ACT for psychosis masterclass

People recovering from psychosis often organise large parts of their lives around avoiding or controlling voices, suspicious thoughts and shame. That avoidance brings short-term relief, but over time it narrows their behavioural repertoire and cuts them off from reinforcing, valued activity. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which grew out of behaviour analysis and relational frame theory, gives behaviour analysts a functional way to work with these problems. They are some of the least studied in the field.

In this masterclass, you’ll learn to formulate psychosis-related difficulties functionally rather than diagnostically, and to use ACT processes to build broader, values-based patterns of behaviour.

Background to the workshop

Mainstream mental health care tends to treat voices, paranoia and unusual beliefs as symptoms to be reduced. A behaviour-analytic view asks a different question: what does the person do in response to these experiences, and what maintains that response? Arguing with voices, checking for threats, withdrawing from others and suppressing thoughts are often maintained by negative reinforcement. They also tend to be governed by rigid verbal rules (“if I go out, something bad will happen”) that are insensitive to the person’s actual contingencies.

ACT for psychosis (ACTp) targets these patterns directly. Rather than trying to change the content of voices or beliefs, it changes their function. It weakens the control that fused, rule-governed responding has over behaviour and increases contact with personally valued sources of reinforcement.

What you will gain from this workshop

This skills-based masterclass is designed for practitioners who have a working knowledge of ACTp and want to develop more advanced, formulation-driven interventions.

By attending this workshop, participants will:

• Build functional formulations of voices, paranoia and unusual beliefs, identifying avoidance and control responses and their maintaining consequences
• Explore the functions and impacts of unusual beliefs, rather than disputing their content
• Learn procedures that help people change their relationship with distressing voices, reducing avoidance and preoccupation
• Practise values-based activation and exposure to increase valued behaviour in the presence of distressing private events
• Learn antecedent strategies that increase engagement for clients who show mistrust and suspicious thinking

About this workshop

Eric Morris has spent more than 30 years working with people recovering from psychosis, and he co-edited Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness for Psychosis. In this masterclass, he shares how he applies ACT in practice, using recordings from his own therapy sessions to show the processes at work. The workshop is highly practical and includes:

• Demonstrations of ACT techniques tailored for complex psychosis presentations
• Experiential exercises to refine engagement and intervention skills
• Case examples and session recordings to illustrate real-world applications
• Roleplays and guided practice to help you integrate skills into your clinical work

This practical, hands-on approach ensures that participants leave with actionable skills they can immediately apply in their work.

Who will benefit from this workshop?

This intermediate level workshop is designed for ACT practitioners, behaviour analysts (BCBAs, UKBA Certs, IBAs, etc) and PBS professionals working in mental health services, mental health practitioners with training in behaviour analysis who work with, or want to work with, adults experiencing psychosis. It will be especially relevant to behaviour analysts in adult mental health, forensic, dual-diagnosis and supported-living settings. Participants should have a working knowledge of functional assessment and of core ACT processes (acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, values and committed action). This workshop builds on ACT for psychosis foundations. It is not an introduction to basic behavioural principles.

Feedback from previous attendees

“I loved the stance that ACT takes toward working with psychosis, ditching the diagnosis and working with people based on our shared humanity. I loved Eric’s presentational style, very engaging, compassionate and thoughtful.”

— Dr David Williams, Clinical Psychologist

“The session beautifully illustrated the style and principles of the approach.”

— Helen Hewson, Counselling Psychologist

“Hearing the recording from the first session and hearing about ways to be mindful of adaptations of style when working with someone who experiences psychosis and working with an ACT model.”

— Shonagh Walton, Clinical Psychologist

“The audio recording between Eric and his client was quite insightful. The lecture in itself was useful, but the audio recording grounded it better.”

— Workshop attendee