Masterclass | ACT and Chronic Illness: Beyond Symptom Management

Chronic illness often confronts both clients and clinicians with a profound therapeutic dilemma. Symptoms persist despite best medical care, functioning is compromised, and repeated efforts to control or avoid distress can paradoxically narrow lives further.

ACT and Chronic Illness: Beyond Symptom Management is a six-hour, evidence-based masterclass that addresses this challenge directly, drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a well-established approach for chronic pain and long-term health conditions.

ACT has demonstrated robust outcomes in chronic illness contexts, including improvements in functioning, emotional well-being, and engagement in valued activities, even when pain and other symptoms remain. Research indicates that processes such as acceptance, cognitive defusion, and values-based action are more strongly associated with improved quality of life than symptom reduction alone.

This masterclass situates ACT within the lived reality of chronic illness, where uncertainty, fluctuating capacity, grief for the former self, and ongoing medical stressors are central clinical themes.

Across the training, participants will explore how to formulate chronic illness presentations using the ACT model of psychological flexibility. Particular attention is given to experiential avoidance, illness-related threat narratives, identity disruption, and the tension between self-care and valued action. The course integrates theory with clinical practice, offering practical language, metaphors, and interventions that can be adapted for clients with pain, fatigue, autoimmune conditions, neurological illness, and other long-term conditions.

By the end of the masterclass, participants will be better equipped to help clients loosen the struggle with uncontrollable symptoms, reconnect with values, and build sustainable patterns of living that honour both limitations and aspirations. This training is suitable for psychologists, therapists, counsellors, and other mental health professionals seeking a compassionate, realistic, and empirically grounded approach to chronic illness work.