What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

What if you could radically accept yourself? What would that look like? What if you could accept and allow yourself to feel what you feel, at this moment, even if it’s negative?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT is an evidence-based, mindfulness-based, values-oriented behavioral therapy that takes an action-oriented approach. ACT gets its name from its core message. To accept what is out of your personal control and commit to action that improves and enriches your life. In ACT we work to help you move towards a rich, full, and meaningful life through the development of skills to deal more effectively with difficult thoughts and feelings and reduce their impact, or influence, over you.

In ACT Therapy we work to help you embrace your thoughts and feelings, rather than fighting or feeling guilty or bad for having them. We also work to clarify what your values are. Values reflect your life desires for how you want to live life, be treated, and interact with the world around you. With these values as a guide, you move to inspire and motivate yourself towards different actions and outcomes.

We also work to help you accept what is out of your control, and commit instead to actions that enrichen your life. When you are more accepting and mindful of your thoughts and feelings, you can commit to facing a problem head-on rather than avoiding it. 

In ACT we also work to cultivate mindfulness in your life, so you can focus your attention on what's important and engage fully in the present moment. With this understanding, you can begin to accept your issues and hardships and commit to making changes.

Mindfulness is the practice of maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing, and supportive lens. In a state of mindfulness, difficult thoughts and feelings have much less impact and influence over you, which is very useful for everyday life.

The last goal of ACT Therapies is the development of total radical self-acceptance. By accepting what is and making room for painful feelings, urges, and sensations, and we allow them to come and go without a struggle. From this place of acceptance and mindfulness you can better make decisions that are more aligned with your life values.

How Can Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Help Me?

ACT is built around six core processes:

1. Acceptance

   • Acceptance enables people to allow negative thoughts to exist without having to do anything about them. You simply let the negative thoughts be, moving on to more positive thoughts, or actions instead.

2. Cognitive Defusion

   • Changing how you react to your thoughts and feelings. When experiencing negative emotions, the goal becomes to face them and move on without fixating on them.

3. Being Present

   • Here is where mindfulness comes in. You are encouraged to be aware of what is happening in the present moment. Without judgment, and without trying to change or predict the outcome. Simply, being present.

4. The Observing Self

   • There is the Thinking Self and the Observing Self. The Thinking Self is the part that is always, well, thinking! It is responsible for all thoughts, beliefs, memories, judgments, etc. The Observing self is the underlying person who understands and processes those experiences. In continuously developing mindfulness skills, you are more easily able to access the Observing Self where you can use distance on these thoughts and feelings to take the next best action.

5. Values

   • Values are the qualities and goals a person is working towards. Values guide us throughout our life journey. Values reveal what actions you need to take rather than dwelling on the negative.

6. Commitment to Action

   • The biggest goal of ACT is to help you commit to new actions that will better assist you in achieving your long-term goals by staying true to your values.

What is a ACT Therapy Session Like?

In using ACT techniques during a session, you will learn to listen to your self-talk. These are the inner voices that you use to talk to yourself specifically about traumatic events, problematic relationships, worries, stressors, and other issues. In tuning in, you can decide if the issue requires immediate action and change or if it can—or must—be accepted for what it is. While you do this, we work on skills to make behavioral changes that can affect the situation.

We may look at what hasn’t worked for you in the past, so we can stop repeating thought patterns or behaviors that are causing more harm than help. Once you have faced and accepted your current issues, you commit to stop fighting your past and your emotions. Instead, you will start practicing more confident and optimistic behavior, based on your values and goals through the practice of mindfulness skills to live a more meaningful aligned life.

You can find more helpful information about starting therapy at:

What Do I Do if I have Anxiety About Getting Help for My Anxiety?

New to Therapy? and What to Ask Yourself Before Starting Therapy