What is ACT? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
ACT doesn’t try to change either your thinking or your emotional experience. It instead promotes acceptance of what exists and making behavior changes based on what is meaningful to you living a rich life. The major barrier to a full life and one that people frequently struggle with is psychological inflexibility. We all struggle when we lose our flexibility in dealing with things. We may try to control our feelings and thoughts, or we relate to people or situations in a rigid manner.
What maintains our inflexibility? First of all, we get stuck in our thought as if they were real things. For example, the parent who yells at their child may think “I am a lousy parent” or “I am a terrible person.” We become fused with our thoughts. ACT teaches us to step back and recognize this is just a thought through a process known as defusion. It’s hard to be flexible when you are stuck in your thoughts.
Another way we become inflexible is by avoidance of the problem. Many people try hard to avoid situations, people, thoughts, or feelings that are painful or unpleasant. But it takes a lot of time and energy when we are in the avoidance mode of living. It also interferes with the ability to live a rich, healthy life. ACT teaches us to accept these challenges and still learn to live a valued life.
There are six core processes in ACT that are aimed at increasing psychological flexibility: acceptance, defusion, present moment awareness, self as context, values, and committed action.
· Acceptance (let it be) refers to the process of willingly experiencing thoughts, feelings, and sensation without attempting to control of modify them.
· Defusion (let it go) refers to the process of noticing thoughts and images and stepping back and watching our thinking instead of getting tangled up in them.
· Contact with the Present Moment (be here now) refers to the process of intentionally paying attention to our experiences in the moment.
· Self-as Context (notice yourself) refers to the process of experiencing yourself as an observer – the noticing self.
· Values (choose what matters) refers to connection with our freely chosen life directions,
· Committed Action (do what matters)refers to our willingness to take action in the service of living a life consistent with our personal values.
The goal of ACT is to use some or all these processes to produce greater psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility in a nutshell, is the ability to notice how you are feeling and what you are thinking and then being able to take action to do the things that matter to you. You then will have more energy to take steps toward the things that you value in life
Mindfulness is not a specific core component of ACT but is recognized as a vehicle for obtaining four of the six components: acceptance, delusion, contact with the present moment, and self as context.
What maintains our inflexibility? First of all, we get stuck in our thought as if they were real things. For example, the parent who yells at their child may think “I am a lousy parent” or “I am a terrible person.” We become fused with our thoughts. ACT teaches us to step back and recognize this is just a thought through a process known as defusion. It’s hard to be flexible when you are stuck in your thoughts.
Another way we become inflexible is by avoidance of the problem. Many people try hard to avoid situations, people, thoughts, or feelings that are painful or unpleasant. But it takes a lot of time and energy when we are in the avoidance mode of living. It also interferes with the ability to live a rich, healthy life. ACT teaches us to accept these challenges and still learn to live a valued life.
There are six core processes in ACT that are aimed at increasing psychological flexibility: acceptance, defusion, present moment awareness, self as context, values, and committed action.
· Acceptance (let it be) refers to the process of willingly experiencing thoughts, feelings, and sensation without attempting to control of modify them.
· Defusion (let it go) refers to the process of noticing thoughts and images and stepping back and watching our thinking instead of getting tangled up in them.
· Contact with the Present Moment (be here now) refers to the process of intentionally paying attention to our experiences in the moment.
· Self-as Context (notice yourself) refers to the process of experiencing yourself as an observer – the noticing self.
· Values (choose what matters) refers to connection with our freely chosen life directions,
· Committed Action (do what matters)refers to our willingness to take action in the service of living a life consistent with our personal values.
The goal of ACT is to use some or all these processes to produce greater psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility in a nutshell, is the ability to notice how you are feeling and what you are thinking and then being able to take action to do the things that matter to you. You then will have more energy to take steps toward the things that you value in life
Mindfulness is not a specific core component of ACT but is recognized as a vehicle for obtaining four of the six components: acceptance, delusion, contact with the present moment, and self as context.