ACT for Treating Children (The Essential Guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Kids)

A brief 6-10 session protocol. Clear, practical, and developmentally appropriate strategies to help children ages 5 to 12 learn effective coping skills, manage emotions, and bounce back from life’s difficulties.

If you treat children struggling with mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety, you know that approaches designed for adults do not work with younger clients. ACT for Treating Children presents skills grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help children regulate emotions and cope with the inevitable ups and downs of life, and is suitable for clinicians with no prior knowledge of or training in ACT, as well as seasoned ACT clinicians.

Written by an experienced educational and developmental psychologist, this practical clinician’s guide outlines a simplified version of the ACT Hexaflex—a key component of this treatment model—called the Kidflex, to help young clients build resilience and psychological flexibility. You’ll also find detailed case studies, transcripts, activities, experiential exercises, worksheets, and session plans to help you develop the skillset you need to help children overcome disorders such as stress, anxiety and depression. Finally, you’ll find strategies for involving parents in treatment when appropriate, and enlisting them as ‘ACT coaches’ in the child’s therapy.

It can be difficult to know where to start when using ACT for individual therapy with children. That’s why the skills in this go-to guide are practical and easy-to-implement, can be done with children in both face-to-face therapy and online sessions, and are simple enough for children to put into practice in any setting—whether it’s at home, in school, or out in the world.