ACT for autistic children and young people
Supporting richer, bigger lives
Autistic children and young people feel just as much as anyone else, and want the same things: connection, a sense of things going okay. They just often show it differently. This workshop gives you practical acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) tools to support emotional wellbeing, flexibility and resilience in autistic children and young people, tools you can use straight away at home, in school or in the therapy room.
Background to the workshop
Autistic children and young people are frequently referred for support with emotional overwhelm, anxiety and behaviour that others find challenging. Too often, the response is to change or fix the young person rather than support their wellbeing on their own terms.
Autistic children may communicate, think or experience the world differently. They may be more sensitive to sound, sight or touch, or need more predictability and routine. These are differences in how needs are expressed, not differences in the needs themselves.This workshop takes a neurodiversity-affirming approach. Rather than targeting autistic characteristics, it uses the ACT model of psychological flexibility to help young people relate differently to difficult thoughts, feelings and sensory experiences, and move towards lives shaped by what matters to them.
ACT suits this work well. It cares about workability, not correct thinking. It leans on metaphor and lived experience rather than argument. Its focus on values and committed action translates naturally into developmentally and neurodivergence-sensitive practice.
What you will gain from this workshop
You will leave with:
- a working knowledge of the ACT Hexaflex model, the DNA-V model and their application to autistic children and young people
- a neurodiversity-affirming framework for understanding distress, reframing behaviour as communication rather than something to be managed
- practical skills and techniques (for example, defusion, acceptance and present-moment awareness) adapted for autistic young people
- accessible methods for exploring values and identity with young people
- strategies for turning values into small, structured, achievable actions, and for supporting transitions and uncertainty
- a plan for applying these tools across home, school and therapy settings
About this workshop
Each major topic is paired with a guided ACT exercise, giving you repeated opportunities across the day to practise the methods rather than just hear about them. There’s a strong emphasis on practical application throughout, including the classic passengers on the bus exercise. The final session draws the ACT processes together and supports you to plan real-world implementation in your own setting.
The workshop is led by Dr Freddy Jackson Brown, an HCPC-registered chartered clinical psychologist and ACT therapist with over 30 years’ experience working with children and families in the NHS, specialising in child development, behaviour, autism and intellectual disability. He’s a widely published author, including Acceptance and commitment therapy for dummies, and has recently written Supporting the wellbeing of autistic children and young people, a practical guide to exactly the approach covered here.
Who will benefit from this workshop
This workshop is designed for psychologists, therapists and other professionals supporting autistic children and young people, including those working in clinical, education and community settings.
It is particularly suited to practitioners who:
- work with autistic young people experiencing emotional overwhelm, anxiety or distress
- want a practical, neurodiversity-affirming alternative to behaviour management approaches
- are interested in using experiential, metaphor-based methods that engage young people
No prior ACT experience is required, as the workshop includes a full introduction to the model, though those with existing ACT knowledge will gain new ways of adapting it for autistic young people.
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 7 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 7 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 7 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.
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.
Key references
Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes, and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006
Pahnke, J., Lundgren, T., Hursti, T., & Hirvikoski, T. (2014). Outcomes of an acceptance and commitment therapy-based skills training group for students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 18(8), 953-964. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361313501091
Pellicano, E., & den Houting, J. (2022). Annual Research Review: Shifting from 'normal science' to neurodiversity in autism science. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 63(4), 381-396. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13534
Cibralic, S., Kohlhoff, J., Wallace, N., McMahon, C., & Eapen, V. (2019). A systematic review of emotion regulation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 68, 101422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2019.101422
Recommended reading
Jackson Brown, F. (2026). Supporting the Wellbeing of Autistic Children and Young People: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Approach. Pavilion Publishing.
Hayes, L. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2015). The Thriving Adolescent. New Harbinger Publications.
Bennett, R., & Oliver, J. (2025). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- describe processes inside the ACT Hexaflex and DNA-V models and their application to autistic children and young people
- formulate distress in autistic young people using an ACT lens, identifying the role of experiential avoidance, sensory processing and uncertainty
- apply developmentally appropriate defusion and emotional literacy techniques, including naming and externalising thoughts
- facilitate values exploration that respects autistic identity and preferences
- design small, structured committed action plans that build psychological flexibility across home, school and therapy settings