Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an approach to therapy that focuses on improving self awareness and encouraging people not to constantly battle against certain thoughts and feelings, but instead to allow themselves to feel them without judgement.
Eastern philosophies talk about how nothing is permanent, neither good sensations or bad and often our tendency to avoid or numb certain thoughts and feelings can be the very reason they seem to become so persistent. We form battles in our own minds and project our own unconscious biases about how it must be right or wrong to feel certain things. ACT asks us to step back from these battles and just observe, without judgement.
ACT can draw from elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness Based Interventions to improve self awareness but unlike CBT which tends to focus on how to intervene and respond to a thought or feeling, ACT is about understanding and non judgemental acceptance. Imagine the peace you feel if you take the time to simply appreciate yourself as the outcome of all the struggles, all the highs and lows that have led your life to this point!
ACT also draws out our core values – when we step back from the highs and lows, good moods and bad – which of our values are constant? And what strategies can we put in place to live more harmoniously with those values, whatever they might be? People that receive ACT have reported one of the benefits of this type of therapy to be finding renewed meaning and purpose in their lives.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has strong evidence as an effective intervention for treating:
- Psychosis
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Chronic Pain
- Bipolar Disorder
- OCD