Stress and tension are part of daily life. Their impact varies quite differently from person to person. While there’s no denying that a positive approach with an intent to change thinking behavior is vital to getting rid of stressful thoughts, there is one more approach to tackle the problem known as “ACT.” This psychotherapy approach is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people handle painful and stressful thoughts by enabling them to accept reality instead of fighting with them. The method is backed by scientific research and has proven to be a better technique for coping with traumas. Further, it helps make a person mentally strong to be prepared for any future mishaps.
Read More About: How to Prepare for Trauma Therapy
In this article, we will dive deeply to learn everything about acceptance and commitment therapy. By the end of this article, you’ll have learned everything crucial about this physiotherapy method. So, let’s get right to the topic.
ACT Explained Comprehensively
ACT is a type of cognitive therapy that is unique and opposite in its approach compared to other forms of anxiety therapy. For example, CBT often tries to reduce or change negative thoughts, whereas ACT concentrates on changing your relationship with those thoughts. ACT enables you to accept the situations and not give up while striving to improve things.
In a nutshell, ACT helps increase psychological flexibility by helping you become more self-aware and self-conscious about your present while also encouraging you to move in the direction that matters most to you.
The main idea of ACT is that pain, sadness, grief, and disappointments are part of life. Avoiding or controlling these feelings often makes things worse. On the lighter side, ACT helps build a new perspective so that negative thoughts no longer disrupt your mental state or the course of your life.
How ACT Therapy Works?
ACT therapy is largely confined to the six core fundamentals, and apart from acceptance, self-as-context makes this kind of therapy stand out. Let’s quickly go over the six core fundamentals.
● Acceptance
The A in ACT is an acronym for Acceptance. In ACT, acceptance means allowing yourself to feel freely whatever is occupying your mind. It can be a thought of pain, sadness, or any disappointing factor. But doesn’t it bury the whole point? No, it’s a practice in ACT to make space for such thoughts rather than insisting that you feel anything about them.
For example, suppose you’re feeling anxious about a presentation. Instead of avoiding it or fighting the anxiety, you learn to sit with that feeling, accept that it’s there, and still go ahead with the presentation.
● Cognitive Defusion
This will help you step back from your thoughts and see them for what they are: nothing more than words and pictures in your head. A lot of people think their thoughts are facts. For example, suppose you say to yourself, ‘I’m a failure’; you’ll likely believe that is true.
With ACT, you notice these thoughts but don’t get pulled in by them. You learn methods for keeping your distance from them, such as saying, “I have the thought that I’m a failure,” to largely remove their power.
● Being Present
This part of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on paying attention to certain thoughts without getting caught up in a past act or worrying about the future. Practicing mindfulness helps us be more aware of what’s around us, our emotions, and our bodies in this moment.
Presence helps you stay connected with what’s really happening rather than just staying in your head. Just a few minutes of mindful breathing or noting what sounds you can hear will calm you and bring you back to the present.
● Self-as-Context
This is a little abstract, but it is very powerful. It’s the thoughtless realization that you are not your thoughts or feelings. Anxiety is not you, depression is not you, nor is pain.
ACT acknowledges that your mind has parts. The observing self can observe what’s happening inside your mind without being overcome by it. It helps you see that your thoughts and emotions come and go, but your Self remains.
● Values
By thinking deeply about what’s important to you and your values, ACT encourages you to do just that—to do things that help make your life matter, like being a caring parent, helping others, being creative, and living candidly.
Having direction means you know your values. Instead of moving out of pain, you begin moving towards what is important to you.
● Committed Action
Once you know your values, the next step is to act on them (even small steps). This implies doing difficult things, doing uncomfortable things, things that are actually going to set goals, make plans, and matter to you.
For example, a person obsessed over connection might call a friend, even if they are socially anxious. Where ACT helps you is taking action in the direction of your values, not in the direction of your fears.
How You Can apply ACT in real life!
Let’s say you have someone by the name of Sarah who has social anxiety. She won’t go to parties or meetings or open her mouth at work. She often keeps thinking, ‘I’ll say something stupid’ or ‘Everyone will judge me.’
So, in ACT, Sarah wouldn’t be told to stop thinking these things or to ‘think positive.’ Rather than the thoughts and feelings taking over her behavior, her therapist would help her notice them and accept them as part of her experience.
By saying to herself, ‘I notice the thought that I will say something stupid,’ Sarah might try defusion. Maybe she’ll use mindfulness to keep her in the present moment, focusing on her breath or what is right around her.
So she would step into values, perhaps connection, growth, or courage, and take baby steps, going to that gathering, expressing an idea at work, even though she felt anxious. Year after year, she lived her life on the basis of what she believed in and not on the basis of the things she feared.
What Kind of Problems can ACT fix?
The use of ACT is useful in treating various mental health difficulties. These include:
- Panic attacks and social anxiety are among the anxiety disorders.
- When you feel like you are depressed, especially when you are struggling with thoughts of hopelessness or worthlessness.
- People who live well despite physical discomfort, such as chronic pain.
- Or people dealing with PTSD.
- Drug abuse and addiction
- Eating disorders
- Stress and burnout.
It’s also used in coaching, parenting, education, and workplace training. Many people without a specific diagnosis use ACT to develop resilience, increase emotional well-being, and pursue personal growth.
What does an ACT therapy session look like?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) sessions are most commonly conducted one-on-one with a licensed or registered therapist, but can sometimes be conducted in a group.
First, the therapist learns about the client, identifies the troublemaker, and helps determine what the client is seeking from therapy. The six core processes are the basis for exercises and discussions with the client, which the therapist oversees over time.
It can be practiced through mindfulness, worksheets, guiding through reflection, role-playing, or creating goals that align with personal values. Sometimes, it is given so the clients can use the material they have learned
Therapists address many different conditions. They take a warm and accepting approach and never force clients to accept something they aren’t ready for. People are met where they are in ACT.
Why Are ACT Benefits Important
ACT is one of the biggest strengths because when people are suffering from pain, it teaches them to live with it, not fight it or avoid it. It reduces suffering and creates a fuller, richer life.
It enables one to feel emotionally flexible, more in touch with their values, and more willing to take meaningful risks. They get tools to deal with anxiety, depression, or stress when it jumps up, and prevent them from avoiding, escaping, or shutting down to do it.
Final Thoughts
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is an exciting and powerful new method for dealing with life’s difficulties. It doesn’t demand that you repress your pain or appear positive all day long.
It does not require quelling your pain or burying your head in the sand all the time. Instead, it helps you be open to all your thoughts and emotions, good or bad, and to live a life that revolves around what matters most.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is about living a good life, recognizing that there will be times when it’s hard, and then accepting that you can’t control things that have already happened.
If you feel ready to try therapy for yourself or a loved one, we have a team of excellent therapists working with a wide range of issues. You can book directly online for a consultation or session at www.boomerangcc.ca. We look forward to helping you along your healing or growth journey.
