Exploring ACT: Understanding Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of mindfulness behavioral therapy that does not attempt to directly address negative symptoms or “cure” them completely. Instead, it aims to create a holistic approach that reduces negative symptoms, thus leading to a healthier lifestyle while empowering people to proactively address symptoms as they come up.

ACT therapy is best thought of as a lifestyle change rather than a program or a traditional rehabilitation that you complete and move on from. There is no finite end or completion of ACT therapy. Rather, it teaches the tools needed to navigate through difficult and unavoidable times that are inevitable in life. Still, you have to put in ongoing work to continually refine and apply them to your ongoing life experiences.

This article will provide a thorough understanding of commitment and acceptance therapy and its practical applications toward living a healthier and more balanced life. Additionally, it will outline the 6 core processes of psychological flexibility that you can begin incorporating into your daily life.

What is ACT Therapy?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) teaches people the tools they need to embrace their internal thoughts and feelings in a healthy manner rather than fighting them or feeling guilty about them. Medical conditions such as OCD, substance use disorder (SUD), anxiety, and depression can all benefit from a treatment plan that combines key components of ACT with other mindfulness-based therapy solutions.

ACT therapy is a research psychology backed treatment that views negative symptoms such as anxiety, pain, and grief as inevitable aspects of the human experience that can and should be dealt with on an ongoing basis rather than avoided. It teaches individuals how to successfully adapt and get through these hard times rather than aim to create an environment in which they never appear.

How Does Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Work?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a stark contrast to more traditional therapy and recovery methods. By rejecting most of the conventional “rules” and sensibilities of modern Western psychology, ACT therapy centers on the acceptance of negative, unavoidable aspects of life and the commitment to continued action through mindfulness and self-improvement.

Additionally, ACT therapy rejects the notion of “healthy normality,” a common idea in modern psychology that states humans typically operate from a position of good overall mental and psychological health. Due to the fact that roughly one out of every two people at some point in their life consider suicide, ACT rejects this idea, favoring instead the idea that mental health is fluid and that there is no true sense of normality.

Through this belief, ACT therapy helps people create habits that empower people to live a healthy and balanced life without ignoring the negative aspects of reality. Instead, it teaches them the tools needed to deal with these issues in real time, head-on, rather than run away or hide from them.

This is all achieved through the successful implementation of the 6 Core Processes of Psychological Flexibility, which helps patients provide a foundation that they can build a healthy life from and develop their mindfulness skill set.

The 6 Core Processes of Psychological Flexibility

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps you develop psychological flexibility and draws from the core tenets of mindfulness to encourage self-acceptance. The following six processes can be used and internalized to help guide you into a life of balanced emotional well-being.

1. Acceptance

The first practical action you can take to improve your psychological flexibility and internal feelings of self-acceptance is to embrace the full range of your thoughts, emotions, and desires. This can be difficult to do at first, but it is necessary.

In this process, always center the idea that everybody feels negative thoughts and has desires that they are not proud of. It is an unavoidable part of the human experience and unhealthy to deny.

2. Cognitive Defusion

Cognitive defusion is the act of mentally distancing yourself from negative and distressing thoughts and feelings and actively working toward altering how you react to them.

A few key techniques for implementing this include nonjudgmental thought observation and labeling your thoughts as they come in. This will help you understand what “good” and “bad” thoughts are. After a bit of time, you will be able to do this internal sorting without thought, making it much easier to sift out the negative thought patterns.

3. Being Present

Through the ongoing observation of your thoughts and feelings without judgment, you can begin to feel more grounded and present in the current moment. This will help make you feel more in control and an active participant in your life rather than a spectator.

It can also work to help improve your overall mindfulness and personal awareness, making it significantly easier to make positive behavior changes in the future.

4. Self as Context

The phrase “self as context” refers to the idea that we are all more than our internal concept of self and identity. Our thoughts, feelings, and experiences are simply part of us, not the entirety of our personhood and identity.

5. Values

When making any positive change in your mental health, it is important to take inventory of your personal values and how they are shifting. These guiding principles are the building blocks of all the work that you will be doing, so it is useful to think critically about them and ensure that they align properly with the person you are becoming.

6. Committed Action

Taking concrete, actionable steps to improve yourself and your mental health is critical to achieving long-lasting psychological flexibility. While these can all be difficult or even feel impossible at first, taking action is the only way to make real, meaningful changes in your life.

This can take a variety of forms but typically involves actions such as frequent goal setting, reflection, dedicated skill development, or intentional exposure to difficult thoughts or experiences. The specific actions you take are largely unimportant. What truly matters is that they align with your newfound values and the person you want to become long-term.

Begin Your Recovery Journey With SoberMind Recovery

SoberMind Recovery is a Los Angeles recovery center offering a wide variety of specialized treatment programs, ranging from LGBTQ sober living to dual diagnosis treatment, as well as individual, group, and cognitive behavioral therapy. 

Our mission is to provide individualized, evidence-based care in a compassionate and high-quality manner and make a difference in the world of addiction and help people like you achieve long lasting recovery through research-based methods.

Residents of the Los Angeles area are encouraged to call us today 100% free of charge at 818-835-9268 or 819-398-8047 to see if our compassionate, evidence-based treatment options are a good fit for you and your recovery plan.