Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with children

This webinar will explore how and why Acceptance Commitment Therapy can be applied to children.

There will be a particular focus on the language we use when approaching difficulty and how setting up these expectations in young people, places them on the path for managing life hurdles in a more effective way as they grow and develop across the lifespan.

Foundational. This activity is targeted to those who are new to the topic.

This webinar will be recorded. Access to the recording and presenter slides is for 12 months from the date of confirmed registration.

This activity has been assessed against the APS Standards for CPD activities and approved for its education quality. Learn more about the APS CPD Approval process.

Neuro-affirming Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for autistic kids and teens 

Refer to the APS CPD Frequently Asked Questions for general and technical information when undertaking APS Professional development activities.

Upon completion of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• connect with young people using the language and foundations of ACT while developing a compassionate ACT “layer” to underpin therapeutic interactions,

• teach flexibility to young people to enable them to handle difficult thoughts and feelings as they emerge via cognitive defusion, noticing and acceptance,

• describe incidental mindfulness as alternatives to meditation when it is disliked or ineffective,

• identify ways to work with acceptance and experiential avoidance, and

• guide young people towards a valued and meaningful life in the face of difficulty.

Jodie Wassner MAPS

Jodie Wassner is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist with over 25 years experience counselling young people and their families in Melbourne and Sydney. She divides her professional time equally between clinic work with young people and educational training via local and international workshops, as well as supervision for psychologists and provisional psychologists worldwide. Jodie has co-written a ten-session manual for psychologists working with anxious children using the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and has written a clinician's guide to using ACT with children, including a comprehensive section on neurodiversity.

She is especially familiar with the issues that are likely to emerge across the developmental period and has extensive experience working with anxiety, depression, autism, attention deficits, learning difficulties, grief, anger, family conflict, bullying, sleep disturbance, stress management, social skills, school attendance problems, eating disturbance and OCD.