Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
What is Acceptance & Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, also call “ACT” (pronounced like act in a play, but if you like the way a-c-t sounds better - go for it!), is a third wave counseling approach that blends neuroscience, biology, and psychology. It’s highly evidence-based (thousands of peer-reviewed research studies to date) and endorsed by organizations like the World Health Organization, American Psychological Association, and the Center for Disease Control for the prevention and treatment of mental health concerns.
ACT gets its name from one of its core messages: accept what is out of your personal control and commit to action that improves and enriches your life.
Principles of ACT
ACT work aims to maximize each individuals experience of a rich, and meaningful life. ACT pursues this through the following processes:
Developing psychological skills to deal more effectively with difficult thoughts and feelings; learn new ways of handling them that will reduce their impact and influence over you;
Clarifying your values (your deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being; how you want to treat yourself, others and the world around you). You then use these values to guide, inspire and motivate yourself to take action: to do what matters, face your fears, live meaningfully, act effectively, solve problems, and basically do things to change your life for the better;
Focusing your attention on what is important and engage fully in whatever you are doing.