
This five-day conference (with two days of pre-conference intensive workshops) will provide a unique opportunity to learn about cutting-edge advances in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), in addition to other third generation approaches in the behavioral and cognitive therapies. There will be a comprehensive scientific programme in these areas of contextual behavioural science, examining philosophical, theoretical, basic and applied issues. Students, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers will benefit from this conference and find it an excellent opportunity to learn from the very top people involved in the development and advancement of ACT, RFT, and contextual behavioral approaches.
The conference will have 9-11 tracks simultaneously for all five days. There will be approximately 30 invited addresses from internationally known clinical and research leaders. Some will be from outside the ACT / RFT community per se, such as Mark Williams, Lars-Goran Ost, Andy Christensen, and Adrian Wells, among others. Many of the leaders of the ACT / RFT community will also be giving invited addresses.
There will be nearly 100 symposia, panels, case conferences, and discussions on topics as wide ranging as ACT / RFT work itself, including by not limited to:
In addition to a full, multi-track scientific and clinical programme, a wide variety of half-day workshops will be presented at the conference by leading researchers and practitioners. These workshops are FREE to conference attendees, no additional sign up required. These workshops will be designed to help develop the practice and skills of novice, intermediate, and advanced clinical practitioners, educators, prevention specialists, and even basic scientists. Most of the workshops will focus on ACT, but a wide range of topics will be addressed, including:
Free Workshop Topics
Venue: Institute of Education, University of London
The Institute is located in the grand, eighteenth-century Bloomsbury neighbourhood of central London, within close walking distance to museums, galleries, theatres, shops, parks, and a wide-array of famous, second-hand bookshops. The nearby University of London Student Union offers state-of-the-art fitness facilities, including a large swimming pool.
This conference is not related to the World Science Fiction Convention http://www.worldcon.org. "Worldcon" is a registered service mark of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
Select a link below (or in the menu on the top left of your screen) for further conference information.

Conference delegates must arrange their own accommodation. There is a large selection of hotels in the central London neighbourhood of Bloomsbury, where the conference venue is located. Here, we are recommending a number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, university halls of residence (or dorms), and youth hostels.
Important Note: July is one of London’s busiest tourist and business periods. It is important, therefore, that you book your accommodation as early as possible. This is particularly important for people who wish to stay in university halls, as these are often booked up early.
| Conference Hotel |
The conference hotel is the Royal National on Bedford Way. It is located directly opposite the Institute of Education, which is the conference venue. All rooms are en suite with satellite TV, radio and tea/coffee making facilities. Computer points and hairdryers are available on request. Facilities include a Chinese restaurant, coffee shop, traditional pub, gift shops, internet kiosks and a bureau de change. There is also an underground (pay) car park.
Room rates (inclusive of VAT):
Click here for a currency converter.
Those delegates who identify themselves as attending the Second World Conference on ACT, RFT, and Contextual Behavioural Science at the time of booking and who stay for 7 consecutive nights will pay for only six. In order to avail yourselves of this special conference offer, delegates must prepay in full, by credit card, at the time of booking. This booking cannot then be amended or cancelled. You can book rooms at the Royal National via the following:
Online: info@imperialhotels.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7278 7871
Fax: +44 (0)20 7837 4653
| Hotels and B&B’s from £36 - £100 |
(All within a 10 minute walk from the conference venue)
| Hotels from £100+ per night |
(All within a 10 minute walk from the conference venue)
| Student Halls of Residence |
There are a large number of university and college halls (or dorms) in central London. There are two, in particular, that we would recommend most highly, owing to their location to the conference venue in Bloomsbury. They are, in rank order:
Information and booking details for these two halls can be accessed from the following webpage: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/residences/
We cannot recommend more strongly the need to book halls of residence at your earliest possible convenience.
| Additional Student Halls of Residence |
Individual or group bookings of 20 people or more can be made at many of the following halls. They are all very central and within a short walking distance or tube journey of the Institute of Education, the conference venue.
It is recommended that you telephone or email residences that you are interested in to check availability and make a provisional booking, and to then print off a booking form and send it in with your deposit.
There are several very central halls, which let accommodation to visiting groups or individual students. The individual halls must be contacted directly for bookings.
Individual or group bookings can be made at these halls. Whilst they are slightly further out than the University of London halls, they are very accessible by tube and bus and involve a journey of around 15-20 minutes.
Individual or group bookings can be made at these halls. Once again these may be slightly further out than University of London halls but are nevertheless very accessible.
