Neuro-Affirming Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Autistic Kids and Teens
About this Workshop
Working with autism is a key skill requirement for practitioners working with young people. This includes the ability to adapt therapeutic interventions in a way that is meaningful to neurodivergent young people.

One particular intervention that is particularly useful for working with autistic young people is Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT helps build skills of psychological flexibility to assist young people to successfully navigate various tasks including learning habits, social relationships and emotion regulation.

In this workshop, Jodie Wassner will guide you through some of the key practical strategies and adaptations you can make to ensure your work is fun, flexible and impactful. The workshop is self-paced and takes approximately 8-hours to complete in total.

Through an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy framework, participants will learn how to promote flexibility in young people and parents via:
- Guiding young people towards a valued and meaningful life in the face of difficulty.
- Teaching of flexibility to young people to enable them to handle difficult thoughts and feelings as they emerge.
- Enhancing willingness to experience difficulty via cognitive and behavioural techniques.
- Recognising the “why” behind a behaviour to help guide adult action with the best chance of success.
- Utilising language that promotes better listening and calmer responses.
- Understanding differences in brain function that impact a child’s responses.
- Preventing meltdowns.
- Developing persistence
- Celebrating diversity and the strengths that typically accompany neurodivergence, particularly autism.
- Recognising best times and best methods for teaching social skills through a neuro-affirming lens.
- Working with parents

This highly practical workshop is designed for professionals who are already familiar with autistic presentations, including psychologists, social workers, counsellors, teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and behaviour analysts.
Modules
  • Module 1
    Neurodiversity and Connection Through an ACT Lens
    Sunday, January 14, 2024 · 2:30 PM AEDT
    This module will explore the neuro-affirming paradigm and its relevance for ACT practitioners. We will focus on developing authentic rapport that is meaningful for neurodivergent young people, as a gateway towards skill development.
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  • Module 2
    Why ACT for Autism?
    Sunday, January 14, 2024 · 9:30 PM AEDT
    This module will explore the basics of ACT, including psychological flexibility and ACTS’s 6 core principles. We will explore how ACT is uniquely placed to assist neurodivergent young people to find value and meaning, despite the obstacles they may encounter.
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  • Module 3
    Behavioural Neuroscience
    Wednesday, January 17, 2024 · 7:30 PM AEDT
    This module will utilise multiple tools that will assist you to provide engaging psychoeducation for young people around how the brain works and why it is relevant to their well-being and their capacity to make life more workable. Behavioural neuroscience for parents is additionally discussed in detail, to assist you to coach parents to recognise the “why” of a behaviour.
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  • Module 4
    Values
    Sunday, January 14, 2024 · 1:30 PM AEDT
    The core ACT principle of Values will be explored. Participants will learn different ideas for eliciting values and turning them into action, in a way that is compatible with neurodivergent learning styles.
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  • Module 5
    Psychological Flexibility
    Sunday, January 14, 2024 · 1:00 PM AEDT
    This module will investigate the key ACT goal of psychological flexibility. Despite their tendency towards rigidity, young autistic people can be taught the skill of psychological flexibility. Creative ideas for scaffolding and testing this skill will be covered, with an emphasis on “reading” the young person’s capacity to be challenged.
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  • Module 6
    Working with Difficult Thoughts
    Wednesday, January 17, 2024 · 8:30 PM AEDT
    Cognitions play a major role in our ability to face difficulty. This highly detailed module will vigorously explore various ACT strategies including cognitive defusion, acceptance and mindfulness, to assist the young person to manage difficulty when it shows up.
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  • Module 7:
    Getting your ACT on: Mindfulness, Self as Context, Committed Action
    Wednesday, January 17, 2024 · 8:30 PM AEDT
    This module takes an even deeper dive into some of the more complex principles of ACT and provides practical strategies for applying these to autistic kids and teens in a neuro-affirming way.
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  • Module 8
    Module 8: Social Skills Through a Neuro-Affirming ACT Lens
    Thursday, January 18, 2024 · 8:30 PM AEDT
    This module will explore ideas for assisting neurodivergent kids and teens to recognise potential reasons behind miscommunication. Young people are encouraged to be their true selves but to also recognise why things can go wrong socially. Implicit social skills training is discussed, in recognition of the fact that many young people dislike explicit social skills training. Assisting parents in this area is additionally covered.
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