Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Suffering, pain, disappointment, grief, loss, illness, and anxiety are all unavoidable parts of the human experience. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on the problem of human suffering and how action guided by our values can help us see beyond our suffering. It utilizes acceptance, mindfulness and values clarification in helping clients reorient and rediscover what gives their lives meaning and purpose.
Through ACT we begin to examine the relationship you have with your suffering, thoughts and emotions and assess for cognitive fusion - the entanglement of self with how we think and how we feel. ACT does not view our problems as the issue, but rather the meaning assigned and story created around the problem we are facing that contributes to suffering. ACT does not focus on symptom reduction, rather it fosters cognitive flexibility to work with these inner experiences rather than against them.
There are six core processes that ACT utilizes to promote cognitive flexibility:
1
Acceptance - embracing the full range of human emotions rather than avoiding, suppressing or altering them
2
Cognitive Defusion - understanding your inner experience, your relationship with thoughts and emotions and skills to begin creating distance between yourself and your inner experience
3
Contact with the Present Moment - awareness of inner experiences without judgement
4
Self as Context or the Observed Self - learning to separate self from thoughts and emotions, that they are part of your inner experience and do not define you
5
Values - developing values to understand what gives your life meaning and purpose. What do you stand for? What matters to you?
6
Committed Action - taking steps towards change that align with your values through skills, exposures and goal setting
What Do You Treat?
Anxiety
Depression
Panic Attacks
Trauma
Emotional Reactivity
Personality Disorders
Life Transitions
Grief
Relationship issues
Poor Boundaries
Life Transitions
Coping Skills