NB: Many more London Universities provide low budget summer accommodation for students but these may not be as central as the universities specified above. To view these options please click the following link.
| Youth Hostels (£11.50 - £17 depending on room type) |
There are many independent youth hostels in central London and these generally have to be accessed through booking websites such as:
Some very central hostels that come highly recommended are The Camden Inn and The Generator; others can be found on the above websites. If price is the main concern then these will undoubtedly be your cheapest bet, but be aware that if you book into these hostels, you will generally be booking a bed in a shared dormitory.

| Arriving at London's Heathrow Airport |
Unless you are being met by someone with a car, it is advisable to travel to the conference hotel/venue via the London Underground (Tube) or the Heathrow Express. The Tube involves a slightly longer journey, but it is less expensive than the Heathrow Express option.
A Taxi from Heathrow is not advisable as it will be a long and expensive journey (approximately £50).
There are bus services into London from Heathrow Airport, but they involve a long journey, and they do not deposit you anywhere near the conference venue/hotel, and so this option will require an additional Tube journey.
London Underground (or Tube)
There are 4 terminals at Heathrow. Unfortunately, there will be no Tube service from Terminal 4 during the conference, owing to engineering works. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 will continue to be served by the Tube’s Piccadilly Line, which will take you very close to the conference venue/hotel. If you arrive at Terminal 4, and wish to take the Tube, you are strongly advised to take the Heathrow Express (for free) to the next stop, which is ‘Terminals 1, 2, and 3’. Once there, you can transfer onto the Piccadilly Line (after buying a ticket).
(From Terminal 4, you can also take a free bus to Hatton Cross Tube station and join the Piccadilly Line there, but this inconvenient route is not advisable.)
The advantage of taking the Tube from Heathrow is that the Piccadilly Line runs direct to Russell Square Tube station, which is a short walk from the conference venue/hotel. The disadvantage is that the Tube journey is approximately 1 hour, but it is the cheapest and most direct option from Heathrow.
Here's a great map of the conference & hotel area (including the location of the Russel Square Tube station): Institute of Education
Heathrow Express
The Heathrow Express will get you into Central London’s Paddington Station in 15 minutes (one way, £15; return/round trip, £23). From Paddington, the conference venue is a mere 10 minute taxi ride away (which costs approximately £10 - £15, depending upon traffic). From Paddington, you could also take a Tube to Euston Square, but this is not advised as you would then have a 10 – 15 minute walk from the Tube station to the conference venue/hotel.) If you are willing to pay approximately £30 to get to the hotel/venue, then this is the most pleasant, and quickest, way to do so.
| Arriving at London's Gatwick Airport |
Unless you are being met by someone with a car, a train from Gatwick Airport into London is the only advisable mode of transport. Any type of taxi is prohibitively expensive from Gatwick, and the journey time to the conference venue/hotel will be approximately 1.5 hours (if the traffic is not bad, which it typically is). Accordingly, the bus service into London is slow, yet cheap, but it is not especially pleasant and you will not end up anywhere that is convenient to the conference’s location. Go train.
Trains to London King’s Cross from Gatwick airport
THIS IS THE ADVISABLE TRAIN OPTION FROM GATWICK, if you are staying in accommodation that is recommended on this website (or anywhere near the conference venue).
From Gatwick Airport there are frequent trains direct to King’s Cross station, which is well situated for the conference and associated hotels. The conference hotel is a longish walk from King’s Cross station, a very short taxi ride, or one stop (to Russell Square station) on the Tube.
Trains to London Victoria Station (including the Gatwick Express)
THIS OPTION IS NOT RECOMMENDED if you are staying at the conference hotel or are going directly to the conference venue. If you are staying in West London (which is not near the conference), then this is the fastest way to get into London.
| Arriving at London's Stanstead Airport |
The ONLY way that you will want to travel from Stanstead to London is via train. The Stanstead Express train service takes you into London’s Liverpool Street Station. Once there, people can take either a taxi or the Tube to the conference venue/hotel. The nearest Tube station to the conference venue/hotel is Russell Square.
| Arriving at London's Luton Airport |
The ONLY way that you will want to travel from Luton to London is via train. From Luton, there are trains that go to different London railway stations. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, you will only want to take a train to London King’s Cross station which is well situated for the conference and associated hotels. The conference hotel is a longish walk from King’s Cross station, a very short taxi ride, or one stop (to Russell Square station) on the London Underground (i.e., Tube).
Please email Tony Balazs (tony@balazs.co.uk) if you require further travel advice.

Evening Events
Tuesday Evening, Social, 25 July, 19:00 – Midnight
We will have an evening of drinks, lab/research centre posters, and merriment at the Royal National Hotel (the conference hotel), across the street from the conference venue, on Bedford Way. Anyone is welcome to bring a poster showing how ACT/RFT is a part of your workplace or university. We will be in the Edward VII & Alexandra Suites. Please eat dinner prior to arriving. A cash bar will be available.
