NEUROACT® Stress Management | Teens & Adults
When Stress Starts Getting in the Way of What Matters
Stress is not always about having too much to do. For neurodivergent people, it can build through sensory overload, uncertainty, social demands, masking, changes in routine, executive functioning demands, or simply spending a lot of energy navigating environments that were not designed with your needs in mind.
Sometimes the response is overwhelm. Sometimes it is shutting down, withdrawing, avoiding something altogether, or feeling exhausted before the day has really begun.
NEUROACT® is a structured stress-management program designed for autistic and neurodivergent people. It combines Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), psychoeducation and practical strategies to help participants understand their own patterns of stress and develop more flexible ways of responding.
The goal is not to eliminate stress or teach you to tolerate environments that are genuinely unsuitable. It is to better understand what is happening, recognise what you can influence, and build strategies that support participation in the parts of life that matter to you.
- Psychological Flexibility
- Neuroaffirming
- ACT-Based
- Real-Life Application
When Stress Builds
Stress Can Show Up in More Ways Than Feeling Anxious
Stress can build gradually. You might notice yourself avoiding situations that feel unpredictable, needing more recovery time after social or sensory demands, becoming stuck when plans change, finding it harder to think clearly when overwhelmed, or reaching the end of your capacity before other people realise how much effort something has required.
At other times, stress may show up through physical tension, irritability, exhaustion, shutdown, withdrawal or difficulty starting something that already feels overwhelming.
Understanding these patterns matters — not because every stressful response needs to be changed, but because recognising what is happening can make it easier to decide what support, adjustment or strategy might actually help.
About the Program
Understanding Stress Through a Neurodivergent Lens
NEUROACT® is a structured, manualised Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) program adapted for autistic and neurodivergent participants experiencing significant stress.
Rather than focusing only on reducing uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, ACT explores how we respond to those internal experiences and whether those responses move us toward or away from the things that matter to us.
NEUROACT® combines ACT processes with psychoeducation about stress, emotions and perception, together with practical support for everyday challenges. Participants explore their own patterns rather than being given one universal definition of what stress should look like.
Sessions incorporate discussion, visual supports, experiential exercises, mindfulness and acceptance-based strategies, and opportunities to apply ideas to real-life situations.
The emphasis is not on thinking more positively. It is on developing greater psychological flexibility — being able to notice difficult thoughts, emotions or sensations while having more choice about what happens next.
Acceptance, in this context, does not mean tolerating environments, expectations or demands that are genuinely harmful or inaccessible — sometimes a useful response is an internal strategy, and sometimes it is an adjustment, a boundary or a different approach.
Program Suitability
Could NEUROACT® Be a Good Fit for You?
NEUROACT® may be worth exploring if stress or overwhelm is affecting parts of everyday life and you would like a structured way to better understand your patterns and explore practical strategies.
Stress or overwhelm that regularly affects everyday life
Sensory or environmental demands requiring significant energy
Avoiding situations because they feel stressful, uncertain or overwhelming
Difficulty noticing stress before it becomes intense
Becoming stuck when plans or expectations change
Difficult thoughts or emotions taking up a lot of attention
Wanting to better understand personal stress patterns
Wanting practical strategies rather than only talking about stress
Wanting to explore values and meaningful goals
Being open to structured group learning and between-session practice
You do not need to experience every one of these things. Suitability is considered individually, including your goals, current needs, preferences, group format and whether NEUROACT® is likely to provide an appropriate learning environment.
Skills & Practice
Understanding Your Patterns and Expanding Your Options
Understanding Stress
Personal stress patterns
Situations that increase load
Thoughts, emotions and physical responses
How avoidance can develop
How stress may affect everyday participation
Notice Without Getting Stuck
Noticing thoughts
Recognising difficult internal experiences
Mindfulness and present-moment awareness
Cognitive defusion — creating some distance from thoughts without needing to make them disappear
Flexibility & Choice
Recognising automatic responses
Considering different ways of responding
Tolerating some difficult internal experiences when doing so serves an important goal
Distinguishing what needs to change in the environment from what may be workable with support
Values & Direction
What matters personally
Values and meaningful goals
How avoidance can sometimes pull us away from those goals
Manageable actions that move toward what matters
How It Works
Notice. Understand. Choose. Practise.
