School Programs
NEUROACT® Stress Management, Delivered in Your School
A ten-week, neurodiversity-affirming group program for secondary students, drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to address stress and overwhelm.
Not all student stress presents as anxiety. Some students are managing a constant load — sensory demands, masking, unpredictability, the effort of getting through a school day designed for someone else — and it shows as exhaustion, shutdown or sudden withdrawal rather than as worry. NEUROACT® provides a structured framework for exploring these experiences and developing practical ways of responding to stress and overwhelm.
At a Glance
What This Looks Like in a School
- Year Levels
- Secondary school — 13 to 17 years
- Length
- 10 weekly sessions
- Session
- 90 minutes
- Group Size
- Targeted small group, agreed with the school
- Facilitation
- Psychologist-led; therapy-assistant support depending on group numbers
- Parent / Carer Component
- No required parent/carer component
- Teacher / Educator Support
- Staff briefing and education available
- Approach
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-informed, neurodiversity-affirming
- Cost
- Quoted per school
Identifying a Group
Which Students This Suits
NEUROACT® may be considered for neurodivergent secondary students experiencing ongoing stress, sensory or social overload, difficulty responding to change, or other forms of overwhelm. These are possible presentations rather than eligibility criteria. Wellbeing teams most often identify students who are:
- Managing through the school day but experiencing significant exhaustion or overwhelm afterwards
- Exhausted by the effort of masking or fitting in
- Shutting down, going quiet or leaving the room when overwhelmed
- Overloaded by sensory demands, noise or unpredictability
- Highly self-critical about their own differences or experiences
- Experiencing ongoing stress or overwhelm that requires more than reassurance alone
A diagnosis is not required to take part, and taking part is not an assessment. Where a school is unsure whether the program may be appropriate for the students it has in mind, we are glad to talk it through first.
Program Content
What Students Work On
NEUROACT® is not about reducing difference or teaching students to appear less neurodivergent. The program focuses on helping students understand and respond to their own stress while identifying what matters to them. The concepts below are explored and practised across the ten sessions.
Understanding Your Own Stress
- Recognising personal signs of stress and overload
- Understanding sensory and social load
- Exploring the cost of masking, where a student experiences it
- Mapping what depletes and what restores
Psychological Flexibility
- Noticing thoughts without being ruled by them
- Making room for difficult feelings
- Coming back to the present moment
- Responding rather than reacting
Self-Understanding
- Developing a more compassionate understanding of your own neurodivergent experience
- Recognising that difficult experiences do not define identity
- Identifying what you actually need
- Communicating those needs to other people
Values & Action
- Working out what matters to you
- Taking small steps in that direction
- Making choices about where to spend energy
- Exploring ways to make the school week more sustainable
Delivery
How It Runs in Your School
- 01
Identify the Group
Your wellbeing team identifies a proposed group of students. We discuss the students' needs, group composition and whether the program may be appropriate. Because the program involves reflection on thoughts, emotions, sensations and values, participants need sufficient capacity to engage with this style of learning; this is considered alongside individual needs and overall group fit, and no diagnosis is required.
- 02
Place It in the Timetable
Ten weekly 90-minute sessions, generally within a single term. A consistent weekly slot is preferable for program delivery, and a quiet, low-stimulation room is preferable for delivery.
- 03
Run the Program
A psychologist facilitates the program, with a therapy assistant supporting delivery where group numbers require. There is no required parent/carer session within the core program, which allows the student sessions to be scheduled within the school timetable.
- 04
Consider the Environment
Where useful, we can also discuss environmental factors that may be contributing to student stress or overload, and practical adjustments the school may wish to consider. Stress management does not mean placing all responsibility on the student: where relevant, environmental demands and reasonable adjustments can also be considered. This is a discussion rather than a formal assessment, and any adjustment remains the school's decision.
Working Together
What We Bring, What the School Provides
We Bring
- A psychologist as facilitator, with therapy-assistant support depending on group numbers
- All program materials and student resources
- A neurodiversity-affirming approach throughout
- Optional briefing or education for staff alongside the program
- Liaison with your wellbeing team throughout
- Insurance, Working with Children Checks and required documentation
The School Provides
- A consistent, quiet, low-stimulation room for the ten sessions
- A timetabled slot that works for the identified students
- Identification of a proposed student group, with your wellbeing team
- A staff contact for the duration of the program
- Notification to families that the student is taking part
- Openness to discussing environmental adjustments where relevant
Families & School Staff
Parent, Carer and Teacher Involvement
NEUROACT® does not require parent/carer sessions as part of the core student program. Students take part on their own, which means the student sessions can be scheduled within the school's own timetable.
Where a school would like families involved, parent education can be arranged alongside the program, including outside school hours for an additional fee. It is offered as a complement to NEUROACT® rather than as part of it.
We also offer teacher support. With the school's agreement, we brief teaching and wellbeing staff on what the group is working on each week. Teacher and wellbeing-staff awareness can provide additional support for recognising relevant strategies and considering environmental factors during the school week.
The parent, carer and teacher arrangement is agreed with the school before the program is scheduled. We are glad to talk through what is realistic for your school community.
Research & Evidence
What the Research Tells Us
NEUROACT® has a developing evidence base. Most of the published research involves autistic adults rather than secondary students, and the samples are small. We would rather a school knew that before choosing it. The studies below are summarised as reported.
An Early Study With Adolescents
An early study of the adapted ACT approach underpinning NEUROACT®, rather than of this ten-week school program itself. This 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.
An Open Pilot With Autistic Adults
An uncontrolled open pilot of adapted ACT group treatment 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.
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.
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.
NEUROACT® has a developing evidence base. The existing studies are promising, but samples are small and further research is needed, particularly with school-aged participants and school-based delivery. None of these studies evaluated this program as delivered in an Australian secondary school, and group-level findings do not predict an individual student's outcome.
School Delivery & Pricing
Costs depend on the number of sessions, the size of the student group and practical requirements such as travel, so we quote per school rather than publishing a set fee. Tell us what you are considering and we will put together a quote.
There is no required parent/carer component, so the standard quote covers the student program. Where a school requests optional family education and it is scheduled outside school hours, an additional fee applies and is set out in the quote.
School delivery is arranged directly with the school. Medicare and NDIS arrangements apply to individual clinic participation, not to a program commissioned by a school.
School Enquiries
Talk to Us About Running NEUROACT® at Your School
Tell us about the students you have in mind and what your school is hoping to support. We can talk through whether the program may be appropriate for the proposed group and what practical delivery could look like.
Enquire About DeliveryTalk to Our Team
Looking for NEUROACT® for your own child? See the NEUROACT® Stress Management program page.