Thursday Evening, Follies, 27 July, 19:00 – Midnight
Thursday will be our famous “Follies Night.” We encourage one and all to develop and perform ACT/RFT related skits, songs, funny PowerPoint presentations, etc. The show will begin at approximately 8:30pm.
You can buy drinks and some basic bar snacks (like pizza, nachos, etc.).
This evening event will take place at Boland House, not at our conference venue. It will be a 15 minute Tube ride away, approximately 20-30 minutes total if taking the Tube. (It will be a very long walk, if you choose to walk it.). It is near the London Bridge Underground Station. Complete directions and map appear in the full conference program.

To register for these workshops please visit this page and scroll down to find the Pre-Conference Workshop Registration.
If you have registered for a Pre-conference Workshop with Steve Hayes, Sonja Batten, JoAnne Dahl, or Kelly Wilson (separate from the WorldCon2 registration), to be held July 22-23, you will need the following information.
All Pre-conference Workshops will be held from 9:00am - 6:00pm on July 22 & 23. Please arrive prior to 9:00am to get your name tag and be ready to start on time.
Steve Hayes' workshop location:
JoAnne Dahl's workshop location:
Kelly Wilson's workshop location:
Sonja Batten's workshop location:
Ramsay Hall is in the center of the attached map (see below) while Ifor Evans Hall is at the top of the map. If you are unable to download the map or directions, please email Emily at doact"@"nvbell.net and she will email the map/directions
to you.
Lunch and afternoon tea will be provided. We encourage you to bring water/drinks and quiet snacks (please, no noisy eating during the workshop!) to enjoy during breaks. We also encourge you to bring a jacket/long-sleeved shirt, it's hard to know how high the air-conditioning will be in the buildings and we want you to be comfortable.
Please keep checking this site for further updates.
See you in London!
Steve Hayes, Ph.D., Beginner Workshop:
Difficult clients tend to be both harder to treat successfully, and to be emotionally difficult for therapists, resulting in higher levels of stress and burn-out. These clients are generally more complex and chronic, and they often been through the therapy mill. Because of the growing popularity of empirically supported methods, difficult clients may have already had courses of more traditional empirical treatments (e.g., various forms of cognitive behavior therapy) and are unlikely to be moved by another attempt within the same model. Something else is needed that is empirically based, that provides relief for clinicians, and that allows for a new, more powerful approach to difficult cases. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is such an approach. The core conception of ACT is that psychological suffering is usually caused by experiential avoidance, cognitive entanglement, and the resulting failure to take needed behavioral steps in accord with core values. According to this view, trying to change difficult thoughts and feelings as a means of coping might can be counter productive, but new, powerful alternatives are available, including acceptance, mindfulness, cognitive defusion, values, and committed action.
ACT teaches clients and therapists alike how to alter the way difficult private experiences function mentally rather than having to eliminate them from occurring at all. This empowering message has been shown empirically to help clients cope with a wide variety of clinical problems, including depression, anxiety, stress, substance abuse, and even psychotic symptoms. Research has shown that these methods are as beneficial for the clinician as they are for clients, quickly alleviating therapist burn-out.
This two-day workshop will discuss and demonstrate ACT techniques, particularly acceptance, cognitive defusion, and behavioral commitment strategies. While the procedures are broadly useful, the workshop will focus in particular on issues of multi-problem patients. Data supportive of this approach will be discussed. The workshop will at times be experiential, not merely didactic. The intention of the workshop is to provide clinicians with a workable set of ACT skills, and with personal experiences that will allow further development of these skills based on their application with difficult clients.
Workshop Objectives:
Attendees will learn:
• Why experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion underlie most forms of psychopathology
• How modern research in human language and cognition is revealing a key source of human suffering
• How to formulate cases in terms of experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion
• The major steps in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• How to foster psychological acceptance
• How to quickly reduce the impact of negative thoughts
• How to mobilize and make use of the spiritual side of clients
• How to help clients get more into contact with their core values
• How to build larger patterns of committed action
• How to apply these same methods to the stressful impact of working with difficult clients
Target Audience: Beginners and above
JoAnne Dahl, Ph.D., Advanced Workshop on Chronic Pain:
The workshop is designed to conceptualize, demonstrate and offer each participant the opportunity to practice an ACT analysis and treatment of clients with chronic pain. A typical case example will be dramatized, analysed and treated with ACT core components. Participants will learn how chronic pain can be conceptualized using the values compass and fusion with typical verbal rules associated with pain. Everyone will get the chance to practice core ACT skills applied to clients with chronic pain. Dramatizations of the funeral excercise, Joe the Bum, the Bus metaphor will be played showing the application to chronic pain. Participants may want to bring examples of difficults clients or clients behaviors with them.
