Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

What is ACT?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is an empirically supported, mindfulness based therapy focused on helping individuals to better understand and explore psychological pain. Its goal is to help you recognize and normalize the pain you’re experiencing, while simultaneously allowing them to step back from that same pain in order to explore and examine it from new perspectives.

Instead of teaching you how to avoid or change negative thoughts and feelings, ACT works to teach you how to accept your pain and then implement commitments to positive action based around your own value structure.

Common issues ACT can treat

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be a powerful tool in helping you to deal with various issues including:

Depression
Anxiety
Eating Disorders
Chronic Pain
Substance Abuse
Stress
Psychotic Symptoms

How can ACT help me?

As an empirically supported therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on helping you to become more mindful of your negative thoughts, feelings and self-perceptions. Based on the philosophical ideas of functional contextualism, in combination with Relation Frame Theory (a therapy technique that focuses on the importance of language), it teaches you how to accept and explore your pain rather than trying to avoid or "run" from it. ACT also teaches you how to use language as an effective means to help themselves and exist more presently in the moment.

ACT works by first allowing a safe space to openly and fully experience your negative feelings or pain. Next, it teaches you how to explore and examine that pain from a position of strength and curiosity rather than one based solely on fear. After you’ve had the opportunity for introspective exploration, you’re then taught how to accept those feelings and work toward committing to positive personal action. These actions are based heavily on your own personal values and as such, are able to produce long term solutions toward a more positive life orientation. Because ACT is values focused, it gives you the opportunity to deeply consider and define (or redefine) the values you feel are most important.

Finally, ACT also teaches you productive and instrumental techniques that allow you to work toward reducing your stress, increasing your levels of satisfaction, and establishing a deeper connection to your inner self. Instead of trying to cope or avoid, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy allows you to develop the skills required to face psychological pain with confidence and strength.

How quickly does ACT work?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be delivered in a variety of forms that vary in length:

Brief Therapy: This may require 4 - 6 sessions that run 50 minutes each in length.
Medium Term Therapy: This may require 8 - 10 sessions that run 50 minutes each in length.
Long Term Therapy: This may require upwards of 40 sessions that run 50 minutes each in length.

However, it is important to note that the exact length of therapy required for each person will vary depending on severity and complexities of the issues that are being addressed. You will have the opportunity to discuss this more fully with your therapist in person during the first few sessions.