ACT in the workplace
Enhance employee well-being using proven acceptance and commitment techniques
Learn to run ACT in the workplace from one of the people who built it! Dr Paul Flaxman and Ross McIntosh developed the protocol together over two decades of research and practice, and it has since been delivered in healthcare, financial services, charities and beyond. On this Train-the-Trainer programme you learn the original protocol, refinements from recent international collaboration, and how to adapt both to the teams you work with.
You also get a free 90-minute follow-up Q&A with Ross after the training.
Background to the workshop
Burnout and chronic stress are now common at work, and organisations want practical, evidence-informed ways to support staff while keeping performance strong. How people handle their thoughts and feelings under pressure matters as much as how they manage their workload.
Research on ACT-based workplace training shows it can improve well-being and resilience, reduce burnout, and ease worry, rumination and work-life strain. People take the skills home with them too, which helps build teams that adapt well under pressure.
What you will gain from this programme
By attending this workshop, you will gain the knowledge, tools, and confidence to deliver ACT-based training within workplace settings. You will:
- Learn how to deliver structured ACT programmes to groups in organisations, using the ACT in the workplace model developed by Paul Flaxman and Ross McIntosh
- Understand the rationale behind the programme design and its link to core ACT processes, including the ACT matrix
- Develop skills in adapting delivery for different organisational contexts and constraints
- Build strategies for gaining organisational buy-in and positioning ACT within systems, including using short “taster” sessions to generate interest
- Learn how to evaluate impact and demonstrate value
- Consider the ethical issues in workplace interventions, and how to design programmes that are practical and sustainable
- Stay up to date with current research and developments in workplace ACT
By the end of the programme
By the end of this training, you will be able to design, deliver, and adapt ACT-based training programmes to support employee well-being within organisational systems
Updated for 2027
You will learn the original ACT in the workplace protocol alongside an update developed with Makerere University in Uganda, plus refinements drawn from delivery across many different types of organisation. You will leave able to run a programme that stays faithful to acceptance and commitment training (ACT) and fits the realities of the teams in front of you.
About the trainer
Ross McIntosh co-developed ACT in the workplace with Dr Paul Flaxman and has spent years delivering it across public and private sector organisations as a workplace psychologist and contextual behavioural science practitioner. He combines an evidence-based approach with a strong focus on practical application, drawing on his academic work at City St George’s, University of London and his wider work through the People Soup podcast.
Who would benefit from this workshop
This course is designed for HR professionals, business consultants, workplace well-being managers, learning and development professionals, psychologists and counsellors.
You should be in a role where you can deliver or influence workplace interventions. Ideally, you will have experience delivering well-being or training interventions, a basic understanding of ACT or mindfulness-based approaches, some experience applying ACT in practice or personally, and relevant professional training.
About the training format
This is an active, experiential workshop programme. Brief teaching introduces key concepts and models, alongside live demonstrations of the workplace training protocol and facilitated practice of group delivery skills. You’ll also discuss implementation challenges and strategies, drawing on real-world examples from a range of organisational settings.
You will receive full training materials, including the 2019 workplace manual and the updated international ACT protocol from Makerere University, to support your future delivery.
A guest contribution from Dr Paul Flaxman is planned (subject to confirmation).
A free follow-up 90-minute live Q&A session with Ross McIntosh is also included (Tuesday 9th March 2027).
Continuing education credits are available both for attending the live workshop and for completing the workshop by viewing the recording of the live event.
APA psychologists: This program is sponsored by Contextual Consulting and is approved for 12 CE credits for psychologists. Contextual Consulting is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Contextual Consulting maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Nationally certified counselors: This workshop is available for 12 credit hours. Contextual Consulting Ltd. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7578.
New York psychologists: This program is sponsored by Contextual Consulting and is approved for 12 CE credits for psychologists. Contextual Consulting is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0316.
To find out more, including attendance requirements and how to access your certificate, go to our continuing education information page.
If you have disability and require adjustments or accommodation, please email us at admin@contextualconsulting.co.uk to discuss your needs and we will do our best to help you.
Booking cancellation
The registration fee will be refunded minus a administration charge if cancellations are received at least two weeks before the workshop date.
Cancellations within two weeks of the event date are charged the full registration fee, other than in exceptional circumstances that can be verified.
Event cancellation
In the event of cancellation of the course outside of our control we will not be held accountable for travel and/or accommodation costs incurred. However, the workshop fees will be refunded.
All workshops will be subject to minimum delegate numbers being met; in the event that a workshop should be cancelled delegates will be given no less than 2 months’ notice.
Replacing delegates
If a delegate is unable to attend and a replacement is nominated there may be a charge depending on the individual circumstances, this will be advised at the time. Please contact the us to request a replacement of delegates at least a week before the workshop date.
Contextual Consulting is committed to the identification and resolution of potential conflicts of interest in the planning, promotion, delivery, and evaluation of continuing education. Potential conflicts of interest occur when an individual assumes a professional role in the planning, promotion, delivery, or evaluation of continuing education where personal, professional, legal, financial, or other interests could reasonably be expected to impair their objectivity, competence, or effectiveness.
There was no commercial support for this event. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Bond, F. W., Lloyd, J., Flaxman, P. E. and Archer, R. (2015). Psychological Flexibility and ACT at Work. The Wiley Handbook of Contextual Behavioral Science (pp. 459–482). ISBN 978-1-118- 48956-7.
Flaxman, P. E. and Bond, F. W. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy in the workplace. In Baer, R.A. (Ed.), Mindfulness-Based Treatment Approaches Clinician's Guide to Evidence Base and Applications Academic Press.
This list includes a selection of articles that have described or evaluated ACT-based interventions in workplace settings.
A full list of ACT randomized controlled trials (involving various problems and populations): https://contextualscience.org/ACT_Randomized_Controlled_Trials
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Deliver the core ACT in the workplace training manual with confidence and clarity.
- Explain how the training aligns with core ACT principles and workplace needs.
- Adapt the ACT protocol to different organisational contexts while maintaining fidelity.
- Practise effective group facilitation skills for engaging workplace participants.
- Develop strategies to market and promote ACT programmes to workplace audiences.
- Design and implement methods to evaluate the impact of workplace interventions.