Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Understanding and Applying the Six Core Processes
A two-part, on-demand professional training for therapists and counsellors
When understanding isn't enough to create change
As therapists, we often work with clients who have developed considerable insight into their difficulties but still find themselves caught in familiar patterns. They may understand why they become anxious, recognise their self-critical thinking or know that avoidance is limiting their lives. Yet they continue to struggle with the same thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Sometimes, helping someone think differently is only part of the work. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers another way of helping clients develop psychological flexibility, change their relationship with difficult internal experiences and take meaningful action, even when discomfort is present.
In this practical two-part training, I'll introduce you to the six core processes of ACT and explore how they can be used within your existing therapeutic approach.
You don't need to become an ACT therapist to benefit from ACT.
emphasis is on understanding the principles behind the model, recognising when its processes might be helpful and developing the confidence to begin integrating them into your clinical work.
What ACT can bring to your therapeutic practice
ACT is built around the development of psychological flexibility: the capacity to remain aware of our experiences, respond to them with greater openness and choose actions that reflect what matters to us.
Rather than making the elimination of difficult thoughts and feelings the central goal, ACT explores whether the way a person is responding to those experiences is helping them live the life they want. For example, a client may understand that their fear of rejection is excessive but continue avoiding relationships. Another may recognise that their self-critical thoughts are unhelpful yet still behave as though those thoughts are unquestionably true.
ACT offers practical ways of working with these patterns. It can be particularly useful when clients are caught up in repetitive thinking, struggling to control their emotions, avoiding uncomfortable experiences or finding it difficult to take action towards meaningful goals.
For therapists already working with REBT or CBT, ACT provides an additional perspective that can complement existing interventions.
Throughout the training, we'll explore the similarities and differences between these approaches, with an emphasis on thoughtful integration rather than allegiance to any one model.
What you'll explore across the two workshops
Part One: Psychological Flexibility, Awareness, Acceptance and Defusion
Our first workshop introduces the foundations of ACT and explores four of its six core processes.
We'll look at how psychological inflexibility develops and how clients can become caught in struggles with their own thoughts and emotions.
You'll explore:
•Present-moment awareness: Helping clients notice what's happening internally and externally, and respond with greater choice rather than operating on autopilot.
•Self-as-context: Introducing the observing self and helping clients develop a different relationship with the stories they hold about who they are. •Acceptance and willingness: Understanding experiential avoidance and helping clients make room for difficult emotions without allowing them to dictate behaviour.
•Cognitive defusion: Practical ways of helping clients become less entangled with thoughts, rules, predictions and self-judgements.
We'll also explore the ACT concept of workability, including how to help clients recognise when their attempts to control or avoid difficult experiences are actually maintaining their difficulties.
Throughout the workshop, you'll encounter experiential exercises, metaphors and clinical examples that demonstrate how these processes can be introduced into therapeutic conversations.
Part Two: Values, Committed Action and the ACT Matrix
In our second workshop, we turn our attention to helping clients reconnect with what matters to them and translate that understanding into meaningful behaviour.
We'll explore:
•Values clarification: Helping clients discover personally meaningful directions for their lives and distinguish values from goals, expectations and rigid rules.
•Committed action: Supporting clients to take realistic, values-guided steps, even when difficult thoughts and emotions are present.
•The function of behaviour: Understanding the difference between what a client does and what that behaviour is doing for them.
•The ACT Matrix: A practical tool for helping clients recognise towards and away moves, understand patterns of avoidance and identify opportunities for meaningful change.
•Staying on track: Recognising the thoughts and behaviours that can derail therapeutic progress and finding ways to work with them collaboratively.
We'll also consider how the six ACT processes work together and how to use them flexibly rather than treating ACT as a rigid sequence of techniques.
The emphasis throughout is on clinical application, helping you recognise opportunities to use ACT within the therapeutic work you're already doing.
More than two workshop recordings
This training has been developed into a complete self-paced learning package, combining the original masterclasses with structured companion guides, practical worksheets and clinical reference materials.
