ACT for Perfectionism and People Pleasing

ACT for Perfectionism and People Pleasing is organized by Act Mindfully.

Start date: Starts 10 March 2026 - Time 12 Hours | 6 weeks

Description:
Unhelpful perfectionism and unhealthy people-pleasing (often called “fawning”) are extremely common patterns of difficult-to-treat behaviour. Fuelled by harsh self-judgment, high experiential avoidance, and fusion with rigid rules, such behaviours often play a major role in depression, anxiety, “stress”, “burnout”, relationship issues, and trauma. And by itself, ACT is rarely enough for these kinds of problems; for effective outcomes, clients usually need to develop additional skills such as how to say no, make assertive requests, or set boundaries. This advanced level 6-week training shows you how to apply ACT effectively with perfectionism, people-pleasing, or both (they often co-occur), while smoothly incorporating additional skills-training as required.

Russ will guide you through the fluent, flexible use of ACT to effectively target all aspects of perfectionism and people pleasing, including: 

• harsh self-judgment and deep-seated unworthiness
• common fears (e.g. of making mistakes, disapproval, rejection, negative evaluation, hostile reactions) 
• procrastination
• worrying and rumination
• excessive risk-aversion;
• excessive self-sacrifice to get good results or appease others
• rigid rules about always needing to achieve excellence or put others first or look good
• difficulty saying no or making requests or setting boundaries
• difficulty carving out time for oneself
• difficulty setting realistic goals
• a fragile sense of self based on achievement and/or positive feedback
• fusion with “should”, “must”, and “have to” 
• and soooo much more.

So if you already know ACT basics and you want to upgrade and streamline your skills to work efficiently, compassionately and creatively with perfectionism and people-pleasing, this is the course for you. 

There are twelve-hours of training, delivered over six weeks, with two hours of new material released each week. And you’ll have access to all course materials for 12 months in total, so it’s no problem if you fall behind.

Each week, Russ will take you step-by-step through the core principles of ACT, supported by instructional videos, engaging animations, videos of therapy sessions, written materials, audio recordings, client handouts and worksheets, and interactive quizzes to test your learnings as you go.

To complete your interactive experience, the course also includes a fully supported forum where you can ask questions daily, and share your experiences with Russ and your peers from around the world.