Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is said as the word “act” as opposed to the initials A. C. T.  It is a powerful psychotherapy, scientifically studied, and shown to be effective when applied to a range of psychological difficulties such as depression, anxiety, stress, addiction, and chronic pain.

ACT offers an approach where you learn how to change your relationship with unwanted painful thoughts and feelings that present as part of life’s course, thus freeing you to take action in ways that are meaningful to you. ACT uses mindfulness techniques, acceptance strategies, and values-based actions to help you break free from futile struggle and ineffective patterns of behaviour to enable you to focus on living the life you want for yourself.

In summary, a key theme to ACT is learning to respond effectively to those things that cannot be changed while taking committed steps to change the things that can be changed.

For example; 

• Have you ever tried to delete a painful memory or been told to “move on and get over it” but still find yourself remembering or ruminating no matter how hard you try not to?
• Have you ever been told to “cheer up” as if you could control your emotions like a switch but still feel upset no matter how hard you wish to change this?
• Have you tried to challenge your upsetting thoughts and try to ‘believe’ a rational or alternative thought but still can’t shift the way you feel?
• Does all this futile struggle leave you feeling more stuck than ever and take you even further from that life you truly want for yourself?

To read more information about ACT please click here.