The first core therapeutic principle is acceptance. These will be explained in greater detail below. The six processes are acceptance, cognitive defusion, being present, self as context, defining valued direction, and committed action. ACT identifies six core therapeutic processes as helping to promote psychological flexibility. Through a number of interventions and experiential exercises, ACT attempts to bring about acceptance and, eventually, psychological flexibility. Clients who spend their lives trying to avoid unpleasant situations or feelings, worry about the past of future, live according to rigid rules of how they should act or behave, believe negative thoughts about themselves to be factual, and have undefined values tend to be unhappy individuals. Clients gain the skills to recontextualize and accept these private events, develop greater clarity about personal values, and commit to changing behavior in order to live life according to chosen values.ĪCT views psychological inflexibility as the cause of human suffering and psychopathology.
#Acceptance and change therapy how to
Through the utilization of metaphor, paradox, and experiential exercises, clients learn how to make healthy contact with thoughts, feelings, memories, and physical sensations that have been previously feared and avoided.
This is accomplished through a number of techniques, one being recognizing one’s thoughts as thoughts, rather than facts.ĪCT believes that pain is ubiquitous and is a part of life, and it is how people look at and perceive their pain, rather than the pain itself, that contributes to the suffering. Through ACT, clients learn to differentiate their own skewed perceptions from reality. Through ACT, clients learn not to overreact to unpleasant feelings, and learn to stop avoiding situations which trigger those emotions. The objective of ACT is not elimination of difficult feelings rather, it is to help client’s increase their awareness of the present moment and move towards behaving in accordance with their values. ACT differs from many other therapies and theoretical orientations in that it does not try to alter the content of the client’s minds. Hayes and began increasing in popularity in the late 1980s. It is an empirically-based psychological intervention that combines acceptance and mindfulness strategies with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy commonly described as a form of cognitive-behavior therapy or of clinical behavior analysis.
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