ACT at the end of life
Applying principles of acceptance and commitment therapy with individuals approaching the end of their lives
Supporting individuals approaching the end of life is a profoundly meaningful yet uniquely challenging area of therapeutic work. This workshop provides a practical, process-based approach grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you navigate the complexities of working with this population. With a focus on core ACT principles and the therapist’s own experiences, this hands-on workshop will equip you with tools to address both client distress and the personal impact of this important work.
Background to the workshop
Death is a reality we all share, yet it’s one we often avoid confronting – both personally and professionally. For therapists working with individuals nearing the end of life, the enormity of this reality is undeniable. Patients and their families often struggle with profound psychological and emotional challenges, including anxiety, depression, and existential distress, as they face the complexities of mortality.
ACT has shown increasing promise in this area, offering a process-based approach that emphasises acceptance, values, and present-moment awareness. Advances in medicine mean that people are often living longer, even when facing life-limiting illnesses or conditions. This can lead to a unique challenge: trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in their everyday lives while also coming to terms with the reality of their mortality. Balancing these two realities can be both emotionally and psychologically demanding. For therapists, this work can be deeply moving and meaningful, but also emotionally demanding, raising questions about how to best support clients while navigating the personal impact of this challenging yet affirming role.
What you will gain from this workshop
This workshop offers practical tools, insights, and techniques to enhance your therapeutic practice with individuals approaching the end of life. You will:
- Deepen your understanding of ACT’s core processes, including acceptance, defusion, values, and committed action, as they apply to end-of-life care.
- Explore how self-compassion and therapeutic presence can strengthen your work with this population.
- Learn strategies for navigating the emotional and interpersonal complexities of this work, including managing the therapist’s own responses to mortality.
- Engage in experiential exercises and case-based learning to apply ACT skills to real-world challenges.
- Reflect on your own experiences and perspectives to build resilience and self-awareness in this emotionally demanding area of practice.
This workshop emphasises both practical applications and personal reflection, offering a space to develop skills while exploring the impact of this work on you as a clinician.
About this workshop
This workshop is led by Dr Toni Lindsay a clinical and health psychologist with over 15 years of experience supporting adults and adolescents at the end of life. She is a recognised expert in ACT in this field. An accomplished author and educator, Dr Lindsay brings a wealth of practical and compassionate expertise to this workshop.
This is an interactive and experiential workshop designed to encourage learning through active participation. Teaching methods include:
- Mini-lectures to provide a clear understanding of ACT principles in the context of end-of-life care.
- Structured role-plays and small group exercises for hands-on skill development.
- Case discussions to illustrate practical applications and explore challenging scenarios.
- Opportunities for self-reflection to examine the personal impact of working with this population.
Participants will leave with practical tools and insights that can be directly applied to their clinical practice.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is ideal for therapists, psychologists, counsellors, and other mental health professionals who are either working with or interested in supporting individuals nearing the end of life – whether due to illness, advanced age, or other circumstances.
Attendees are expected to have a basic working knowledge of ACT. For those seeking introductory ACT courses, explore available options here.
Whether you’re experienced in this area or exploring it for the first time, this workshop will provide valuable insights and tools to support your work.
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 3 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 3 credit hours. Contextual Consulting Ltd. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7578.
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.
Recommended reading
Lyndsay, T. (2024). ACT at the End: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with People at the End of Life. Routledge.
Lyndsay, T. (2021). The Cancer Companion: How to Navigate Your Way from Diagnosis to Treatment and Beyond. Exisle Publishing.
If you are interested in the psychotherapeutic approach to existential suffering – Yalom’s work is a kind permission to explore this!
Yalom, I.D., 2008. Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36(3-4), pp.283-297.
References
Fisher, S., Gillanders, D. and Ferreira, N., 2022. The experiences of palliative care professionals and their responses to work‐related stress: A qualitative study. British Journal of Health Psychology, 27(2), pp.605-622.
Finucane, A.M., Hulbert-Williams, N.J., Swash, B., Spiller, J.A., Wright, B., Milton, L. and Gillanders, D., 2023. Feasibility of RESTORE: An online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to improve palliative care staff wellbeing. Palliative Medicine, 37(2), pp.244-256.
Gibson-Watt, T., Gillanders, D., Spiller, J. and Finucane, A., 2022. P-71 Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for people with palliative care needs, their caregivers and staff involved in their care: a systematic scoping review. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 12(Suppl 2), pp.A35-A35.
Gloster, A.T., Walder, N., Levin, M.E., Twohig, M.P. and Karekla, M., 2020. The empirical status of acceptance and commitment therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 18, pp.181-192.
Gudat, H., Ohnsorge, K., Streeck, N. and Rehmann‐Sutter, C., 2019. How palliative care patients’ feelings of being a burden to others can motivate a wish to die. Moral challenges in clinics and families. Bioethics, 33(4), pp.421-430.
Hajatpour, R. and Rashidi, H.H., 2021. The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Irrational Beliefs and Death Attitude in the Elderly. Aging Psychology, 7(1). Jones, K., Methley, A., Boyle, G., Garcia, R. and Vseteckova, J., 2022. A systematic review of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for managing grief experienced by bereaved spouses or partners of adults who had received palliative care. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 30(4), pp.596-613.
Baughn, R. and Reid, M.C., 2019. Prevalence, severity, and correlates of symptoms of anxiety and depression at the very end of life. Journal of pain and symptom management, 58(1), pp.80-85.
Montaner, X., Tárrega, S., Pulgarin, M. and Moix, J., 2022. Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in professional dementia caregivers burnout. Clinical gerontologist, 45(4), pp.915-926.
Safari Mousavi, S.S., Ghazanfari, F. and Mirderikvandi, F., 2019. Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on death anxiety in women with multiple sclerosis in Khorramabad. Journal of Clinical Nursing and Midwifery, 7(4), pp.234-241.
Secinti, E., Tometich, D.B., Johns, S.A. and Mosher, C.E., 2019. The relationship between acceptance of cancer and distress: A meta-analytic review. Clinical psychology review, 71, pp.27-38.
Warth, M., Kessler, J., Koehler, F., Aguilar-Raab, C., Bardenheuer, H.J. and Ditzen, B., 2019. Brief psychosocial interventions improve quality of life of patients receiving palliative care: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Palliative Medicine, 33(3), pp.332-345.
At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the emotional and psychological concerns of patients approaching end of life, particularly those based in a community setting.
- Design appropriate ACT interventions and frameworks to use with patients approaching end of life and apply existing skills in the areas of values, acceptance and process-based approaches and apply to an end-of-life context.
- Identify their own experience/challenges in working with people at the end of life, and the way that it impacts on the therapists