Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT (pronounced like the word “act”), is focused on how to create a fuller, more meaningful life in the midst of the pain that will inevitably come along. In ACT, we learn how to have a different relationship with our thoughts and emotions in order to decrease the negative impact of these internal experiences on our lives.

One of the central parts of ACT is mindfulness-based skills, which allow us to observe our own inner world and decrease our struggle with it. And, by learning to accept our pain, we can break out of unhelpful behavioral patterns. There is an emphasis on building awareness of our personal values and letting our values guide our actions and decisions.

Dr. Steven Hayes, the founder of ACT, writes that “ACT illuminates the ways that language entangles people into futile attempts to wage war against their own inner lives. Through metaphor, paradox, and experiential exercises, people will learn how to make healthy contact with thoughts, feelings, memories, and physical sensations that have been feared and avoided. You will gain the skills to re-contextualize and accept these private events, develop greater clarity about personal values, and commit to needed behavior change.”

ACT, like many other evidence-based therapies, aims to increase psychological flexibility (the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior when doing so helps us to connect to our values and valued goals).

Learn more about ACT in the video below!