ACT in Practice:

A Functional Behavioral Approach to Promoting Psychological Flexibility

Learn to integrate ACT into your practice as a behavior analyst—go beyond the basics with experts Dr. Evelyn Gould and Dr. Siri Ming

In this two-part on-demand course, Drs. Siri Ming and Evelyn Gould bring together the science of behavior and the spirit of compassion to help behavior analysts integrate ACT into their practice—ethically, functionally, and in full alignment with core behavior analytic principles.

Grounded in contextual behavior science and decades of clinical experience, this course explores psychological flexibility not only as a key behavioral repertoire, but as a guiding principle for socially valid, values-based intervention. Whether you’re working with children, families, teams, or yourself, you’ll learn to conceptualize and promote psychological flexibility across developmental levels and contexts.

Part 1: Coming soon!
Part 2: Coming Spring 2026

Learn more

Meet your instructors

Siri Ming, Ph.D., BCBA-D (she/her)

Siri is a behavior analyst, coach, and educator with over 30 years of experience helping professionals build lives and practices grounded in clarity, purpose, and compassion. A peer-reviewed ACT trainer and co-author of Finding Your Why and Finding Your Way, Siri specializes in translating the science of behavior—and the heart of psychological flexibility—into everyday tools that support sustainable, values-based action. Whether you’re seeking better systems for managing time, clarifying purpose, or simply navigating the day-to-day with more intention, Siri’s courses are designed to meet you where you’re at.

Known for making complex ideas practical, Siri has been teaching and mentoring behavior analysts around the world throughout her career, emphasizing humility, collaboration, and socially meaningful outcomes. In addition to her courses with Constellations, she co-facilitates our practitioner lab and provides coaching and consultation for professionals and teams working in early language development.

Her work is grounded in values of rigor, generosity, and kindness—and a commitment to supporting professionals who are ready to go deeper in their practice.

Learn more about Siri’s work at www.siriming.com.

Evelyn Gould, Ph.D., BCBA-D (they/she)

Dr. Evelyn Gould (they/she) is a licensed clinical psychologist, board certified behavior analyst, and Fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS). They are internationally recognized for their work at the intersection of contextual behavioral science and applied behavior analysis, with a focus on compassionate, values-based, and socially valid care.

Evelyn specializes in supporting neurodivergent individuals and their families, often in complex or interdisciplinary contexts. Their work emphasizes trauma-informed, culturally responsive practices and the importance of psychological flexibility not only as an intervention goal, but as a foundation for ethical supervision, effective collaboration, and personal resilience.

As a clinician, researcher, trainer, and systems consultant, Evelyn has contributed extensively to the integration of ACT and ABA in both research and practice. Their teaching reflects deep clinical wisdom, humility, and a commitment to helping professionals bring curiosity, connection, and contextual sensitivity into their work

Learn more about Evelyn’s work at https://evelyngouldphd.com

About the Course

This two-part, on-demand course offers a clear and compassionate framework for integrating ACT into your practice as a behavior analyst. Led by Drs. Evelyn Gould and Siri Ming, the course draws from decades of clinical experience, research, and hands-on application. You’ll explore the conceptual foundations of ACT and learn practical strategies for assessing and intervening in ACT-consistent ways with clients across contexts.

This course presents a functional contextual view of ACT that is not defined by models, techniques, protocols or curricula—you’ll gain a powerful framework for supporting real-world change, rooted in science and aligned with your scope.

This course is for behavior analysts who want to:

  • Apply ACT meaningfully and functionally within their scope of practice and competence

  • Support the development of psychological flexibility across a range of client populations and practice settings

  • Deepen their understanding of the complex relational repertoires that support psychological flexibility, including selfing, valuing, and rule-governed behavior

  • Strengthen their own psychological flexibility, effectiveness, and well-being

What’s included:

  • A self-paced course packed with practical, theoretically grounded content

  • A developmentally aligned framework for promoting psychological flexibility as a complex repertoire

  • Case conceptualization tools and exercises

  • Asynchronous expert support through an online community—ask questions, get feedback, and join the conversation at any time

Part 1 of this course provides 4 BACB Learning CEUs (2 Ethics).

As a course within our Constellations community, the ACT in Behavior Analytic Practice course has been created to serve three functions, with activities carefully designed for you to:

Learn: In every module, Siri and Evelyn present educational and practical content to you through a variety of short video presentations and text-based lessons to teach you the conceptual core of each module’s topic. Extra bonus content in the form of curated articles, podcasts, blogs or videos, gives you the opportunity to take a deeper dive into the technical aspects of each topic as your time and interest dictate.

Apply: Practical and experiential exercises will have you immediately putting the concepts to work for you in your own professional and personal practice. You’ll also get a course handbook to help you with preparing for the course, guiding your experience of it, and integrating what you have learned into your practice.

Connect: The course is designed to create community, and to foster connections that spark new ideas and forge new relationships. An asynchronous discussion board and threaded lesson discussions are available to you for getting your questions answered or simply posting your thoughts for discussion. You will also have access to a trial membership in our community of practice and practitioner lab, where you can carry the momentum from the course forward, both asynchronously and by joining our live meetings to discuss all things RFT, ACT, and ABA.

Part 1: Coming soon!

What participants say…

  • This course felt like a warm, conceptually-systematic hug!

