Clinical Conversation

Guest: Jennifer Caspari, PhD
Live: Wednesday, August 19, 2026 from 1:00 PM Central
Demand: Replay available 7 days after the live event

Your client is doing everything you've asked. They show up. They process. They use coping skills. But the pain is still there. The fatigue is still there. And somewhere in the middle of a session, you can see it on their face: "If therapy were working, wouldn't I feel better by now?"

Most of us were trained to help clients reduce symptoms. And for many presentations, that's the right goal. But when the symptoms are tied to a body that isn't going to fully cooperate, whether it's chronic pain, chronic fatigue, autoimmune conditions, or unresolved medical issues, that framework starts to break down. Clients start to feel like they're failing at therapy. And honestly? You might start to wonder if you're failing them.

This conversation is about a different path forward. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) doesn't ask clients to get rid of their pain or pretend it isn't there. It helps them build a life that matters even when the pain comes along for the ride. And for clinicians working with chronic health populations, that shift in frame changes everything about how you show up in the room.

In this conversation, we'll explore:

• Why traditional symptom-reduction models often stall or backfire when the body's symptoms are chronic, and what ACT offers instead
• How psychological flexibility works in practice, and why it's the skill set that predicts better outcomes for clients living with ongoing pain and illness
• Concrete ways to help clients identify their values and take meaningful action, even on high-pain days or in the middle of a flare
• What acceptance actually looks like in session (and why it's not giving up, even though clients often hear it that way at first)
• How to recognize when a client's struggle to control their internal experience is creating more suffering than the experience itself
• How working with chronic pain and illness clients using ACT can also lower your own stress and help you stay grounded in this work long-term

If you've ever felt stuck with a client whose pain isn't going away, this conversation is your reset. You'll walk away with a clearer framework for helping clients stop fighting their body and start living their life, and a more grounded sense of your own role when "getting better" doesn't mean "symptom-free."

Jennifer Caspari, PhD, is a Licensed/Registered Psychologist in British Columbia and Colorado who specializes in evidence-based psychotherapy for adults living with chronic pain, chronic fatigue, insomnia, health anxiety, cancer, and other ongoing health concerns. Her clinical approach is collaborative, warm, and grounded in helping clients gain awareness of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and then translate that awareness into meaningful, values-driven changes in daily life.

Dr. Caspari has extensive training in CBT, CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I), CBT for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Behavioral Activation, and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). She is the creator and instructor of a national chronic pain course with PESI, bringing continuing education on effective chronic pain treatment to mental health professionals across the United States.

Dr. Caspari lives with mild cerebral palsy and writes a Psychology Today blog titled Living Well When Your Body Doesn't Cooperate. She is also the author of You Are More Than Your Body: 30+ Evidence-Based Strategies for Living Well with Chronic Illness, published by North Atlantic Books in June 2025.

She earned her PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Denver, completed internship training at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System with a focus on behavioral medicine and health psychology, and completed post-doctoral training in psycho-oncology at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute.