Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
What is it?
Definition: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT – pronounced as “act”) is a mindfulness based behavioural therapy that aims to help you be aware of what is happening within yourself in a given situation without judgement. It has two main components to it: acceptance and mindfulness processes, and commitment and behaviour change processes. They are meant to help reach psychological flexibility which is defined as the ability to experience the present moment and if the situation warrants it, the ability to change or persist in behaviours in the service of your values.
Goal: to create a rich and meaningful life, while accepting the inevitable pain that it brings.
The abbreviation ACT is significant as this therapy focuses on the actions you can take to reach the desired self.
Accept your thoughts, feelings, and be present.
Choose a valued direction.
Take action.
IMPORTANT: ACT does not advocate for acceptance of all thoughts and feelings. Only when control of thoughts and feelings is possible and aligns with your values for life.
The 6 Core Processes
1. Contacting the present moment: bringing awareness to the here-and-now to fully engage in what you are doing with receptiveness, openness, and curiosity.
2. Cognitive diffusion: developing the ability to perceive thoughts, images, memories, and other cognitions as what they truly are which are words, pictures, etc., as opposed to perceiving them as what they can appear to be which are threats, rules, facts, etc.
3. Acceptance: allowing yourself to come into full contact with your experience, even if it comes with unpleasant feelings, urgers, etc., rather than fighting them.
4. Self-as-context: the mind as the thinking self, and the observing self. Here, you want to bring the ability to use the observing self and step away from the thinking self – the aspect of us that is aware of our thoughts and that we are thinking.
5. Values: clarifying what it is that you value most, the kind of person you want to be, the things and people that are significant to you, what you want to stand for in life.
6. Committed action: taking effective actions towards goals that are guided by your values.
Who Can it Help?
ACT has been thoroughly researched throughout the years and has proven to be effective with a diverse range of clinical conditions, such as but not limited to: anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), workplace stress, chronic pain, the stress of terminal cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorders, substance abuse, borderline personality disorder, and even schizophrenia.
If you like the sound of ACT and would like to meet with a psychotherapist who can use it to help you with any and all mental health struggles, you can contact 647-267-9853. Rasha and Zahra are both psychotherapists that are able to conduct ACT.
References
Gloster, A. T., Walder, N., Levin, M. E., Twohig, M. P., & Karekla, M. (2020). The empirical status of acceptance and commitment therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 18, 181-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.09.009
Harris, R. (2006). Embracing your demons: An overview of acceptance and commitment therapy. Psychotherapy in Australia, 12(4), 1-8. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/509ad2ede4b011ec832812ed/t/5b896b18 70a6ad36f8841834/1535732505180/Russ+Harris+-+Overview+of+ACT.pdf
Kennerley, H., Kirk, J., & Westbrook, D. (2017). An introduction to cognitive behaviour therapy - Skills and applications (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.