ACCEPTANCE & COMMITMENT THERAPY

Evidence-based psychotherapy used to navigate suffering, life experiences and treat many mental and emotional health conditions.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."

James Baldwin

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is a third-wave Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) proven effective for treating depression, anxiety disorders, AD(HD), OCD, eating disorders, addiction and substance use disorders, chronic pain, PTSD and trauma-related psychosis and flashback. Third-wave therapies incorporate mindfulness as a distinguishing factor. In a few words, ACT helps clients embrace their demons and follow their hearts (Harris, 2006).

ACT entails six core principles designed to increase your psychological and emotional flexibility and resiliency that provide the ability to:

Process painful emotions and stressful thoughts.
Calmer nervous system and more 'feel good' neurochemicals like oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin, and less stress chemicals like adrenalin and cortisol.
Experience clearer, focused thinking and chosen behaviors.
Less maladaptive protective reactions (fight-flight-fawn-freeze).
Resolve anxiety and mood disorders, like depression.
Move forward productively, fueled by your own values and sense of purpose, instead of shaming or fear-based beliefs.

"What you resist, persists. What you accept, transforms."

Shamash Alidina

SELF-LEADERSHIP (WISE MIND) OVER THOUGHTS AND BELIEFS WITH ACT

"Accept - then act, whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it not against it."
Sam Owen

6 CORE PRINCIPLES OF ACT

1. ACCEPTANCE

Instead of fighting against your thoughts and feelings, notice and accept them.
The more you fight them, the more nervous system activation it causes.
Putting a judgment on thoughts is what gets people stuck in negativity, Inner Critic loops, shame, depression, chronic stress and inflammatory conditions.
Thoughts, like feelings, are innocent, authentic and personally informative, not something abnormal that need to be judged, shamed or changed.
Thoughts and emotions that keep surfacing may need your intentional attention, even if they seem frivolous, irrational or 'bad' (learn to take time to work with them by accepting them, writing them down and finding the balance in them, rather than fighting against them).

2. COGNITIVE DEFUSION

Also called Expansion, it creates space and time between yourself and your thoughts and feelings.
Observe thoughts, rather than through their lens or from them.
Our feelings are simply feelings and not omens of impending doom.
Thoughts are thoughts and not necessarily true, clever, or important.
Guided meditations and scripts are useful for cognitive defusion.
Fosters regulation by seeing extremes in thoughts so you can balance them out and find the value in them.

3. PRESENT MOMENT (WISE MIND)

Allows for Wise Mind and Self-Leadership so you can work with your thoughts and emotions instead of them having power over you and your behaviors.
This happens in the moment. The only place reality exists.
With presence we can observe, allow and work with our thoughts and emotions.
ACT exercises on mindfulness are helpful in this respect.

4. SELF AS CONTEXT (WISE MIND)

Along with presence, our real self is the observer of our thoughts and feelings.
Similar to the Common Humanity construct of Self-Compassion.
Viewing psychological experiences as ever-changing and peripheral, rather than as forever-true, stagnant definitions of self and others.
Learn to detach from the part of yourself that is caught up in its experience so it may focus on moving forward with ideal behavior that meets your values.

5. PERSONAL VALUES

Part of ACT is figuring out what you stand for and what you care about for real.
We are intrinsically motivated to achieve behavior that matches our values.
Value-aligned desire and envisioned action-planning is a powerful fuel source that taps into energizing neurochemicals and hormones like dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin.
Realize and actualize your real values, needs, wants and needed limits.
Values worksheets in ACT are self-reflection exercises that help clients find direction and motivation and make therapy discussions more helpful.

6. COMMITMENT TO ACTION

We need value-aligned action to feel a fulfilled in life.
It is the commitment, plan and pursuit of happiness that makes us happy from a neurochemical and sensory perspective.
The clearer our plan of action, the more motivating it is.
Having a Sense of Purpose and Inspiration is part of what fuels us.
This is different from CBT. With ACT, new behaviors are fueled by our own authentic values and desires.