Connect with what matters through acceptance & commitment therapy

ACT is a therapeutic approach focused on fostering acceptance and increasing willingness to change. ACT encourages you to let go of your attempts to control and change unwanted thoughts and emotions. This is based on the understanding that attempting to control our experience takes us out of being present and creating a fulfilling life based on our values.

If you’re wondering about where the name of the therapy comes from, acceptance refers to making space for unwanted and distressing thoughts and emotions, and commitment refers to taking committed action towards your values and what matters most to you.

ACT is different from CBT in that CBT is focused on altering negative thoughts and beliefs, while ACT does not believe that trying to change your thoughts is a productive use of your energy and time. ACT instead guides you to build acceptance for difficult emotions and distressing thoughts so that you can be less caught up in them and more free to pursue a meaningful life. As a therapist, I find ACT appealing because of its focus on values and meaningful action, rather than trying to control your mind in a particular way.

ACT differs from talk therapy in that there is a little more guidance in where we focus our attention. As an ACT therapist, I take a slightly more active role than a talk therapist, guiding you to pause and notice what your mind is doing, or challenging you to recognize how you are getting entangled in trying to manage your emotions.

ACT has an overall stance of building acceptance for difficult experiences and a willingness to move towards values. With this general focus on mental well-being, it works well for many challenges.

In particular, ACT can be helpful for anxiety, OCD, and stress by helping you to unhook from anxious thoughts and build confidence to move towards what matters to you. For depression, ACT can guide you to be less caught up in negative beliefs about yourself and the future, and build willingness to take steps to move out of the stuckness of depression and towards action in your life.

Acceptance simply means building the willingness to face your experience without trying to control it. For example, if you are having an anxious thought prior to speaking up in a meeting about something that’s important to you, acceptance would involve being willing to feel anxiety while also committing to speak up because it is worth it to you.

Sometimes people are hesitant to accept difficult things because they feel it would involve approving of them. This is not the case. For example, accepting a loved one’s death does not mean that you approve that it happened, but it does mean that you are willing to feel the grief and acknowledge that fighting reality does not change the situation and instead pulls you out of living your life.

Values are your heart’s deepest desires for how you want to act as a human being, such as how you want to treat yourself, others, and the world around you. Values are chosen only by you, and are not influenced by the expectations and pressures of others. Values are not the same as goals because they have no endpoint - you can always point yourself in the direction of your values.

Values matter because life is more fulfilling and meaningful when we take action in alignment with our values. Getting caught up in managing our thoughts and feelings can distract us from living out our values, making life feel dull and colorless. In ACT, you are encouraged to take steps towards your values in order to build more satisfaction and a sense of purpose.

In some ways, an ACT-based therapy session won’t look very different from general talk therapy. We’ll start with a check-in on how your previous week has been, and then we’ll collaborate on a focus for our session. This focus may be related to a recent challenge that you’ve been noticing, or to a wider goal that you came to therapy for.

As we explore the issue, my ACT orientation means that I will have us focus on what’s happening in your mind or emotions as you discuss your struggles. We may explore how you are getting caught up in your thoughts or in trying to control your emotional experience. I’ll also encourage you to recognize how values fit into your life - how is your entanglement with your struggles taking you away from your values, and what would it be like to move closer to your values? From time to time, I may ask us to try an exercise, such as one aimed at helping you to tune into your body or to notice the patterns in your mind.

Intrusive thoughts can be very distressing, which can lead you to try to manage or get rid of these types of thoughts. While understandable, this process makes you even more entangled in the thoughts. ACT encourages you to allow the thoughts to be there without trying to change them. With ACT, you learn to view your intrusive thoughts as simply mental information that your mind has served up to you that doesn’t necessarily have any meaning or bearing on who you are as a person.

This coping skill is called “cognitive defusion,” and it also helps with general overthinking and anxiety. When you realize your mind is constantly serving you mental information, you learn that you don’t have to act on everything your mind creates. This frees you up to focus on what truly matters to you.

In some cases, ACT will include homework or exercises between sessions. This depends on your specific goals and your interest and willingness to try homework between sessions.

If you’re struggling with anxiety or obsessions/compulsions that are affecting your daily life, I may suggest specific activities you can try between sessions to respond to these symptoms. If you’re coming to therapy for something more general, such as considering a life change, homework will be less necessary as our work will be more focused on self-exploration.

In general, I am not a therapist who leans heavily on homework, but I do see its value. You are always welcome to ask for ideas of what to do between sessions, and I will be happy to make suggestions. Often, this is a collaborative process so that homework is designed to fit with your interests and strengths.

Yes, ACT is an effective approach for many mental health challenges, as shown through hundreds of randomized controlled trials. ACT has been deemed evidence-based treatment for several conditions by the World Health Organization and the American Psychological Association. In particular, ACT appears to be most effective in treating anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and OCD. However, ACT is designed to be transdiagnostic, meaning it is easily adaptable to respond to a wide variety of concerns.

Yes, ACT is an effective approach for many mental health challenges, as shown through hundreds of randomized controlled trials. ACT has been deemed evidence-based treatment for several conditions by the World Health Organization and the American Psychological Association. In particular, ACT appears to be most effective in treating anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and OCD. However, ACT is designed to be transdiagnostic, meaning it is easily adaptable to respond to a wide variety of concerns.