ACT intermediate skills

This workshop forms part of The ACT pathway, which includes the ACT essentials, ACT next steps and ACT mastery workshops.

This workshop is designed for practitioners with a foundational understanding of ACT who want to deepen their practice. The training invites you to move beyond a protocol-driven approach and instead develop a more flexible, responsive, and process-based way of working. The workshop focuses on reading and responding to the full context of what’s happening in the session, the client’s behaviour, the therapeutic relationship, and your own moment-to-moment process. By integrating conceptual clarity with real-world clinical application, this workshop aims to enhance your confidence and competence in delivering ACT dynamically, flexibly, and effectively, even in complex or emotionally charged moments.

Background to the workshop

ACT is grounded in functional contextualism — a focus on understanding behaviour in its context — but in the fast pace of therapy it’s easy to slip into reacting to what a client says or does, rather than exploring its function. For example:

• Interpreting a client’s silence as resistance, rather than avoidance shaped by fear of judgment
• Following a sudden topic change without noticing it may be an escape from painful thoughts
• Addressing a client’s anger at face value, instead of seeing it as a way to protect against vulnerability

Seeing the function of behaviour, rather than just its form, is key to choosing interventions that genuinely resonate with clients and support meaningful change. This requires more than technical skill — it calls for a nuanced therapeutic stance that can respond to relational dynamics and the moment-to-moment shifts that shape effective therapy.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how principles from relational frame theory (RFT) and an understanding of rule-governed behaviour can be applied in the therapy room. You’ll learn how to spot and work with these processes as they arise, moving beyond protocol-driven or surface-level interventions to deliver ACT with greater depth, precision, and impact.

What you will gain from this workshop

By participating in this workshop, you will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of functional contextualism and its role in guiding therapeutic choices within the ACT model.
• Gain clarity on the ACT therapeutic stance, learning how to bring these principles into the therapy room in ways that foster connection and build trust.
• Enhance your skills in functional analysis and formulation, including the ability to assess patterns of behaviour and their maintaining contingencies.
• Explore relevant aspects of relational frame theory (RFT) and rule-governed behaviour, and how they inform client experiences and behaviour.
• Practise moment-by-moment functional analysis using prepared video demonstrations, with guided discussions to understand what’s happening in real time.
• Learn to work relationally by integrating functional assessment into your therapeutic interactions.

This workshop offers a practical and dynamic exploration into the “how” of working functionally in therapy, helping you refine your approach and deepen your clinical impact.

About this workshop

The workshop is a blend of theoretical exploration and practical application, designed to help you deepen your understanding of functional contextualism and incorporate it in a practical manner within the therapeutic environment. You’ll engage in mini-lectures, interactive discussions, and experiential exercises that focus on real-world application. Using prepared video demonstrations, you’ll participate in moment-by-moment analysis and discussion of therapeutic interactions, gaining insights into how functional contextualism can guide choices in real time. Between session exercises will encourage you to practise functional analysis on your own behaviour, helping you embody the principles you bring to your clients.

Resources you will receive:

• Example scripts of exercises (for you to tailor to your own context and style)
• A simple and useful Functional Analysis / Formulation tool to practice within the teaching session, then use in your own practice
• Annotated transcripts of the video examples you watch in-session

Who will benefit from this workshop?

This workshop is ideal for ACT practitioners, who are looking to deepen their understanding of functional contextualism and enhance their ability to work relationally. A working knowledge of ACT is essential, as this workshop builds on foundational concepts covered in our ACT essentials and ACT next steps workshops. If you’re keen to refine your skills in functional analysis and contextual case formulation, this workshop will provide the tools and insights needed to elevate your practice.

This workshop is part of The ACT pathway – a structured, four-part training pathway designed to take you from foundational knowledge to intermediate-level practice. Each workshop builds on the last, offering a step-by-step approach to developing your skills, confidence, and flexibility in using ACT. Whether you’re following the full pathway or joining at this stage with prior ACT experience, this workshop supports your continued growth as a practitioner.