ACT Skills for children and adolescents
Practical experiential exercises to build emotional resilience
Course Description
Do you want to learn how to deliver ACT to young people in a clear, practical, fun and accessible way? Maybe you have some understanding of ACT theory, but are unsure what to actual do to convey the key concepts in a way that makes sense to children and adolescents.
Through engaging, experiential learning, alongside plenty of practical guidance, delegates will take away a range of powerful strategies for easily integrating ACT into their work supporting young people. The training provides delegates with fun, creative and flexible exercises to use with children and adolescents and will include some skills from the InTER-ACT Programme a bespoke, research-driven resilience intervention developed by Victoria and Chloe.
Who would benefit from this workshop?
A wide range of professionals who interact with children and young people through their work, including psychologists, counsellors, social workers, teachers, EMHPs, youth workers and GPs.
The workshop is suitable for those with no prior ACT experience.
The skills covered are suitable for young people aged around 9 years to 16 years.
All skills taught can be used as stand-alone exercises, making them suitable for one-off support and brief individual interventions, including by those who may not be mental health specialists. The skills are also powerful tools to integrate into groups for young people, particularly non-targeted groups such as waiting list support, wellbeing groups within schools and targeted preventative mental health groups.
The skills taught will be particularly relevant for those providing universal and prevention services, as well as early help and targeted services. Equally, many of the skills covered have been found to be valuable for supporting young people with more complex difficulties.
“I thought it was a really good mix of presenting styles, I really enjoyed it as was engaged throughout” Suzanne Dunnett – Occupational Therapist
“This event was pitched really well, with less focus on the theory but lots of ideas and experiential exercises to refresh and enhance my clinical work with young people” Louise, Senior Clinical Psychologist (NHS)
“Practical exercises and advice re how to adapt ACT when working with young people. I have experience applying ACT with adults and have just started to work with young people so this was perfect” Psychologist
Learning outcomes
Key Skills Covered:
- How to ensure ‘buy-in’ from young people from the get-go when introducing the ACT approach. Clever and creative ways to convey why ‘control is the problem, not the solution’.
Develop skills in core ACT processes:
1. Tangled-up to Getting Unstuck
- Help young people develop a toolkit of simple but effective skills to ‘defuse’ or untangle themselves from painful and bossy difficult thoughts, so they can be freer to do what matters more of the time.
2. Resisting to Coexisting
- Support young people to drop counterproductive attempts at avoidance by discovering effective strategies that show them how to make room for difficult emotions.
- Learn how to guide children through a powerful and immersive visualisation, so they can start to benefit from a more accepting orientation towards internal experiences
3. Barely There to Fully Aware
- Help young people move from the daze of autopilot living to the connection and vibrancy of present moment awareness.
- Help young people to develop flexible mindful attention through a novel and creative exercise, highly effective for developing valuable neutral noticing skills.
4. Surviving to Thriving
- Discover how much young people appreciate conversations which step away from the dominant discourse of achievement and success.
- Learn how easy it is, with the right approach, to engage young people in value-based conversations, and how powerful this can be in enabling them to take steps towards a more purposeful and meaningful life.
Delegates will receive electronic handouts, including scripts for guiding young people through the practical exercises.
Group booking discounts
Contextual Consulting offer discounts for groups of people from the same organisation e.g. an NHS Trust that does not have a contract arrangement with us.
Please email us here to arrange a group discount or find out more about our CPD contracts here.
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.
In this workshop you'll learn:
- How to ensure ‘buy-in’ from young people from the get-go when introducing the ACT approach. Clever and creative ways to convey why ‘control is the problem, not the solution’.
- How to help young people develop a toolkit of simple but effective skills to ‘defuse’ or untangle themselves from painful and bossy difficult thoughts, so they can be freer to do what matters more of the time.
- How to support young people to drop counterproductive attempts at avoidance by discovering effective strategies that show them how to make room for difficult emotions.
- Guide children through a powerful and immersive visualisation, so they can start to benefit from a more accepting orientation towards internal experiences.
- How to help young people move from the daze of autopilot living to the connection and vibrancy of present moment awareness.
- How to help young people to develop flexible mindful attention through a novel and creative exercise, highly effective for developing valuable neutral noticing skills.
- To discover how much young people appreciate conversations which step away from the dominant discourse of achievement and success.
- How easy it is, with the right approach, to engage young people in value-based conversations, and how powerful this can be in enabling them to take steps towards a more purposeful and meaningful life.
This program is sponsored by Contextual Consulting and is approved for 3 CE credits for psychologists. To find out more, including attendance requirements and how to access your certificate, go to our continuing education information page.