ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (said as the word ‘act’) is an evidence-based therapy modality created by psychologist Steven Hayes relatively recently (1980s). Since its creation, there have been thousands of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of ACT for the treatment of a range of issues including anxiety and depression.
While shown to be an effective treatment for many diagnosable disorders, the processes involved in ACT help promote overall wellbeing - providing mental, emotional, and behavioral techniques that help anybody live a more meaningful life.
In an attempt to feel better, we often engage in behaviors that help us avoid or escape uncomfortable internal experiences (experiential avoidance). This becomes a problem when the avoidant behavior gets in the way of living the life we want. A key component of ACT is increasing ‘psychological flexibility,’ or the ability to remain mindful of our internal experiences while choosing to act in alignment with our values. It’s the ability to recognize that even in the midst of difficult emotions/sensations, there are multiple behavioral options open to us.
Part of ACT is working to identify and clarify what’s important to us and what kind of life we want to live. Through ACT, we learn (and continue to practice) how to accept emotional experiences that come up (like anxiety, fear, doubt) while engaging in value based behaviors (committed actions).
There are six main processes utilized in ACT to help increase psychological flexibility:
Acceptance involves noticing and allowing internal experiences without pushing away or judging. We learn to coexist with our internal experience and recognize that labeling them as bad or unacceptable, or working to push them away, often makes the experience worse.
Cognitive Defusion involves learning to create some distance between us and our thoughts. We practice finding space to notice thoughts without judgement. We often buy into our thoughts and engage with them in a way that is unhelpful and doesn’t actually lead to change or improvement.
Contact with the present moment is the practice of engaging with experiences as they currently are - not the narrative we’ve constructed around the distressing thing. When we practice contacting the present moment, we practice cutting through the story we’re telling ourselves and experiencing what is actually presently happening.
Self as Context helps us deidentify with the idea of and attachment to a conceptualized self and get in touch with the experience of consciousness. We are not our thoughts or feelings. These experiences simply arise in conciseness and can be observed. In ACT, this is sometimes referred to as the “observing self.” This practice can provide perspective and helps us loosen our grip on certain concepts we have about ourselves and develop a new relationship with inner experiences.
Values - Taking time to consider who and what is important to us and what kind of life we want to live is a main component of ACT. This helps guide our behavior and helps us recognize how our attempts to avoid difficult internal experiences often move us away from what matters to us.
Committed Action is the act of moving toward our values and doing what matters to us.
If you’re interested in learning more about ACT, please reach out for a consultation.
REFERENCES:
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. Guilford Press
RECOMMENDED REFERENCES:
BOOKS
The happiness trap: How to stop struggling and start living. Russ Harris, 2008
A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters Dr. Steven Hayes, 2019