ACT: A Practical Guide for Rehabilitation Providers

This course was designed for OTs, PTs, and other rehab professionals who want real-world strategies for bringing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into clinical practice.

You’ll learn to use ACT both formally with structured tools and practices and informally, by weaving purposeful language and curiosity-driven questions into everyday sessions.

Expect a range of practical strategies, case examples and reflection prompts to help you integrate these skills into your clinical work. You’ll leave with a clear foundation in ACT’s core processes and the confidence to tailor an ACT approach to your own caseload.
Format
Virtual: Self-Paced
Facilitator
Lara Desrosiers BSc. Kin, MSc. OT Reg. (Ont)
Prerequisites
No expertise or previous learning in the content area is required.
Special Needs Requests
Learners requiring accommodations are encouraged to contact us at admin@amp-healthcare.ca. AMP Healthcare Education makes reasonable efforts to address identified needs in a timely and confidential manner to support equitable participation.
Duration
👉 Lifetime Access! Students will gain access to the course content immediately upon enrollment

👉Access to monthly office hours for 1 year

👉 ~13.5 hours of viewing & course work including digestable lessons, practices and reflections.

👉 Reflections and downloadable resources, handouts, worksheets, and case examples to review at your pace
Price (including tax)
$497
Course Description
Course Objectives
Course Features
Meet the Facilitator
Assessment & Certification
Target Audience
Cancellation Policy

Course Description

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is gaining traction in rehab for a reason.

Clients across orthopedics, neurology, concussion, pelvic health, chronic pain, and mental health often struggle just as much with their relationship to symptoms as with the symptoms themselves. ACT offers an evidence-based way to help them build psychological flexibility—so they can get unstuck and move toward what matters, even when symptoms persist.


This course was built for rehabilitation providers—especially OTs and PTs—who are ready for clear, concrete strategies to bring ACT into their practice. You’ll learn how to apply ACT both formally, using structured tools, handouts and metaphors, and informally, by weaving intentional language and curiosity-driven questions into everyday sessions.


You’ll also get BONUS Integration Guides—showing how ACT can be used not only as a powerful stand-alone intervention, but also as a lens to amplify the impact of the tools and approaches you already use in practice.


You’ll leave with a strong foundation in ACT’s core processes, clarity on how ACT supports rehabilitation goals, and the confidence to adapt these tools for your unique caseload. Mental health clinicians who want to strengthen their ability to support clients struggling with physical symptoms are also welcome and will benefit from this course.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, participants will be able to:
  1. Analyze psychological and behavioural processes that contribute to psychological flexibility and inflexibility and influence occupational performance and participation in rehabilitation.
  2. Apply ACT-informed frameworks to identify patterns of experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and values-based or values-disconnected behaviour within rehabilitation presentations.
  3. Apply ACT-informed strategies, including present-moment awareness, acceptance and willingness, cognitive defusion, values exploration, and committed action, to support psychological flexibility and participation in meaningful occupations.
  4. Apply ACT-informed therapeutic language, metaphors, scripts, and practical strategies to client scenarios across rehabilitation contexts.
  5. Integrate ACT principles with rehabilitation approaches such as education, pacing, exercise, sensory strategies, and CBT-informed interventions to support flexible, client-centred care.
  6. Adapt ACT-informed interventions to address barriers to participation across complex rehabilitation presentations, including persistent pain, fatigue, distressing physical symptoms, and fear-based avoidance.


Meet the Facilitator

Lara Desrosiers BSc. Kin, MSc. OT Reg. (Ont)

Lara Desrosiers, MScOT, OT Reg. (Ont.) is an occupational therapist with over 15 years of clinical experience in mental health and rehabilitation. Since graduating from McMaster University in 2009, she has worked extensively in community mental health, supporting individuals experiencing mental illness, trauma, addiction, persistent pain, and complex health conditions using evidence-informed occupational therapy and psychotherapeutic approaches.

Lara is the founder of Pelvic Resilience, a private practice in Ontario specializing in persistent pain, pelvic health, and psychologically informed rehabilitation. She has completed extensive post-professional training in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Motivational Interviewing, pain neuroscience, and trauma-informed care.

Through her clinical practice and continuing education programs, Lara supports rehabilitation professionals in integrating psychologically informed and trauma informed approaches into clinical practice. 

Disclosure Statement:

Financial Disclosure: Lara Desrosiers receives compensation as the developer and instructor of this course.

