Living with a chronic health / long term health condition often brings profound emotional and identity challenges. As health professionals, it’s vital to have tools that not only address these complexities but also empower clients to live meaningful lives, even in the face of ongoing illness. This workshop offers a practical, skills-based introduction to using acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to support psychological adjustment in individuals managing long-term health conditions. Participants will explore how ACT processes can be applied across a range of clinical scenarios, equipping you to respond to clients with greater clarity, empathy, and effectiveness. Through this engaging and accessible training, participants will leave equipped with strategies to bring greater psychological flexibility into their clinical work
Background to the workshop
Chronic and long-term health conditions encompass a wide and diverse range of presentations, from persistent musculoskeletal pain, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions like MS and Parkinson’s, to metabolic illnesses such as diabetes, and post-viral syndromes including long COVID. These conditions often intersect with mental health and social care needs, meaning that clinicians across a range of settings, from physical health teams to primary care and adult mental health services, are likely to encounter them.
While the specific diagnoses may vary greatly, the psychological impact of living with a chronic condition often shares common themes: grief for one’s former self, loss of functioning, shifts in identity, ongoing uncertainty, and sometimes, a fundamental renegotiation of what a meaningful life looks like. Clinicians may face complex questions: How do we help someone live in line with their values while facing a progressive or relapsing condition? How can we hold space for both hopelessness and hope? How do we work systemically, acknowledging the impact on relationships, roles, and family dynamics?
These clients may also bring with them a complex relationship with the healthcare system, experiences of invalidation, misdiagnosis, or gaps in care, yet they remain reliant on that same system for their ongoing wellbeing. Such experiences can lead to mistrust, frustration, or disengagement, adding another layer to therapeutic work.
This workshop offers an ACT-informed approach to working with the unique challenges that arise in this context. With its emphasis on psychological flexibility, values-driven action, and compassionate engagement with suffering, ACT provides a powerful framework for supporting clients to reconnect with meaning and agency, even in the face of ongoing limitations.
What you will gain from this workshop
By attending this workshop, you will:
- Deepen your understanding of the diverse psychological impacts of chronic and long-term health conditions, including anticipatory grief, shifting identity, and the ongoing tension between acceptance and hope through an ACT-informed lens.
- Learn how to use specific ACT techniques to support clients navigating uncertainty, such as:
- Exercises to help clients relate differently to relapsing/remitting patterns
- Present-moment anchoring to manage fear of future deterioration
- Creative hopelessness to work with stuckness and loss of control
- Develop practical ways to use ACT processes flexibly in your clinical work, including:
- Values clarification tools for clients facing reduced function or changing roles
- Self-as-context exercises to help decentre from illness identity
- Brief ACT interventions for use in time-limited or multidisciplinary settings
- Enhance your own psychological flexibility as a practitioner through reflective exercises that:
- Clarify your role and values when working with long-term distress
- Build capacity to hold space for uncertainty, suffering, and non-fixable problems
- Help you stay grounded, especially when clients’ progress is non-linear or ambiguous
About this workshop
This 2 hour workshop will focus on experiential exercises that will allow you to personally engage with ACT processes and understand their application. Case examples will bring theoretical concepts to life, illustrating practical ways to support clients navigating chronic illness. Live demonstrations will further enhance learning, providing clear, actionable insights into how ACT strategies can be effectively used in real-world clinical scenarios.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is ideal for psychologists, counsellors, mental health professionals, allied health workers including OTs, physios and SLTs, and other practitioners supporting individuals living with chronic health conditions. Whether you’re working with clients managing pain, fatigue, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, or functional syndromes, this training will provide you with valuable insights and practical strategies.
Attendees are expected to have a basic working knowledge of ACT. For those seeking introductory ACT courses, explore our ACT essentials course here.