Building Confidence in ACT: A Panel Discussion for Early Career Clinicians

Featuring:  Julie Grove (AU), Ben Sedley (NZ), Michael Swadling (AU), and Linda Nicholson (AU)

Do you want to learn more about ACT from seasoned practitioners, researchers and trainers from Australia and New Zealand? This free webinar is an opportunity to have your questions answered in a relaxed online forum.  

Whether you want to know more about ACT assessment, case conceptualisation, change processes or the research and theory that underpins ACT, our panellists will be able to answer your questions.  

Speakers will also share their insights about how ACT has transformed their practice and the local and international pathways for further supervision and training.  

If you would like to submit a question, please email past.president@anzacbs.com

Hosted by the ANZ Chapter of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. ANZ ACBS is a registered health promotion charity.

About the panellists:

Julie Grove runs a private practice offering individual therapy to adults and adolescents, providing supervision in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to psychologists and psychologists-in-training, and delivering bespoke training and workshops to organisations in ACT and mindfulness.

Julie is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). She is a past board member and past President of the Australian and New Zealand chapter of the Association of Contextual Behavioural Science.

Michael Swadling is a clinical psychologist, board-approved supervisor, and AuDHDer. He has recently returned to clinical work as a student counsellor at RMIT, after spending 2 years as RMIT's Senior Advisor for Mental Wellbeing Initiatives. His clinical work focuses on a broad range of issues impacting tertiary students, with interests in neurodivergence, burnout, and responses to trauma. His therapeutic work utilises Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Clinical Behaviour Analysis, and interest in these areas have led to organising events for the Melbourne ACT and Contextual Behavioural Science (CBS) community, serving as 2023 President for the Australia-New Zealand chapter of ACBS (the global ACT and CBS association), and organising the 3 most recent regional ACBS conferences. He's also passionate about the need for experiential supervision and peer consultation, and on skill development through deliberate practice. His research ventures have focused on the wellbeing and burnout of psychologists and other human service professionals, and he's recently been pursuing further research around university staff and student experiences of psychosocial safety climate, psychosocial risk factors, role engagement, and exhaustion.

Ben Sedley is a clinical psychologist and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) practitioner with over twenty years of experience working with kids, adolescents, adults and families facing mental health difficulties. He has worked at Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Victoria University as a Clinical Practice Advisor, Massey University as a Student Counsellor and in London at an IAPT CBT Service. He is currently in Private Practice working with a mix of adults and teens struggling with trauma, OCD or other life difficulties. He is the only NZ Based ACBS Peer Reviewed ACT Trainer and been active in ANZ ACBS for the past decade. He is also the father of three wonderful noisy kids and loves The Ramones and The Clash.

Dr Linda Nicholson is a clinical psychologist working in private practice in Canberra, Australia. Linda has over 20 years’ experience as a clinician and over 15 years’ experience as a supervisor in cognitive behavioural therapies, specifically Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She has worked in the university sector (training budding clinical psychology students), in the non-government sector and privately. Linda’s PhD involved utilising Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Police officers to improve their emotional well-being. She has developed the SHAPE framework of supervision (based on ACT processes) with her colleague Dr Eric Morris and is passionate about delivering workshops on SHAPE both internationally and nationally. Linda’s therapeutic approach with clients is based on ACT and more importantly she applies these processes in her everyday life, believing it is essential to have embodied ACT personally to deliver the approach in an authentic way.