Welcome

Work in optical practice can be rewarding and emotionally demanding. Staff support patients and customers through distress, urgent symptoms, safeguarding concerns, upsetting complaints, family issues, loneliness and difficult handovers, while maintaining safety-critical routines and accurate records. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers practical techniques to notice stressful thoughts and feelings, make space for them without being driven by them, and choose actions that reflect your values and responsibilities.

This course is for optical assistants, reception and administration staff, dispensing staff, dispensing opticians, optometrists, contact lens opticians, practice managers, supervisors, locums and other staff working in high street optical practice. It is written for a UK audience and recognises that employer policies, NHS/private arrangements, professional responsibilities and support routes differ across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This course does not train staff to deliver ACT as therapy. It introduces ACT-informed self-management techniques for everyday workplace stress: noticing thoughts, stepping back from harsh self-talk, grounding in the present, accepting difficult internal experiences, reconnecting with values, and taking workable action.

Why This Course Matters

• Stress cannot always be removed: some pressures are inherent to the role, but staff can learn different ways to relate to them.
• Thoughts are not always facts: ACT helps staff step back from harsh thoughts such as "I am failing" or "I cannot cope".
• Values guide behaviour: dignity, kindness, safety, teamwork and respect can shape practical next steps during pressure.
• Self-management has limits: ACT skills support resilience, but unsafe workload, bullying or ongoing mental ill health require organisational or clinical support.

How This Course Will Help You

After completing the course you will be able to use brief ACT-informed techniques to notice stress, create distance from unhelpful self-talk, ground yourself in difficult moments and choose values-based actions that support safe, respectful practice.

Is this the right stress management course for you? We have many others for optical practice staff, covering different techniques. Click here for more info.