Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy (ACT)

What Is ACT?

Mindfulness skills enable us to learn to be in the moment, connect more to those who matter to us and make the most of each and every day. They help us to unhook from unhelpful thoughts, and to struggle less with uncomfortable emotions as these are in fact, everyday common phenomena and not something that is necessarily pathological. ACT has been empirically shown to be efficacious in the treatment of a range of psychological difficulties, including depression, anxiety, bipolar, addictions, and psychosis.

One of the key aims of ACT is to help increase our levels of psychological flexibility. Having greater psychological flexibility does not mean that we will never feel ‘down’ or stressed again; it means that when unwanted or difficult situations arise in our life, we are able to respond to them by adapting and applying the mindfulness and acceptance skills that we have learned such that we can take the next best step in a direction that is meaningful and valuable to us.

We all get stuck at certain points in our life. ACT aims to help us get “unstuck” by teaching us the aforementioned skills, which we can then use to change our relationship with, and thus better manage, our difficult thoughts and emotions. This, in turn, frees us up to take more effective action in our lives.