Your purchase includes:
Two recorded masterclasses Watch the original teaching sessions, including clinical examples, demonstrations, explanations and experiential exercises.
Audio recordings of both workshops An alternative way to revisit the teaching and consolidate your learning.
Two comprehensive companion guides Structured written resources covering the key concepts, clinical examples, metaphors and practical applications explored in each workshop.
Two practical worksheet packs Ten worksheets designed to help you deepen your understanding, experience ACT processes for yourself and consider how to apply them in clinical practice.
ACT in the Therapy Room: What to Use When A clinical integration guide to help you recognise which ACT processes may be useful when working with common therapeutic difficulties.
Together, these resources give you opportunities to learn, reflect, practise and return to the material as your clinical understanding develops.
Who is this training for?
This training is suitable for qualified therapists, counsellors and other psychological practitioners who want to explore ACT and its potential applications.
It will be particularly relevant if you:
•Work within an REBT or CBT framework and are interested in developing a more integrative approach.
•Have encountered ACT techniques but would like to understand the model behind them.
•Work with clients who struggle with avoidance, rumination, self-criticism or emotional discomfort.
•Would like to introduce more experiential and values-based interventions into your work.
•Want to broaden your clinical toolkit while remaining grounded in your existing therapeutic approach.
No previous ACT training is required.
My approach to teaching
I'm Beverley Harper, a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and trainer with over 20 years of clinical experience. My therapeutic foundations are in REBT, although my work has become increasingly integrative over the years.
I first encountered ACT through the work of Russ Harris around 15 years ago. While I initially appreciated some of its practical techniques, further training helped me develop a much deeper understanding of the model and its clinical possibilities.
One of the things I particularly value about ACT is that it encourages us to look beyond the content of a client's difficulties and consider how their responses to those difficulties may be affecting their lives. I also appreciate the flexibility it offers therapists.
I don't believe we need to restrict ourselves to one therapeutic model. What matters is understanding the approaches we use, recognising their strengths and limitations, and making thoughtful decisions about what may be helpful for the person sitting in front of us.
That's the perspective I bring to these workshops.
My teaching is practical and grounded in clinical experience, with an emphasis on helping you connect what you're learning with the realities of therapeutic work.
Learn at your own pace
Both workshops were originally delivered live and are now available as a complete on-demand training package.
You can watch or listen whenever it suits you, work through the companion guides, complete the exercises and return to particular sections as you begin exploring ACT within your practice.
The resources are designed to support continued reflection and learning beyond the recordings themselves.
Your Investment
Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Two-Part On-Demand Training Package: £97
Your purchase includes:
•Both recorded masterclasses, in video and audio formats
•Two comprehensive companion guides
•Ten practical worksheets across two worksheet packs
•ACT Clinical Integration Guide: What to Use When
•Self-paced access to the learning materials
Part of The Therapy Room On Demand, a collection of practical professional development resources for therapists and counsellors.
Course Curriculum
beverley harper
Meet Your Guide
Beverley Harper is an Integrative Psychotherapist, EMDR therapist, Clinical Hypnotherapist, EFT practitioner and trainer with more than twenty years' experience helping people understand themselves, create meaningful and lasting change and develop a kinder, more supportive relationship with themselves.
Her approach brings together practical psychology, nervous system awareness and compassion with a strong belief that insight is most useful when it can be translated into something that makes a difference in everyday life and therapeutic tools that can be applied in everyday life.
Beverley’s work is warm, relational and grounded. Rather than offering quick fixes or one-size-fits-all answers, she helps people understand what may be happening beneath their thoughts, feelings and patterns, while offering practical tools they can use in their own lives.
Whether she is working with clients, teaching therapists or creating accessible psychological resources, her aim is the same: to make good psychological support understandable, useful and genuinely human.
Course Pricing
Introduction to ACT
£97
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A two part on demand masterclass series with video and audio recordings and resources
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- Lifetime access to all video and audio recordings
- Two companion Workbooks
- Ten Worksheets
- ACT in Action : A guide of when to use which techniques
