What is ACT Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based therapy that was developed by Steven C. Hayes, PhD, an American clinical psychologist. ACT can address depression, anxiety, OCD, addictions, the stress of terminal cancer, PTSD, and workplace stress. Russel Harris, M.D., a medical practitioner and psychotherapist, says, “Symptom reduction is not a goal of ACT, based on the view that ongoing attempts to get rid of ‘symptoms’ can create clinical disorders in the first place.”
What is ACT Therapy
ACT therapy combines acceptance, mindfulness, and values-based practices to help you move towards productive efforts in life, including individual growth, stronger relationships, and work that feels meaningful. ACT maintains that undesirable human experiences such as anxiety and disappointment are unavoidable parts of life. Thus attempts to escape these states is futile. Instead, ACT maintains that it is far more fruitful to develop psychological flexibility.
Psychological flexibility is defined as “the ability to fully experience the present moment and consciously choose values-consistent behaviors in response, regardless of what internal experiences are occurring[.]”
Six ACT Principles That Increase Psychological Flexibility
Acceptance requires simply experiencing the current moment as it is rather than attempting to modify it through action or mental resistance. You can accept that negative thoughts and experiences exist in your life. Resisting unwanted or negative states only tends to increase emotional and physiological dysregulation. It moves you deeper into the discomfort that you are desperately trying to escape.
Cognitive fusion occurs when you take your thoughts too seriously. You might view your thoughts as facts. Often times, this leads you to make decisions that undermine your wellbeing or values. Cognitive diffusion can occur when you observe your thoughts as if you’re a scientist, simply noticing what thoughts are coming up and addressing them via cognitive diffusion techniques.
During one of his famous lectures, Alan Watts, a philosopher and avid consumer of psychology, asked in so many words: what happens if you place a stick in a mud puddle and begin to move it around? The puddle becomes muddier. This is how our minds work, too.
"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” - Alan Watts
Have you noticed that when you are in your mind, you lose awareness of what is happening in the current moment? You may be physically in nature but mentally back at work, ruminating over a recent project. All you notice are a variety of negative thoughts while being completely unaware of the heavy scent of pine needles and sun-soaked soil, or the squirrel that is perched on a branch, looking down at you. Presence necesitates experiencing life through your senses. To anchor yourself to the present, you can run your index finger over the edges of a leaf or observe its veins.
Ask yourself two questions: “Am I the thoughts that are going on in my head? Or am I the one who is aware and listening to these thoughts that are going on in my head?”
A part of us experiences emotions. Another part or us thinks thoughts. Yet another part of us notices these emotional states and thought processes while they occur. The latter is the observing self. It is a stable self that is always present. It provides an anchored space to observe your thoughts and emotions. The observing self does not fuse with negative thoughts or emotions. In contrast, it simply notices them from a healthy space, like you’re a passenger on a moving train that’s observing the changing scenery.
The Veterans Health Administration describes your observing self as the sky. It does not appear one day and disappear the next. The sky is always there. Your emotions and thoughts can be viewed as changing weather patterns. The rain is here one day and is gone the next without a trace. You may wake up one morning to notice that it’s windy and rainy. As you look up towards the sky, crestfallen, all you can notice is RAIN, and you overlook the sky that’s just beyond it. As your morning progresses, you notice that the wind has stopped and there is only a light sprinkle coming down. The weather feels more manageable and you go about your day. Later in the afternoon, you receive favorable news from a loved one and suddenly you see the sun coming out, and you feel soothed by its warmth. No matter the weather pattern, our observing self is always there and offers you an anchored place in which to experience life’s ups and downs.
Values are principles that you wish to guide your way of living and relating to others. Some examples of values include honesty, curiosity, integrity, trust, and well-being. Best case scenario, you’re currently allowing your values to guide your life decisions and you feel connected to the life you’re living. But if you’re like many of us, you may notice that you’re living in ways that directly undermines your wellbeing, sense of purpose, and connection to others. It may be time to reconnect with your values.
Committed to Action
Committing to action involves establishing goals that are based on your values and taking effective actions to achieve them. You may have read valuable information in books or online, or received helpful feedback from a mental health professional, but the information is only as good as their implementation in your life. Implementation is always the easiest AND the hardest part of personal growth and positive life changes. As the author in the Slight Edge, Jeff Olson, says, minor decisions that can benefit your life in the long run are easy to do and super easy not to do. Each moment is a crossroads. Throughout the day, we make a series of decisions: continue the status quo and get more of the same or purposefully choose the new path and obtain new results.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Psychologist Viktor Frankl
ACT Therapy Resources
Free Audio Clips
Free ACT Therapy Worksheets
Free ACT Couples Therapy Worksheets
ACT Books
The Happiness Trap, by Russ Harris
ACT Made Simple, by Russ Harris
Get out of your Mind and into your Life by Steven Hayes
The Big Book of Act Metaphors: A Practitioner’s Guide to Experiential Exercises and Metaphors in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, by Jill Stoddard, PhD, and Niloofar Afari, PhD
Get out of your Mind and into your Life by Steven Hayes
*The audio clips, videos, worksheets, and books are for psychoeducational purposes only and are not a substitute for therapy itself.