ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It is an action-oriented therapy designed to help people live purpose-driven lives rather than get lost in the pursuit of feeling good all the time. ACT was founded in 1980 by Steven C. Hayes who experienced debilitating panic attacks and one day said, ‘enough is enough’ and began designing new ways of responding to his panic symptoms and painful life struggles. ACT is a continuously evolving form of therapy and is shaped by ongoing research about what makes effective mental health and behavioral change interventions.
Most recently, Dr. Hayes and his team took on the massive task of combing through published research that showed effective outcomes using any form of therapy. After reviewing all the data, Hayes and his team analyzed the results and were able to categorize every relevant change process identified into six larger categories which they referred to as psychological flexibility processes. Using the breathtaking scope of this information, ACT is currently focusing on helping people develop skills within each of these areas with an end goal of cultivating the psychological flexibility necessary to live life in the present moment; willing to persist with behaviors that lead a person to a values-driven life and eliminate behaviors that detract from living in this way.
The six pillars of psychological flexibility are: defusion, self, acceptance, presence, values and action. Defusion (yes, it is a made-up word) refers to the ability to put the mind on a leash rather than letting thoughts running rampant in the brain in an overpowering, dictatorial way. Self refers to the ability to use perspective-taking to see the self from many viewpoints such as a six-year-old self, a teenage self, a currently-struggling self, or a future-self. This flexibility enhances one’s ability to break free from the limiting ways humans tend to use to define who we are. Acceptance refers to the ability to stop running from pain and instead open to pain as part of a natural, growth-producing journey. Presence refers to the ability to live in the now and have attention be fluid, flexible and voluntary rather than constantly being drawn to living in the past or future. Values refers to the ability to identify what matters, not because other people say it should, but from a place of choice and genuine caring. Action refers to the ability to commit to change in small ways every day that add up significantly over a lifetime.
I choose to use ACT in my practice because it has been life-changing for me, and I believe it offers clients an effective treatment that is flexible and self-guided. I have had the opportunity to attend multiple intensive ACT workshops including being able to be trained by Steve Hayes himself, which was a phenomenal experience. ACT is a process-based therapy so you can expect sessions to be experiential and include hands-on ways of learning.
Sarah Hunter, LCSW 