What is Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)?
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to that stems from traditional behavioral therapies. Clients learn to stop avoiding and struggling with their inner emotions & thoughts. Instead, they move toward greater acceptance of their deeper feelings and understand how their emotional reactions are expected responses to certain situations and life events that should not prevent them from moving forward. While practicing new skills, clients begin to understand what is under their control and not, accept the challenges they face, and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior. Clients learn how to take action toward what is most important to them to create rich and meaningful lives.
Who can benefit?
ACT is used to treat a variety of mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorders, and chronic stress. It is effective for anyone who is struggling with painful emotions & thoughts. For example, you may find that you engage in overthinking or ruminating about negative events from the past or future. When this becomes overwhelming, you try to avoid or get rid of painful beliefs & feelings by staying busy or distracted. Still, they continue to resurface, and you feel more and more stuck.
What do therapy sessions look like?
During sessions, we will identify your self-talk or the beliefs that tell yourself about your experiences, including traumatic events, relationship problems, and other challenging situations. Together, we will uncover how these beliefs are impacting you on a daily basis. From there, we will work on learning psychological flexibility principles and how to determine if a problem requires you to take action, or if it must be accepted while you work on making behavioral changes. Overall, you will gain knowledge about how to stop repeating unhelpful patterns that cause you long-term problems and start engaging in life-enhancing behaviors that move you toward what you want your life to be about.