Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
A great article that explains what ACT can treat and its methodology can be found on psychology today.
Here, I want to explain more about the three different principles in ACT and what this can mean for you. Therapy can include all of these aspects or focus on one. The main purpose is for you to become more psychologically flexible (able to adapt to difficult situations and move toward a rich, full, meaningful life).
Be Present
"Contacting the present moment is the ability to flexibly notice your here-and-now experience and to narrow, broaden, sustain, or redirect your focus, as desired."*
What can we do?
What can we do?
Open Up
Getting hooked means your thoughts/feelings “dominate your behaviour … or your attention” (or both). Unhooking “means responding flexibly to your [thoughts/feelings] so they can influence but do not dominate your behaviour.”
What can we do?
What can we do?
Do What Matters
“Committed action means taking effective action, guided and motivated by values. … Committed action implies flexible action: readily adapting to the challenges of the situation and either persisting with or changing behaviour as required. In other words, doing what it takes to effectively live by your values."
What can we do?
What can we do?
A final word: The Control Agenda
* Harris, Russ (2019). ACT Made Simple (2nd ed.)
Here, I want to explain more about the three different principles in ACT and what this can mean for you. Therapy can include all of these aspects or focus on one. The main purpose is for you to become more psychologically flexible (able to adapt to difficult situations and move toward a rich, full, meaningful life).
Be Present
"Contacting the present moment is the ability to flexibly notice your here-and-now experience and to narrow, broaden, sustain, or redirect your focus, as desired."*
What can we do?
- We can practice being more open and curious about what is happening in the moment. It's learning to shift from our thinking mind (the part that reacts) to our noticing mind (the part that observes without judgement). Being present can focus either on internal experiences or external.
What can we do?
- Mindfulness skills are an excellent way to practice being present. If you've tried it before and loved it, great! If you weren't a fan, that's okay, too. There are lots of ways we can practice mindfulness: through formal exercises like breathing or something more regular, like being present in a task. Metaphors are often used to help you discover the place where you can safely observe your inner world. Some of my favourites are being behind the glass at the zoo, watching through a camera, or externalizing my thoughts/feelings as the weather.
Open Up
Getting hooked means your thoughts/feelings “dominate your behaviour … or your attention” (or both). Unhooking “means responding flexibly to your [thoughts/feelings] so they can influence but do not dominate your behaviour.”
What can we do?
- There is a long list of skills to choose from to find what works for you in helping to unhook from thoughts and feelings. In a state of being unhooked, we see thoughts/feelings for what they really are: nothing more than thoughts or images in our head. But that isn't to invalidate the impact that emotions can have, some are definitely not fun! But by learning to let go of the struggle, we can find self-empowerment and freedom.
What can we do?
- If unhooking represents "let it go", then acceptance means to "let it be". This doesn't mean learning to like the discomfort in your life, but creating a different relationship with it (as opposed to continued suffering). We can practice exposure to unwanted psychological experiences, or if that seems like too big of a leap, we can practice increasing willingness for change and making room inside of our bodies (e.g., releasing tension).
Do What Matters
“Committed action means taking effective action, guided and motivated by values. … Committed action implies flexible action: readily adapting to the challenges of the situation and either persisting with or changing behaviour as required. In other words, doing what it takes to effectively live by your values."
What can we do?
- Our focus is to shift you from suffering to vitality. This is accomplished through workability. What that means is evaluating your actions, skills, and goals and seeing if they help move you toward the kind of person you want to be. Strategies can be goal planning, identifying more about who you want to be, or learning to catch hooking triggers earlier.
What can we do?
- Values inspire, motivate, and guide us. But we don't always know what it is we stand for. Together, we can identify your core values. Remember, pursue you values vigorously but hold them lightly. If we become hooked with trying to be a certain person 100% of the time, you're not living psychological flexibility.
A final word: The Control Agenda
- ACT sees control (avoiding or struggling with) as the enemy to psychological flexibility. It can be tempting to use the skills of be present, open up, and do what matters to control our emotional experiences. For example, strategies are used to help you avoid depressive feelings completely instead of processing or regulating them. If you find yourself doing this, we can work on addressing the control agenda. Likely, it's causing you distress and loss of energy. I'm not advocating that we give up control completely in our lives; meaningful living isn't passive. But how long do you need to try what you've been trying before you're willing to do something new?
* Harris, Russ (2019). ACT Made Simple (2nd ed.)