The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant stress and anxiety for many parents around the world. Psychological flexibility and self-care are fundamental aspects of psychological health. For parents, shaping these processes may help promote family nurturance, support children's prosocial behavior, and provide effective and consistent use of evidence-based parenting "kernels." The goal of this article is to provide practitioners with evidence-based tools that will support psychological flexibility, self-care, and positive parenting behaviors in caregivers during COVID-19 and beyond.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant stress and anxiety for many parents around the world. Psychological flexibility and self-care are fundamental aspects of psychological health (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). For parents, shaping these processes may help promote family nurturance, support children’s prosocial behavior, and provide effective and consistent use of evidence-based parenting “kernels”. The goal of this article is to provide practitioners with evidence-based tools that will support psychological flexibility, self-care, and positive parenting behaviors in caregivers during COVID-19 and beyond.

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In comparison to a more traditional diagnostic-based assessment, the contextual behavioral science (CBS) approach focuses more broadly on the function of behaviors within a given context. A CBS assessment explores patterns of experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, while the corresponding intervention encourages psychological flexibility and values-based action. Through recurrent assessment and case conceptualization, clinicians can assess and identify which ACT processes to target in treatment in order to shape psychological flexibility. Included in this article are a review of formal measurement and case formulation tools that support the assessment and treatment planning process, and a discussion of newer approaches to assessment, including application of clinical relational frame theory and evolutionary approaches.