International Standards of Training and Supervision in Psychological Therapies Based on Contextual Behavioural Science

The ACBS Board commissioned members of ACBS with an interest and expertise in training and supervision to produce a consensus statement on International Standards in Training and Supervision of Psychological Therapies that are aligned to Contextual Behavioural Sciences. The document linked here represents the outcome of this work. It received board approval in September 2025. It is non-mandatory, and is intended to support quality and consistency in training and supervision by articulating a consensus position. 

We encourage dissemination and use of these standards to inform training providers, organisations, practitioners, learners and the public. We pose the following questions to readers to encourage implementation:

For training providers:
To what degree does your current training offering fit with these standards?
What would be gained or lost by aligning your training offerings with these standards?
What changes would be needed to do that?

For learners:
To what degree has the training I have engaged in so far met these standards?
Do any of the standards articulate gaps in my own training?
How do I continually or periodically assess and monitor my delivery to ensure that it stays consistent
with the functional principles of CBS oriented therapies?

For supervisors:
How am I assessing my supervisees development of CBS relevant knowledge, skills and qualities for
their deliver of CBS aligned psychological therapies?

For organisations that employ therapists using CBS oriented therapies:
To what degree do we provide structures that support good fidelity and continual development of
our therapists (e.g., articulating training requirements, providing supervision, evaluation of
competency, access to continuing professional development)?

Click here to download.

To cite these standards:
Gillanders, D., Walser, R. D., Presti, G., & Gloster, A. T. (2025). International Standards of Training
and Supervision in Psychological Therapies Based on Contextual Behavioural Science. Association for
Contextual Behavioral Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/6470