For therapists who know the basics of ACT but still find themselves second-guessing what to do next, Adv-ACT helps you move beyond scattered techniques and into clearer case formulation, more flexible in-session decision-making, and grounded therapeutic presence.

You’ll learn how to:

• develop the habits, systems, and clinical judgement that help ACT become more usable under pressure

• use ACT more coherently in real sessions

• respond more skilfully when clients get stuck, avoid, intellectualise, or derail

• build confidence through guided practice, feedback, and support

• become more experiential without sounding scripted or mechanical

From information to transformation: Making ACT more usable in the room

Many ACT therapists reach the same frustrating point.

• You’ve done some ACT training.
• You understand the model.
• You know the six processes.
• You may even use ACT regularly.

But real sessions are messier than the textbook.

• A client talks in circles.
• Defusion falls flat.
• Values work stays vague.
• You are not sure whether to slow down, go deeper, challenge, validate, or shift direction.
• You want to be more experiential, but you are not sure how to do it well.
• You care deeply about your clients, yet sometimes leave sessions wondering…

What should I be doing?

That gap – between knowing ACT concepts and using ACT with confidence and consistency in real moments – is what this programme is designed to help you close.

The bridge between learning ACT and using it skilfully in practice

Adv-ACT is a six-month training and coaching programme for therapists who already know the basics of ACT and want help using it more effectively with real clients.

This is not another theory-heavy course.

It is a guided developmental process that helps you move from:

• patchy application to greater coherence
• self-doubt to clearer in-session choices
• relying on techniques to seeing process and function
• learning ACT from the outside in to applying it from the inside out
• hoping you improve over time to deliberately strengthening your skills with feedback and practice

The aim is not perfection.

The aim is to help you become a more grounded, flexible, thoughtful, and effective ACT therapist (or coach, analyst, practitioner) – someone who can think more clearly in session, respond more skilfully to complexity, and keep growing after the programme ends.

What makes this programme different

Many ACT therapists do not need more concepts.

They need a way to turn what they already know into better moment-to-moment practice.

That is why Adv-ACT combines:

• focused teaching
• guided implementation
• structured reflection
• deliberate practice
• skills assessment
• role-play and rehearsal
• feedback on recorded work
• peer support and accountability

You won’t just consume content and hope it translates.

You will practise, review, refine, and strengthen the parts of your work that matter most.

This applied focus is built into the programme itself: structured observation of therapist behaviour, feedback on ACT-consistent and inconsistent responses, and deliberate practice routines designed to build procedural skill rather than just conceptual knowledge.

How the programme works

Adv-ACT unfolds across three developmental levels and nine steps.

The structure gives you a clear path.

It is to help you build the capacities that make ACT more natural, skilful, and usable in real-world clinical work.

Level 1: Foundation

We begin with you as the therapist.

Before you can use ACT with greater flexibility in the room, it helps to understand the values, struggles, rules, and self-stories that shape your own responding.

In this first level, you will:

• clarify the kind of therapist you want to become
• identify patterns that interfere with your effectiveness
• learn to step back from self-stories and self-judgements
• build self-practice and self-reflection routines
• strengthen openness, willingness, and defusion in your own professional life

It isn’t therapy.  It is therapist development.

And it matters, of course, because the therapist is part of the context in every session.

Level 2: Systemisation

Next, we build systems that help you improve your clinical work more consistently.

You will learn how to:

• assess and track client progress more deliberately
• establish a baseline for your ACT skills
• use structured feedback to identify strengths and developmental targets
• build deliberate practice routines that turn random effort into ongoing growth
• use small-group rehearsal and peer consultation to refine your work

This level is about reducing guesswork.

Instead of simply hoping experience will make you better, you will learn how to observe your work, track what is happening, and make specific improvements over time.

Level 3: Proficiency

Finally, we focus on using ACT more skilfully in the complexity of real practice.

You will work on:

• functional analysis that goes beyond surface content
• seeing the arc of ACT more clearly across a session
• shaping psychological flexibility through live interaction
• responding more effectively to stuck moments, rupture, defensiveness, and avoidance
• strengthening your therapeutic stance in challenging relational moments
• reflective practice, endings, and ongoing development

This is where ACT becomes less like a set of techniques and more like a way of seeing, responding, and shaping behaviour change.