Target Audience: Advanced, clinicians
Kelly Wilson, Ph.D., Advanced Workshop:
In a sense, it is odd to speak of values , acceptance, and being-in-the-present-moment in the same breath. Values are intrinsically about something one is willing to work for, to sacrifice for, to suffer for. It is this for-ness, this purposive-ness, which threatens to pull us from the present moment. It can pull us into stories about "befores" when we have done well, or failed, and "laters", when we might do so again. When values are a story about a "what" that we value, about a "when" in which we will do so, and about an "I" that will be there to do it, the moment is lost.
Moving in a direction consistent with one¹s values is central to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. However, values need not take us from the here and now. Valuing, in so far as it is important in ACT, is never about later or before. It is always about values lived in the present moment. It is
the valued act in flight, the valued act experienced in this very moment that dignifies and directs the necessary hard work of therapy. In the workshop, we will describe methods of bringing a vital sense of direction into the therapeutic work. We will examine experientially methods of disentangling clients from stories about values and freeing them to make valued living a creative act in the here and now. The workshop will focus on experiential components that will readily translate into clinical work. We will proceed through a series of exercises designed to enhance your ability to work with your most difficult clients.
Educational Objectives:
1. Use the Valued Living Questionnaire to generate a potent
therapeutic contract.
2. Recognize the emergence of aversive control over client behavior
and learn to facilitate mindful acceptance.
3. Recognize the emergence of aversive control over clinician
behavior and learn to practice mindful acceptance.
Target Audience: Clinicians, researchers, all levels
Sonja Batten, Ph.D., Beginner Workshop:
OBJECTIVES
*Understand problems in living as the result of behavioral choices that individuals make that are inconsistent with their personal values
*Identify the role of avoidance in the development and maintenance of psychopathology
*Learn to conduct a full-scale Values Assessment
*Recognize client barriers to identifying and acting upon values
*Be able to lead clients in experiential exercises designed to facilitate awareness of valued life directions and motivate valued behavior
Target Audience: Beginner to Intermediate, clinicians, students and professionals.
PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you understand the experiential nature of this workshop. These workshops teach ACT by creating an experience of what it is like to stand in the place where we ask ACT clients to stand. The workshop will be largely experiential and may be intense at times.

Registration for the conference will begin on Monday morning, July 24, at 8:00/8:30am. You will need to be at: Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL. If you don't see us in the first floor foyer outside of Jeffrey Hall, just follow the signs.
Please note that evening events will be posted separately soon.
Important Note: If you do not receive an email receipt from PayPal after making your purchase (give it some time, as the system may not send it immediately), it means that your payment was not processed and you have not been registered for the conference! You may also view your Order History at any time to check the status of any orders you have placed on this site.If you do not wish or are otherwise unable to pay your registration fee(s) online, please contact Emily Neilan (doact"@"nvbell.net) at Context Press to make alternate arrangements (fax, mail, pay by check, etc.).
| Conference Registration |
| Pre-Conference Weekend Workshops (July 22-23, 2006) |
CEs will not be available for the Pre-Conference workshops. We tried to have them, but I'm afraid it didn't work out.
"Beginner" workshops are for those who have not done an experiential workshop before. That could include people who have been working with ACT and RFT concepts for some time.
"Advanced" workshops are for individuals who have already participated in an ACT experiential workshop ("advanced" does not refer to duration or extent of ACT experience).
Please note that these workshops are concurrent, and you may only register for ONE. Click on a workshop below to add it to your shopping cart.
- If the workshop for which you registered is full, every attempt will be made to expand the offerings through additional trainers and sessions. In this event, we will contact you to offer you the choice of withdrawing your registration.
- A $30 processing fee will be charged for registration refunds up to 23rd June 2006. After this date, refunds will be granted at the discretion of the organizers.
- Enrollment in all workshops is limited due to the limitation of our venue to accommodate additional attendees.
We did a survey of the list serve members to arrive at the cost and set it below the
mean recommendation but still they might seem a little steep when it comes to actually
paying. It helps a bit to know what they cover and where the money goes.
The World Con II cost includes lunch and coffee all five days: that is a $150 cost to us.
We are not charging for workshops during the conference proper ... which is
unheard of and saves hundreds
The conference will have at least 8 tracks continuously for the entire 5 days
And if you an ACBS member you save more than your membership cost
The biggest expense is the venue. No one is presenting being paid except a
few of the non-ACT / RFT workshop leaders. We figure we break even at around 300
people.
So, yeah it is expensive, but it is way cheaper than most similar conferences when you factor
in the size, length, meals, sessions, speakers, and city.

| Corporate Sponsor |
| Individual Sponsors |