Core Principles of ACT
Acceptance
- ACT focuses on accepting difficult thoughts and feelings instead of trying to control or eliminate them.
- This involves acknowledging that suffering is a normal part of life, rather than something to be avoided.
- Clients learn to observe their thoughts and feelings without judgement or evaluation.
Defusion
- Defusion techniques aim to weaken the fusion between language, experience and actions.
- Clients learn to see their thoughts as just thoughts, not as facts or commands that they need to follow.
- This allows clients to create some psychological distance from their thoughts, helping them to choose how they act.
Mindfulness
- Mindfulness is used to help clients pay attention to the present moment.
- This involves noticing thoughts, feelings and sensations as they arise without getting caught up in them.
- Mindfulness helps to create an observer perspective, allowing clients to experience anxiety without reacting automatically.
Values
- ACT emphasizes identifying what is truly important to the client, such as relationships, career or personal growth.
- Clients are encouraged to live in accordance with these values, rather than being guided by anxiety.
- The focus shifts from symptom reduction to creating a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Committed Action
- ACT encourages clients to take action based on their values, even in the presence of anxiety.
- This helps to break patterns of avoidance, which can worsen anxiety.
- Value-guided exposure is used to create flexible patterns of behaviour.
Self as Context
- Clients learn to recognise the observing self, which is separate from thoughts and feelings.
- This helps to develop a sense of perspective and creates distance from anxiety-related content.
Practical Applications of ACT
Experiential Exercises
- ACT uses metaphors, paradox and experiential exercises to help clients connect with feared and avoided thoughts, feelings and sensations.
- These exercises aim to change the client’s relationship with anxiety.
- Examples include the Acceptance of Anxiety exercise, which encourages willingness to make full contact with the experience of anxiety.
Valued Living
- Identifying personal values, such as relationships, career, and personal growth, is a key part of the process.
- Clients work on translating values into specific, actionable goals.
- Using the Valued Directions worksheet helps to explore more specific values and identify goals.
- Short, medium and long term goals are explored using SMART criteria.
- Clients are encouraged to notice how their minds respond to these goals from an observing self perspective.
- Defusion skills can help clients intentionally decide if their thoughts are helpful and move toward realistic goals.
Daily Practice
- Clients are encouraged to practice acceptance of thoughts and feelings, and notice any lack of compliance and reasons for it.
- This practice helps to create new patterns of relating to anxiety.
Mindfulness in Daily Life
- Clients can practice mindfulness by asking, “What thoughts are showing up right now?”, “How are you feeling in this moment?”, and “Are you noticing any sensations in your body?”.
Distinguishing ACT from Traditional Approaches
Focus on Values
- Unlike some traditional approaches, ACT does not focus primarily on symptom reduction.
- Instead, the focus is on living a life in accordance with personal values.
- This means experiencing the full range of emotions while engaging in meaningful actions.
Acceptance, not Control
- ACT encourages acceptance, whereas other approaches focus more on control.
- Trying to control or suppress unpleasant feelings can paradoxically make them stronger.
Present Moment
- ACT emphasizes the present, rather than the past.
Experiential Avoidance
- ACT views anxiety disorders as disorders of experiential avoidance, and directly targets this.
Summary
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a unique approach to anxiety, primarily focused on enhancing a client’s quality of life and meaning by moving towards values, rather than symptom reduction or control. Key components include acceptance of unpleasant emotions and thoughts, defusion from thoughts, and mindfulness, all to encourage clients to take action aligned with their chosen values. ACT uses experiential exercises to change the client’s relationship with anxiety, encouraging a willingness to experience a full range of emotions. Ultimately, ACT aims to help clients live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.