ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. ACT originated in the 1980s with Steven Hayes and is considered a ‘new wave’ therapy approach that takes a non-pathologizing view of human problems and suffering and incorporates mindfulness principles into its approach.
ACT is becoming much more widespread an recognized as an evidence-based therapy modality that is effective for a wide range of issues such as depression, social anxiety, general anxiety, trauma, panic symptoms, OCD, alcohol or substance use, and anger etc.
Similar to CBT, ACT recognizes the role of human thinking in human suffering. For this reason, ACT uses many interventions that are focused on assisting with negative thinking, rumination and worry; however, unlike CBT, ACT does not focus on the content of a person’s thinking but rather ACT focuses on the relationship we have with our thinking.
In other words, an ACT-based intervention would not focus on ‘how true is that thought?’ An ACT-based intervention would focus more on: ‘is that thought helpful to you?’ For thoughts or thinking that are not helpful to us, ACT teaches us ways of reducing the impact of our negative thinking through techniques such as defusion and mindfulness.
ACT goes beyond the role of our thoughts by helping us explore and define our values, by increasing our ability to follow-through with meaningful committed actions, and increasing the overall flexibility of our attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of ourselves and others.
A common principle within ACT is the concept of ‘psychological flexibility‘. Psychological flexibility involves a number of key concepts such as mindfulness, thought defusion, values, committed action, self as context and acceptance.
Psychological flexibility skills can be trained through ACT-based interventions to improve well-being and reduce vulnerability to mental health and emotional suffering. Most of us use ACT as a foundational model. Reach out to us today.
Learn more about ACT.
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