ACT for cancer
Skills for supporting individuals across the cancer journey
The experience of cancer is full of unique psychological and emotional challenges. From the shock of diagnosis through to treatment, survivorship, and living with advanced disease, patients often encounter a rollercoaster of emotions. This workshop explores using acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to provide structured, compassionate, and practical interventions for this diverse and often complex population. Ideal for therapists working in oncology or community-based settings, this dynamic and experiential training is designed to refine and enhance your expertise when supporting individuals living with cancer.
Background to the workshop
Cancer affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life – physically, emotionally, and socially – leaving patients struggling to make sense of the upheaval and their own mortality. Advances in medical treatment mean patients often live longer with advanced disease, and younger populations are increasingly facing aggressive cancers, bringing entirely different dynamics to the therapeutic table. The psychological toll extends beyond the individual, impacting families, careers, and communities, leaving therapists managing multifaceted layers of distress, depression, and existential fear. Working in oncology challenges therapists to support not just patients but also the families and carers who share this journey. Furthermore, this work can have a personal impact on the therapist, given the deeply emotional and confronting nature of addressing mortality and suffering.
This workshop responds to the growing need for specialised therapeutic approaches in this space, specifically focused on ACT and its proven ability to help clients move towards psychological flexibility (see this meta-analysis for a review of the literature). With an emphasis on values, acceptance, and a process-based framework, this training offers therapists tailored tools to address the complex demands and nuances of cancer care.
What you will gain from this workshop
This training is designed to help you feel more grounded, flexible, and effective when working with people affected by cancer, across all stages of the journey. You’ll leave with a clearer sense of how to respond when clients are facing some of the most difficult moments, whether that’s the shock of diagnosis, the uncertainty of treatment, or the emotional complexity of survivorship and advanced disease.
Across the sessions, you will learn how to:
- Respond more confidently to the emotional realities of cancer, including fear, uncertainty, loss, and questions around meaning and mortality
- Adapt core ACT processes, particularly values, acceptance, and present moment work, in ways that feel natural and clinically useful in oncology settings
- Support clients through specific challenges such as anticipatory anxiety, medical procedures, and end-of-life concerns, without becoming overly problem-focused or avoidant
- Stay psychologically present and effective as a therapist, even when the work feels emotionally heavy or personally confronting
- Work more skilfully with the wider system around the client, including family members, carers, and relational strain
- Bring a more flexible, process-based lens to complex presentations, including depression, anxiety, and existential distress
- Alongside practical skills, this workshop also creates space to reflect on your own responses to this work, helping you sustain yourself while staying open, compassionate, and engaged with your clients.
About this workshop
This interactive workshop combines evidence-based teaching with rich experiential learning. Attendees will engage in mini-lectures that ground theoretical knowledge in ACT principles and their oncology-specific applications, case discussions focusing on real-world complexities across each stage of the cancer journey, structured role-plays to build skill in applying ACT interventions in challenging clinical scenarios, experiential small-group exercises to deepen understanding of process-based approaches, and guided self-reflection to help participants recognise and navigate their own personal responses to this demanding area of work.
The sessions are led by Dr Toni Lindsay, a clinical and health psychologist with extensive experience working with adults and adolescents living with cancer. She has authored several books applying ACT to cancer and serious illness, including ‘the cancer companion’, ‘ACT at the end’, and ‘Cancer, sex, drugs and death’.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is designed for therapists and psychologists working therapeutically with individuals and families impacted by cancer. It is particularly beneficial for those in community settings who may encounter oncology-related themes intermittently and want a robust framework for responding effectively. Clinicians who work directly in psycho-oncology will also gain refined tools for enhancing their practice.
Participants should have an existing understanding of ACT principles, as foundational concepts will not be covered in detail. This workshop focuses on advanced applications of ACT skills within the unique and delicate context of oncology, making it ideal for those with intermediate to advanced experience in the therapy model.
Whether you are seeking to expand your clinical skillset or deepen your understanding of the challenges faced by this population, this workshop offers ample opportunity for professional growth.
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 6 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 6 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 6 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.
Lindsay, T., 2017. Cancer, Sex, Drugs and Death - A guide to the Psychological Management of young people with cancer. Australian Academic Press.
Lindsay, T., 2021. The Cancer Companion - How to navigate your way from Diagnosis to treatment and beyond. Exisle Publishing.
Lindsay, T., 2022. The Certainty Myth. Exisle Publishing.
Lindsay, T., 2024. ACT at the End: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with People at the End of Life. Taylor & Francis.
By the end of this workshop you will be able to:
- Apply ACT interventions to address emotional and existential challenges across cancer care stages (diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, advanced disease).
- Adapt core ACT processes (values, acceptance, present-moment awareness) to oncology-specific clinical contexts.
- Implement ACT strategies for cancer-related challenges including anticipatory anxiety, medical procedures, and end-of-life concerns.
- Maintain therapeutic presence and manage personal responses to oncology work while supporting clients' families and caregivers.