  • An excellent opportunity to learn about, and practice, flexibility and growth. A very person centered and connected way to learn about acceptance and commitment therapy, and its application to ourselves and the people we work for.

  • I’d highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in furthering their knowledge of psychological flexibility as a behaviour analyst. It has shaped my clinical practice and increased my confidence as a clinician.

  • If you want to go beyond intermediate ACT terminology and gain a deep understanding of this approach—especially when working with complex or resistant clients—this is the course for you. It creatively integrates functional analysis concepts with RFT, offering an innovative and engaging learning experience.

  • This course was a great introduction to ACT without being overwhelmed by jargon or harder to understand concepts. The self-pacing was setup really well with a lot of extra materials to reference when needed. Both speakers are incredibly knowledgeable and encouraging. So glad I invested!

  • Drs. Ming and Gould do an amazing job of breaking down the complex ACT concepts and, more importantly, demonstrating how they interact to promote psychological flexibility. The instruction and discussion leadership made this important topic more approachable and meaningful to behavior analysts, regardless of their previous exposure and experience with ACT.

What to expect

The course is divided into two parts, each of which consists of three modules. Each module includes see five-six sequential lessons to complete that consist of short videos, text, and asynchronous discussion activities.

Each module also has a variety of application activities that you should expect to spend more time on, with your clients or in your organization, as well as bonus content to explore further.

Here is an outline of the course material:

Part 1 — Introduction to ACT as Behavior Analysis

Module 1: Psychological Flexibility as the aim of ACT

  • The importance of psychological flexibility as a repertoire

  • Defining ACT: Psychological flexibility as a guiding principle and aim

  • Defining ACT: Cooperative contexts for change

  • Defining ACT: The ACT Stance

  • Defining ACT: Understanding appetitive and aversive relations

  • Defining ACT: Transforming stimulus functions

Module 2: Integrating ACT into your work as a Behavior Analyst

  • ACT as ABA: Scope of practice

  • ACT as ABA: Scope of competence

  • ACT as ABA: Psychological flexibility within interlocking contingencies

  • ACT as ABA: Contextual functional analysis

  • ACT as ABA: ACT-consistent case conceptualization

Module 3: ACT, Psychological Flexibility, & Social Validity

  • Psychological flexibility and social validity: Goals

  • Psychological flexibility and social validity: Procedures

  • Psychological flexibility and social validity: Outcomes/Effectiveness

  • Socially valid goal-setting in ACT

  • Wrapping up: Case conceptualization in ACT

Part 2: Repertoires of Psychological Flexibility

Module 1: Foundations for psychological flexibility

  • Doing something different—Behavioral variability

  • Noticing—Increasing complexity and flexibility of stimulus control

  • Promoting curiosity—Broadening repertoires in the face of adversity

  • Joint Attention—A foundation for connection and learning

  • Deriving—Establishing new relations and relational flexibility

  • The social dance—Conceptualizing psychological flexibility in the context of interlocking contingencies

Module 2 Self-ing and psychological flexibility

  • Foundations for self-ing

  • Perspective-taking

  • Hierarchical framing

  • Self-ing Repertoires

  • Promoting healthy self-ing

  • Me and You—Conceptualizing psychological flexibility in the context of interlocking contingencies

Module 3 Rules, values, and psychological flexibility

  • Rules—Pliance, tracking and augmenting

  • Valuing and transformation of function

  • Psychological flexibility and the dimensions of relational framing

  • Rules and problems of psychological flexibility

  • Psychological flexibility and interlocking contingencies: Promoting flexibility for ourselves and others, across the lifespan

  • Wrapping up: Case Conceptualization

Sample lesson material
Part 1 Coming soon!
Part 2: Coming Spring 2026

Learning Objectives

Experiential Objectives

  1. Describe ACT as the promotion of psychological flexibility within cooperative contexts for change, based on contextual functional analysis.

  2. Discuss how adopting psychological flexibility as a guiding principle and primary outcome of behavior analytic services supports social validity.

  3. Develop goals related to psychological flexibility that focus on measurable objective behavior change. 

  4. Describe and conceptualize psychological flexibility repertoires within the context of interlocking contingencies (parent child over time, practitioner-client, supervisor-supervisee, etc.)

  5. Describe how psychological flexibility and generative behavior is related to enriching environments, expanding repertoires, expanding sources of reinforcement, and increasing choice-making opportunities and skills. 

  6. Identify at least one way that psychological flexibility (or inflexibility) impacts you personally as a behavior analyst, and identify strategies for increasing your own psychological flexibility

  7. Identify the ways in which your own practice supports or hinders flexibility (in yourself and others).

Technical/Educational Objectives

  1. Define psychological flexibility from a behavior analytic perspective.

  2. Describe ACT as the promotion of psychological flexibility within cooperative contexts for change, grounded in functional analysis.

  3. Describe how observing and stimulus orienting is a critical foundational skill for psychological flexibility and executive functioning.

  4. Define component repertoires of  behavioral variability, perspective taking (including empathy, compassion and self-compassion), selfing, hierarchical framing, curiosity and valuing.

  5. Describe/define rule-governed behavior from an RFT perspective.

  6. Describe the relationship between rule-governed behavior and psychological flexibility.

  7. Describe how component repertoires are learned over time and contribute to the composite repertoire of psychological flexibility.

Part 1 Coming soon!
Part 2: Coming Jan 2026