The 9-step process

Step 1: Know your context

Identify your values, struggles, and the therapist patterns that shape how you respond in session.

Step 2: Step outside your story

Notice the judgements, narratives, and self-relating patterns that can quietly limit your work.

Step 3: Cultivate openness

Build self-practice and self-reflection routines that increase willingness, flexibility, and presence.

Step 4: Support client change

Learn to assess, nurture, and track client progress with more consistency and care.

Step 5: Assess your ACT skills

Establish a clearer baseline of your current strengths and development needs through structured review and feedback.

Step 6: Build deliberate practice routines

Turn vague intentions into specific, repeatable improvements through focused practice and coaching.

Step 7: Implement ongoing Functional Analysis inside the ACT process cycle

Learn how to see the flow of ACT more clearly from start to finish and respond more skilfully in the moment.

Step 8: See through complexity

Strengthen your ability to understand function, work with ruptures, and stay grounded in difficult or messy sessions.

Step 9: Reflect and integrate

Develop reflective practice, strengthen how you work with endings, and leave with a clearer path for continued growth.

What you will learn to do

By the end of the programme, you will be more able to:

• think functionally, not just conceptually
• formulate more clearly what is happening in session
• spot when ACT is becoming too verbal, too formulaic, or too technique-driven
• respond more effectively when clients are under aversive control
• work more experientially and with greater presence
• use feedback and self-observation to keep developing
• hold complexity with more steadiness, humility, and courage
• apply ACT in a way that feels more authentic and less performative

Who’s it for?

Adv-ACT is designed for therapists, coaches and other related professions who already know the basics of ACT and are ready to build greater skill in how they apply it.

This programme is likely to be a good fit if you:

This programme is probably not the right fit if:

What’s included?

When you join Adv-ACT, you get:

• Six months of training and group coaching
• A structured 9-step developmental programme
• Video lessons and syllabus materials
• Group practice sessions 3 weeks out of every 4
• Small-cohort learning with a maximum of 5 participants
• Structured feedback on your work
• Role-play, rehearsal, and consultation
• Support to build deliberate practice routines
• Access to the Openforwards ACT Learning Centre Community
• Personal coaching support from Jim Lucas

This is designed to be active, interpersonal, and accountable – not something you watch and leave unfinished.

This is not a quick fix.

Becoming more skilful in ACT takes more than inspiration, insight, or a handful of techniques.

Why this approach works better than self-study alone

Many therapists do not struggle because they are lacking ability.

They struggle because ACT is difficult to embody in real time.

Books and workshops can help you understand the model.  But they rarely give you enough support to:

• see your own patterns clearly
• identify specific missed opportunities
• practise difficult moves repeatedly
• get useful feedback on what you are doing
• refine your work in a structured way

Adv-ACT is built to close that gap.

Instead of trying to orchestrate your development alone, you get a clear progression, a small cohort, expert guidance, and a practice-based environment that helps learning translate into clinical action.

Your Investment

A serious training for therapists who are serious about becoming more effective in ACT

Your investment is:

£395 per month for 6 months
or
£2,370 paid in full

This includes:

• six months inside the Adv-ACT programme (+ one extra month for free)
• training and coaching with Jim Lucas, ACBS Peer-Reviewed ACT Trainer
• video lessons and structured learning materials
• group practice and consultation
• feedback and coaching support
• access to the Openforwards ACT Learning Centre Community
• a developmental process you can continue using after the programme ends

When is the next intake?

• We have three cohorts per year:
  • January (Winter Start) to June
  • May (Spring Start) to November
  • September (Autumn/Fall Start) to February
• Places are limited to five therapists per cohort so that the training stays focused, personal, and practice-based.

Can my employer pay for me?

Yes.

Your employer can pay in full or contribute toward the cost of the programme.
We simply require confirmation by email before the programme begins, including agreement to the relevant terms.

Ready to use ACT with more clarity, confidence, and cohesion?

If you already know the basics of ACT and want help turning that knowledge into stronger in-session work, Adv-ACT may be the next right step.