- 01
Notice
Become more aware of stress, thoughts, emotions, physical responses and patterns of avoidance.
- 02
Understand
Explore what may be contributing to stress and how different responses affect what happens next.
- 03
Choose
Consider what matters in the situation and what options are available.
- 04
Practise
Experiment with strategies and small actions in the group and between sessions.
- 05
Apply
Explore how learning can translate into school, study, work, relationships and everyday life.
Values & Direction
Stress Management Isn’t Only About Feeling Less Stress
One of the central ideas in ACT is that wellbeing is not simply measured by how few uncomfortable thoughts or feelings we experience. Participants explore what is personally meaningful to them.
The question becomes: “What matters to me — and what might help me move toward it?”
This does not mean pushing through distress at any cost. It means using values as one source of information when deciding what actions, adjustments or supports may be worthwhile.
Why This Program?
What Makes This Program Different
Developed for Autistic Participants
NEUROACT® was specifically adapted to make ACT concepts and stress-management learning more accessible for autistic participants.
More Than Symptom Reduction
The program considers psychological flexibility, avoidance, values and meaningful participation rather than defining success only as having fewer difficult feelings.
Experiential
Participants do more than listen to information. Sessions include discussion, exercises, reflection and practical application.
Makes Abstract Ideas More Explicit
Visual supports and structured explanations help make concepts such as thoughts, emotions, stress and values more concrete.
Real-Life Application
Participants are encouraged to explore how strategies relate to school, study, work, relationships and everyday situations.
Neurodiversity-Affirming Delivery
The goal is not to make participants appear less neurodivergent. The focus is understanding individual patterns, expanding options and supporting meaningful participation.
Research & Evidence
What Does the Research Tell Us?
NEUROACT® has been examined in research with autistic adolescents and adults, including school-based research, an adult outpatient pilot study and a later randomised controlled pilot study. Findings are promising, particularly in relation to perceived stress, psychological flexibility and some measures of quality of life. However, the evidence base remains relatively small, and not every outcome examined has shown significant improvement.
An Early Study With Adolescents
A quasi-experimental study in a special school compared a six-week ACT-based skills group with classes as usual for 28 autistic students aged 13–21. All participants completed the group and satisfaction was high. The treatment group showed reduced stress, hyperactivity and emotional distress, and reported increased prosocial behaviour, at post-assessment and two-month follow-up. Because participants were not randomly allocated, the design cannot rule out other explanations for the change. (Pahnke et al., 2014 )
An Open Pilot With Autistic Adults
An uncontrolled open pilot of adapted ACT group treatment (NeuroACT) with 10 autistic adults in a psychiatric outpatient setting reported reductions in stress and depression, increases in cognitive defusion and psychological flexibility, and improvements in quality of life and social functioning at three-month follow-up. With no comparison group and only ten participants, the study shows the program was feasible rather than that it caused the changes. (Pahnke et al., 2019 )
Stress & Psychological Flexibility
A later randomised controlled pilot involved 39 autistic adults, allocated to 14 weeks of adapted NeuroACT or treatment as usual. Compared with treatment as usual, the NeuroACT group showed significant improvements in perceived stress and quality of life (the primary outcomes), as well as psychological inflexibility, cognitive fusion and cognitive/behavioural avoidance. (Pahnke et al., 2023 )
Not Every Outcome Changed
In the same randomised controlled pilot, between-group differences were not statistically significant for several outcomes, including depression, anxiety, sleep problems, functional impairment, one quality-of-life measure, and some autism- and executive-function-related measures. The authors described NeuroACT as promising and recommended further evaluation. (Pahnke et al., 2023 )
Important Context
Research findings describe outcomes across groups of participants and cannot predict how an individual participant will respond. The current NEUROACT® evidence base is promising but remains relatively small, and some studies have used program formats that differ from the 10-week format offered by The Social Space. Participation does not guarantee a particular outcome, and suitability is considered individually.
Flexible Delivery
Where This Program Can Be Delivered
Mascot Clinic
Structured face-to-face group delivery at The Social Space.
Online / Telehealth
Online delivery may be available where appropriate to the program and participant.
Current delivery options and availability can be discussed during the initial consultation.
Want to Learn More About NEUROACT® Stress Management?
Our team can learn more about what you are looking for, answer your questions and discuss whether NEUROACT® and the available group format may be a suitable option.