ACT in the workplace
Enhance employee well-being using proven acceptance and commitment techniques
Psychological well-being is rapidly becoming one of the most critical priorities for modern organisations. With ever-increasing demands, frequent uncertainty, and the rising impact of burnout, employees need effective tools to manage stress and maintain focus while responding flexibly to challenges. Acceptance and commitment training (ACT) provides one of the most evidence-supported frameworks for improving employee well-being by teaching adaptable skills to manage difficult emotions, enhance psychological flexibility, and build resilience.
This Train-the-Trainer workshop goes beyond learning ACT skills for your own use. It equips you to deliver ACT-based workplace training to others. You’ll learn how to run structured, evidence-based ACT programmes within organisations, helping teams build psychological flexibility, manage difficult thoughts and emotions, and respond more effectively to workplace challenges.
Developed from over two decades of research and practice by Dr Paul Flaxman and Ross McIntosh, this training has been implemented across healthcare systems, high-performance organisations, financial services, and charities. In this workshop, you’ll gain a deep understanding of both the original ACT in the workplace protocol and recent refinements developed through international collaboration, enabling you to adapt and deliver impactful interventions across a range of workplace contexts.
Background to the workshop
Acceptance and commitment training as a workplace intervention
Thriving at work isn’t just about managing tasks, it also involves managing internal experiences and responding flexibly under pressure. Burnout and chronic stress are increasingly common, and organisations are looking for practical, evidence-informed ways to support employee well-being while maintaining performance.
ACT-based workplace training has been shown to:
- Improve psychological well-being and resilience
- Reduce burnout and support sustainable performance
- Target worry, rumination, and work-life strain
- Teach skills that generalise across work and personal life
- Support cultures of adaptability and psychological flexibility
This training draws on a wide range of international applications, including work in healthcare systems, corporate environments, and financial institutions, offering practical strategies you can apply in your own organisational context.
What you will gain from this workshop
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
- Practise using the core ACT in the workplace model developed by Paul Flaxman and Ross McIntosh
- Receive both the original 2019 Workplace Protocol and the updated international ACT protocol
- Develop skills in adapting delivery for different organisational contexts and constraints
- Observe live demonstrations of key components of the programme
- Practise group facilitation in a supportive environment
- Understand the rationale behind the programme design and its link to core ACT processes, including the ACT Matrix
- Build strategies for gaining organisational buy-in and positioning ACT effectively within systems
- Stay up to date with current research and developments in workplace ACT
Ross will also cover:
- How to position and market ACT programmes within organisations
- Using short “taster” sessions to generate interest and engagement
- Ethical considerations in workplace interventions
- Evaluating impact and demonstrating value
- Designing programmes that are both practical and sustainable
By the end of the workshop
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to design, deliver, and adapt ACT-based training programmes to support employee well-being within organisational systems.
About the trainer
Ross McIntosh is a workplace psychologist and contextual behavioural science practitioner with extensive experience delivering ACT training across public and private sector organisations. He combines an evidence-based approach with a strong focus on practical application, drawing on his academic work at City, 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
- 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
- Relevant professional training
About the workshop format
This is an active, experiential workshop combining:
- Brief teaching to introduce key concepts and models
- Live demonstrations of the workplace training protocol
- Facilitated practice of group delivery skills
- Discussion of implementation challenges and strategies
- Real-world examples from a range of organisational settings
You will receive full training materials, including the 2019 workplace manual and updated versions, to support your future delivery.
A guest contribution from Dr Paul Flaxman is planned (subject to confirmation).
A follow-up 90-minute live Q&A session with Ross McIntosh is also included.
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.