Book now: https://contextualconsulting.co.uk/live-training/act-in-early-childhood-4-11
Working with younger children brings a unique set of challenges and opportunities, requiring a thoughtful and creative approach. This workshop introduces the use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help young children (4–11) and their parents navigate psychological and behavioural difficulties. Using the DNA-V model (Hayes & Ciarrochi, 2015), a developmental framework for ACT, you’ll learn practical and engaging ways to encourage curiosity, mindfulness, and values-based action for both children and their parents.
Background to the workshop
The early years are a key time for helping children learn how to understand, express, and manage big feelings, build strong relationships, and develop healthy habits. Many young children struggle with things like anxiety, big outbursts, or feeling stuck, and this can make family life harder too.
ACT offers practical ways to support children and their caregivers by focusing on flexibility, emotional awareness, and meaningful action. While ACT is well-known with older children and adults, it’s still not used as often with younger kids.
This workshop is designed to help practitioners bring ACT to life in ways that make sense for younger children. Through playful, developmentally sensitive approaches rooted in behaviour analysis, we’ll look at how to support kids and their families in building resilience, regulating emotions, and living in line with what matters most to them.
What you will gain from this workshop
Participants will leave with:
- A clear understanding of the DNA-V model, as a developmental framework for ACT, and how to apply it with young children and their parents.
- Practical behavioural strategies to support parents in developing warm, responsive and effective parenting skills.
- Tools to spot and work with skill gaps that can lead to inflexibility, emotional struggles and challenging behaviour.
- Strategies for evoking and shaping values guided behaviour in children and parents, using play and real-life practice to support learning through trial and error.
- Child-friendly techniques to build core psychological flexibility skills, including being present, stepping back from unhelpful thoughts, tuning into what matters, and taking small meaningful actions.
About this workshop
The workshop combines didactic teaching with experiential learning. Participants will engage in clinical examples, role plays, video demonstrations, and hands-on practice to deepen their understanding of ACT principles and the DNA-V model. These interactive components will help attendees learn to conceptualise cases and apply therapeutic techniques effectively. Each session is designed to be highly practical, ensuring participants can integrate the skills into their clinical practice immediately.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is designed for psychologists, therapists, and other mental health professionals working with children and families. While no prior experience with ACT is required, familiarity with behavioural or contextual therapies will be beneficial. It is particularly suited for clinicians looking to expand their toolkit for addressing psychological and behavioural challenges in early childhood, as well as those interested in process-based, developmentally informed interventions.