ACT for ADHD
This advanced level, four-week online course covers practical tools, techniques, strategies and principles for working with every aspect of ADHD.
About the course
Start date
Coming soonTime
12hrs | 4 weeksWho this course is for
For Mental Health Professionals, Health Professionals Accreditation
12 CE/CME CreditsADHD is a double-edged sword. It comes with many strengths - such as courage, creativity, spontaneity, sociability, originality – but also with many problems, such as inattention, distractability, impulsivity, and emotion dysregulation. The good news is, with its flexible format, and easy-to-adapt core processes, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is ideally suited for making a difference – especially when delivered from a neuro-affirming stance.
In this advanced-level online course, Dr Russ Harris shows you how to apply ACT effectively with every common aspect of ADHD, and how to work with clients who have dual or triple diagnoses (e.g. ASD and ADHD). You’ll learn how to scaffold executive functioning, break through task inertia, and create all sorts of quick’n’easy mindfulness practices ideal for clients who can’t sit still, can't focus, or find it almost impossible to meditate.
Learn ACT for ADHD with World-Renowned ACT Trainer Dr Russ Harris
Dr Russ Harris, author of the million-copy bestseller, The Happiness Trap, is a world-leading ACT trainer. He is a consultant to the World Health Organization, and a pioneer in making ACT accessible and practical. It’s no surprise that his textbook, ACT Made Simple, is the world’s top-selling textbook on ACT.
Through fun and engaging video lessons (if you know, you know!), powerful therapy demonstrations, and ongoing interactive discussions in the forum, Russ will guide you, step-by-step, as you develop skills you can use right away.
You’ll see real clients, making real changes, in real time. And, although the course focuses on adults, everything covered is relevant and easily adaptable for adolescents.
Why Does ACT Work So Well for ADHDers?
ADHDers often have additional clinical issues such as depression, addiction, trauma, rejection sensitivity, and perfectionism. ACT offers a powerful, flexible, non-pathologising approach that’s well suited for such complex presentations.
It’s flexible: ACT’s processes are readily adapted and tailored to suit each unique individual - taking into account their strengths, desires, and challenges, rather than formulaically following a ‘one size fits all’ approach
It’s compassionate: At the core of ACT, there’s a central focus on acknowledging suffering and responding with kindness, which fosters self-compassion and emotional safety.
It’s empowering: ACT helps ADHDers to connect deeply with their values, and take effective action to improve their health and wellbeing; to break through inertia and procrastination, and practice new skills that improve executive function
Practical Skills You'll Build
You’ll learn how to creatively apply ACT principles with a broad range of ADHD issues - all within a compassionate, neuroaffirming format, that empowers clients to recognize and utilize their neurodivergent strengths:
Understand ADHD through a neurodiversity-affirming, biopsychosocial lens
Scaffold executive function skills, such as emotion flexibility, attention flexibility and cognitive flexibility
Use simple, powerful defusion strategies to undermine harsh self-judgment, and break free from rigid rules
Counteract inattention distractibility with ‘mindfulness on the go’: simple refocusing exercises that are easily done, any time, any place
Utilize practical motivational strategies to overcome inertia and break through procrastination
Work ‘bottom up’: interoception, body awareness, somatic mindfulness
Interrupt hyperfocus (in contexts where it’s problematic), and refocus attention on what’s most important
Foster self-acceptance and self-compassion
Integrate sensory self-soothing and other forms of ACT-congruent emotion regulation
Undermine rumination, worrying and obsessing
Implement successful strategies for forgetfulness, impulsivity, disorganization, and time blindness
Prevent or recover from burnout with values-based, compassion-focused pacing & resting strategies (including ‘spoon theory’)
and soooo much more!
Please note: we will not cover diagnosis and assessment. Instead, the course focuses on practical intervention: tools, techniques, principles and strategies you can use effectively with any client, whether they have a formal diagnosis or not.
Course Structure and Format
This is a 12-hour online course, delivered over 4 weeks. You’ll receive approximately 3 hours of new content per week, including video lessons, therapy demonstrations, client handouts, and interactive exercises. You’ll be supported by Russ himself in the forum, where you can share your experiences, ask questions and learn within a worldwide professional community.
You’ll have 12 months of access, so you can learn entirely at your own pace and revisit key materials anytime. You don't need to be online at a specific time!
Enrollments
We're happy to help if you can't attend the current intake. Please contact our customer service once your purchase is finalized, and we can enroll you in the intake of your choice. If you need an invoice, please fill out the form here.
Who This Course is For
This course is open to all mental health and health professionals, including psychologists, therapists, counsellors, psychiatrists, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, speech therapists, BCBAs, and coaches.
However, this is an advanced level course, so we recommend you have a solid beginners level understanding of ACT. This can include:
Attend an introductory level 2-day ACT workshop (with any ACT trainer; it doesn’t have to be with Russ), or
Complete our online ACT for Beginners course, or
Work through a beginners-level ACT textbook from start to end, such as ACT Made Simple, 2nd edition.
There are 12 CE/CME hours available (see Learner Notification here).
What You'll Learn
Course Goals
- Hone your ACT skills and learn specific methods for working with ADHD
- Learn how to use ACT to scaffold executive functioning in seven main areas: working memory, impulse control, attention control, planning & organization, emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, task initiation & completion
- Adapt and individualize mindfulness interventions to suit the needs of clients who find it hard or impossible to visualize, sit still, or meditate
- Learn how to effectively address and interrupt therapy-interfering behaviors
- Learn how to keep clients focused and on-task when their attention keeps wandering
- Learn how to work with clients who have dual or triple diagnoses (e.g. ASD and ADHD)
Course modules
Course excerpts
How Your Course Works
Frequently asked questions