What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and How Can It Help You?
Most of us have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and look for therapists who use CBT to treat a variety of mental health concerns. CBT is an evidence-based treatment for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, anger, substance abuse, personality disorders, PTSD, self-harm, suicidality, and psychosis. CBT is based on the cognitive model of therapy, which hypothesizes that people’s emotions, body responses, and behaviors are influenced by their perception of events. The underlying belief of CBT is that distress is caused by how one interprets a situation. But what is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and how can it help you?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and How it Can Help You
ACT is one model of psychotherapy that is considered a “third wave” approach, or branch off, of CBT. The ACT model aims to help individuals achieve psychological flexibility. This means that after effective ACT treatment, the client would have the ability to be more mindfully aware of their experiences and be able to use their value system to make decisions that will increase their quality of life. When we can be mindful, engage more fully in life, and let our values guide us, we can develop a greater sense of meaning, purpose, and vitality. ACT helps us feel more alive and embrace the here and now. Ultimately, it changes our relationship with our emotions rather than trying to make the difficult emotions go away.
ACT uses six core processes to achieve goals. These core processes help clients notice themselves and their experiences, engage with mindful presence, detach from thoughts and feelings, and initiate and sustain life-enhancing action. Through ACT, people can develop self-compassion, decrease self-judgment, clarify values, and become more emotionally and psychologically flexible. ACT is an evidence-based treatment approach for chronic pain/health concerns, workplace stress, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobias, borderline personality disorder, psychological adjustment to cancer, weight management, and more.
Because of the clarifying values component and the way ACT helps people develop flexibility, I really like to use ACT in my clinical work with people experiencing faith transitions, faith crises, and other life transitions. The ACT model is particularly helpful in these areas because it allows individuals to determine their value system and act accordingly, which is important when dealing with any kind of life transition–be it the transition to parenthood, divorce, becoming an empty-nester, moving out of your parent’s home, job loss or career change, a change in health, changing your relationship with faith or religion, etc. When we understand who we are and what we value, we can make decisions that lead us toward our goals and maintain alignment with who we are at our core.
Helpful ACT Resources
If you want to learn more about ACT and how it is applicable to your life, The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris is a great resource/self-help book that is based on ACT.
To schedule with a therapist who specializes in ACT, please give us a call at 801.944.4555 or click here!
