5 week course with Miia Dhinita Chambers
Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm | 6, 13, 20 May (No Session on 27 May), 3, 10 June
Costs: £195 [£150 Concession]
For our concessions policy please click here.
What is ACT Skills for Life
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based approach that helps individuals build mental and emotional flexibility, and support their ability to stay present and act in line with personal values, even when life feels hard.
ACT training develops the ability to use awareness, acceptance, and behavioural strategies to live a more meaningful life, even in the face of unpleasant feelings and life’s inevitable challenges. ACT offers very practical tools and strategies that can help keep us on track towards what matters to us.
This 5 week course is for you if you wish to:
● Increase your awareness and understanding of yourself
● Find more skilful and flexible ways to relate to life’s challenges
● Identify your values and move in a direction that matters to you
Benefits of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Training
According to research, ACT can support people with anxiety, depression, trauma, chronic pain, and stress. The approach can also support personal growth; many people find that ACT improves their self-awareness, emotional resilience and sense of purpose. The approach has been shown to improve participant’s understanding of their mental, emotional and behavioural patterns, and providing practical and behavioural strategies that can be integrated into daily life.
Key Concepts
ACT is built around six core processes that work together to promote psychological flexibility:
1. Acceptance – Making space for, and relating wisely in relation to uncomfortable emotions and experiences rather than avoiding or battling them.
2. Cognitive Defusion – Learning to observe thoughts as impermanent passing mental events, and relating to thoughts more skilfully.
3. Present-Moment Awareness – Cultivating mindful attention to here-and-now experiences.
4. Self-as-Context – Recognising a sense of self that observes experiences without being defined or hijacked by them.
5. Values – Clarifying what matters to you, and how to move towards a meaningful direction.
6. Committed Action – Taking concrete steps guided by values, even in the presence of discomfort.
Course Approach
This course offers an introduction to the ACT Skills for Life, and serves as a practical approach that supports your choices and actions in daily life. During sessions there will be a chance to explore through a range of methods such as experiential exercises, individual and shared reflection, metaphors and guided mindfulness practices, that are all designed to support learning and application to your own life context. The course is friendly and offers you the choice to take part in ways that suit you. The course encourages us to notice our experience and to bring care, patience and kindness to the process and oneself.
Course Facilitator:
Dhinita (Miia Chambers) is a Trainer and Supervisor in MBSR (Bangor University), MBCT (Oxford University) , ACT City (University College London), MSC, CFT, & Radical Self Care programmes.
Dhinita has worked for and with Mind mental health charity for more than a decade, and currently works with a range of organisations as a trainer, coach and supervisor.
Previously co-chair of the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches, and Chair of City and Hackney LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group. Dhinita is also an ex-Finnish International tennis professional. As an accomplished mental health practitioner, she has extensive experience of working with individuals and groups using Mindfulness approaches, as well as developing impactful, evidence-based training and interventions.