Developing your ACT supervision skills
Developing flexible, functional, and collaborative supervisory relationships
Are you supervising acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) practitioners and looking to refine your approach? Or are you preparing to step into the role of an ACT supervisor? Supervision and consultation in ACT are essential for developing skilful, model-consistent practice and supporting safe, effective clinical work. Supervision provides a space for practitioners to reflect, refine their approach, and stay grounded in values-based, functional practice. But how can supervisors embody ACT principles while navigating the complexities of real-world challenges? This interactive masterclass is based on the SHAPE supervision framework, a practical and evidence-informed approach to ACT supervision that integrates functional analysis, experiential learning, and reflective dialogue. Whether you’re supervising individuals, leading groups, or engaging in peer consultations, this workshop provides the tools to foster psychological flexibility, enhance competence, and cultivate meaningful supervisory relationships.
Background to the workshop
Supervision is a vital component in ensuring high-quality ACT practice, but it is rarely straightforward. Supervisors often grapple with challenges such as balancing fidelity to the ACT model with flexibility, addressing supervisee avoidance or perfectionism, navigating cultural and contextual differences, and managing evaluative pressures in training or organisational settings. Despite the emphasis on psychological flexibility in therapy, many supervisors feel unsure about how to bring these processes into supervision itself.
As a result, supervision can drift into advice giving, over-explaining, or reassurance, even when supervisors are committed to ACT principles. This workshop is designed to address that gap. It offers a clear, practical approach to ACT-consistent supervision that helps supervisors work more intentionally with process, function, and relationship in the supervision room.
The workshop is informed by current ACBS international standards for ACT training and supervision, alongside emerging consensus research on contextual and ACT-based supervision, and translates this guidance into concrete, usable supervisory practices.
What you will gain from this workshop
Knowing ACT isn’t the same as knowing how to supervise with ACT. Many supervisors find themselves over-explaining, giving quick answers, or feeling unsure what to do when a supervisee is stuck, overwhelmed, or looking to be reassured. This workshop is designed to change that.
You will come away with:
- Clear, usable ways of shaping supervisee learning in the room, so supervision feels purposeful rather than a mix of discussion and advice
- Practical tools for making supervision more active and engaging, including when and how to use mindfulness, modelling, and role-play without it feeling awkward or forced
- Greater confidence in having supervision conversations that help supervisees work productively with self-doubt, mistakes, and strong emotions
- A clearer sense of how to stay grounded in ACT while adapting your supervision style to different supervisees, settings, and levels of experience
- Simple, effective ways of responding when supervision gets tricky, including avoidance, perfectionism, emotional overload, or a pull to provide reassurance
- Increased sensitivity to relational, cultural, and contextual factors, using function-focused thinking rather than assumptions
- A supervision approach that supports growth, psychological flexibility, and sustainable practice, rather than dependency, burnout, or over-reliance on the supervisor
About this workshop
This workshop will be led by two highly experienced ACT trainers and supervisors, Dr Linda Nicholson and Dr Eric Morris, who bring decades of clinical, supervisory, and training expertise to guide participants through a rich programme of learning and practice.
Teaching methods include:
- Mini-lectures introducing the SHAPE model and its applications.
- Live demonstrations through role-plays between the trainers to model key supervision techniques.
- Experiential exercises designed to deepen understanding of key concepts and processes.
- Breakout room sessions for participants to practise supervision skills in small groups.
- Personal reflective exercises to explore individual learning histories and their influence on supervision behaviours.
- Group discussions to share insights, explore challenges, and consolidate learning.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is designed for:
- ACT practitioners looking to expand their skills into supervision, consultation, or peer feedback contexts.
- Clinical supervisors and trainers seeking to integrate functional, experiential, and values-based methods into their practice.
- Psychologists, therapists, and counsellors aiming to enhance ACT fidelity while supporting supervisee growth and reflection.
- Practitioners in leadership or consultation roles who want to foster psychological flexibility and effective learning within teams or organisations.
- Early-career supervisors seeking a clear, evidence-informed framework to guide their supervision practice.
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 4 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 4 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.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Structure ACT-consistent supervision sessions using a clear functional focus (process, context, and workability) rather than advice-giving or problem-solving alone.
- Use experiential supervision methods (e.g., in-the-room mindfulness, modelling, role-play, and reflective questioning) to shape supervisee learning and clinical decision-making.
- Identify and respond to common supervision process difficulties (e.g., supervisee avoidance, perfectionism, emotional reactivity, reassurance-seeking) in ways that promote psychological flexibility rather than dependency.
- Maintain an ACT-consistent supervisory stance by flexibly balancing guidance, evaluation, and collaboration across different supervisees, contexts, and levels of experience.