Non-Financial Disclosure: Lara Desrosiers has no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.

Assessment & Certification

AMP Healthcare Education is an AOTA Approved Provider of professional development. PD activity approval ID#0000017149. This distance learning-independent activity is offered at 1.35 CEUs, intermediate, OT Service Delivery and Foundational Knowledge.

The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.

In order to receive a course certificate and, for AOTA CEU seekers, CEUs, participants will be expected to complete all of the lessons (watch 100% of video lessons and open all E-books/PDFs) and submit all reflection practices. Participants will also be expected to complete a Knowledge Test at the end of the course with a minimum passing grade of 70% AND submit an evaluation of the overall learning experience.

Office hour attendance is optional.


Target Audience

This is an intermediate level course designed for Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists as well as other rehabilitation and mental health providers looking to gain evidence and skills for integrating ACT-informed principles into their practice working with individuals struggling with pain and other chronic health conditions. 

No previous learning or expertise in the content area of ACT is required. There are no pre-requisites to taking this course.

Cancellation Policy

We’re confident you’ll love what you find here. But if you take a look and decide it’s not the right fit, or the right time, no problem — we are happy to offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for this course.

Just let us know within 30 days of your purchase, and we’ll issue a refund (less a 10% administration fee). To request a refund, please email admin@amp-healthcare.ca.

Your learning journey is important to us, and we’re here to support you every step of the way!

LIFETIME ACCESS: your access to the course materials does not expire


Flexible, self-paced modules: breaking down concepts and illustrating translation to practice


Live Support! Access to monthly office hours for 1 year from purchase.


Key Strategies E-books: downloadable summaries of each ACT process and key strategies for working on it to have at your finger tips


Case Examples: practical, downloadable stories so that you can see how to translate concepts into your conversations and interventions


Integration Guides: ideas for applying ACT principles across your current toolset, with creativity and flexibility


Flexibility Boosts: short reflections that help you build your own adaptability as you apply this stuff


Quick Reference Snapshots: single-page reminders of ACT processes, signs of key stuck points to watch for, and key strategies to use


Case Formulation Template: a structure for deconstructing complex cases, spotting flexibility gaps, and planning your next steps

 All materials are downloadable and yours to keep—your very own ACT toolbox designed specifically for rehabilitation practice!

Testimonials

What our learners say

I went into the course thinking I already had a pretty good handle on working with chronic pain and the emotional side of it. But it actually shifted my thinking in a really helpful way. The ideas and skills were simple to bring into the clinic right away, and my conversations with patients feel a lot more natural now. Thanks Lara!!!
I am still trying to process all of the wonderful information, but I loved diving into ACT and can’t wait to keep going! The breakdown of each component was helpful, along with the resources and recommendations shared. I loved the introduction of “SMARTER” goals, as I’ve never heard that one before! I also really appreciate the suggestion to use the practices on ourselves, as the work we’re doing can be difficult and triggering at times. As a practitioner and an empath, I find myself feeling anxious from the hustle and bustle of each day and it can be hard to “embrace the shake”, so the suggestion to use it on myself is a nice reminder to give myself some grace.
The focus on practical application within this course was really helpful in solidifying my understanding of the concepts. So, hearing about Lara's real-life client examples was super helpful (and interesting)!

Course Lessons

Meet your instructor

Lara Desrosiers OT Reg. (Ont.)

Lara has worked in community mental health and addictions programs since 2009 working with clients individually and facilitating group programming. She now operates a private practice, Pelvic Resilience in Ontario, where she supports individuals struggling with persistent pain and pelvic health challenges to get back to living life. Lara enjoys teaching multidisciplinary audiences how to build impactful psychologically-informed and trauma-informed practices. In addition to ACT: A Practical Guide for Rehabilitation Providers, she also teachesn CBT Skills for Distressing Physical Symptoms and the Trauma Informed Pelvic Health Practitioner Program with Lindsey Vestal at The Functional Pelvis. Lara joyfully offers Clinical Mentorship and Psychotherapy Supervision for Occupational Therapists. www.pelvicresiliencepro.ca

30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee

We’re confident you’ll love learning with us, but we understand that sometimes plans change! That’s why we offer a 30-day guarantee for our self-paced courses.

If you decide to change your mind within 30 days of signing up, simply email us at admin@amp-healthcare.ca, and we’ll gladly provide a refund, minus a 10% processing fee.

Your learning journey is important to us, and we’re here to support you every step of the way!