Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a mindfulness-based approach to therapy that helps clients recognise strong thoughts and emotions without being debilitated by them. It teaches clients how to accept negative thoughts and emotions, recognise that their thoughts hold no intrinsic truth and, through a range of mindful techniques, that they can still work towards a life of value and meaning even when navigating difficult emotions.

It’s one of several therapies that can help individuals with a range of mental health, behavioural, or physical health-related issues. The team at Conscious Healthcare SA can offer Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients lead the lives they want, no matter what’s going in their lives at the time.

Learn more below. If you have any questions, get in touch with us today.

FAQs

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and How Does it Work?

At its core, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of therapy focused on helping individuals accept their thoughts and feelings while committing to actions that align with their values and the life they want to live. It can be broken down into the following:

To accept their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or avoiding them, no matter how unpleasant or unwanted the thoughts or feelings are.
After accepting these thoughts and feelings through forms of mindfulness, they can then turn their attention back to their values, the life they want, and commit to these.
This allows them to live a meaningful life, even when confronted with unpleasant or difficult emotions.

When taking a closer look, ACT implements several mindfulness-based techniques to help the individual lessen the hold strong emotions or thoughts have on them. The core principles of ACT involve:

Acceptance: The process of accepting and allowing uncomfortable thoughts and emotions to exist without trying to suppress or escape them.
Cognitive defusion: A technique that allows the individual to recognise thoughts as nothing more than thoughts (they hold no inherent truth that needs to be obeyed or emotionally responded to).
Presence: Utilising techniques to remain present with the immediate moment, such as through meditation or mindful breathing, and gently turning attention away from past regrets or future anxieties.
Self-as-context: On a basic level, this is the recognition that there is a part of the self that simply observes thoughts and feelings and is, in essence, separate from those thoughts and feelings.
Values: The individual reiterates and clarifies what matters in their life.
Committed action: The final core principle that focuses on taking purposeful steps that align with the individual’s values, even if there’s discomfort in walking that path.

What Mental Health Conditions can ACT be Used to Treat?

Given ACT’s focus on the acceptance of thoughts and utilising mindfulness to manage unpleasant thoughts and emotions, it’s a form of therapy that can address a wide range of mental health conditions, disorders, and behavioural issues. It’s also an effective form of therapy for people living with health-related issues as the mindfulness approach can help them better manage their responses to physical discomfort and the thoughts that discomfort triggers.

Below is a list of just some of the mental health and physical health issues ACT can help with:

Mental health

Anxiety disorders, including social anxiety, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), and panic disorder
Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (c-PTSD)
Bipolar disorder
Borderline personality disorder

Behavioural and addiction-based issues:

Substance use disorders
Smoking cessation (quitting)
Eating disorders (including under- and over-eating)

Health-related conditions:

Chronic pain
Diabetes
Cancer support
Sleep issues

Other stressful or unpleasant experiences:

General stress
Workplace burnout
Low self-esteem
Processing grief or loss

How is ACT Different from Other Forms of Talk Therapy?

Given ACT’s focus on helping individuals with acceptance, mindfulness, and committing to their values, ACT does differ from typical talk therapy. There is still talking as part of the therapy, but it’s more purposeful in its focus on how the individual responds to unwanted thoughts and emotions, identifying their values, and practising different ways of relating to these experiences and changing the internal narrative about them.

It also involves a range of mindfulness exercises that may not be utilised in general talk therapy. This includes breath awareness, learning to notice thoughts without judgement or negative self-talk, and utilising grounding techniques such as body scans (where focus is moved throughout different parts of the body to help the individual feel grounded in the moment).

The main goal of ACT is to help individuals feel more level in the face of unpleasant thoughts and emotions rather than necessarily trying to decode what those thoughts or feelings mean. On a functional level, much of mindfulness and meditative practices are about being neutral in the face of an unpleasant experience, not changing the experience itself.

Given it’s a means of therapy that the individual can practice in their own time and make use of as needed beyond therapy sessions, ACT therapists tend to act more like a coach or guide for the individual rather than interpreting or diagnosing specific conditions.

Does Conscious Healthcare SA Offer ACT as a Standalone Service or Integrated into Broader Programs?

ACT is just one of several therapeutic approaches that’s offered at Conscious Healthcare SA. Our team of psychologists can provide a range of therapies, and this includes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Generally, ACT will be offered as a type of actionable therapy depending on the client’s personal and mental health needs.

It may be offered as the focus of therapy or one of several therapeutic strategies to help clients lead more fulfilling and value-based lives.

How Does ACT Help Clients Develop Psychological Flexibility?

As noted, ACT places a significant focus on allowing unpleasant thoughts and emotions to exist without becoming consumed by them. Through promoting mindfulness, an awareness of how thoughts and emotions hold no intrinsic truth, and learning how to lead an idealised life while living with difficult thoughts or emotions, ACT drives a notable degree of psychological flexibility.