’re ready to go further. By hearing from you, we continue to expand the PACT model and policies that support the Institute. If you have thoughts, questions, or comments about our efforts, please reach out to me directly.