ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT)

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an empirically-based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. ACT teaches us to "just notice", accept, and embrace our private events, especially previously unwanted ones. It helps the individual get in contact with a transcendent sense of self known as "self-as-context"—the you who is always there observing and experiencing and yet distinct from one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories. ACT aims to help the individual clarify their personal values and to take action on them, bringing more vitality and meaning to their life in the process, increasing their psychological flexibility.

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ACT commonly employs six core principles to help clients develop psychological flexibility:

1. Cognitive defusion: Learning methods to reduce the tendency to reify thoughts, images, emotions, and memories.

2. Acceptance: Allowing unwanted private experiences (thoughts, feelings and urges) to come and go without struggling with them.

3. Contact with the present moment: Awareness of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest, and receptiveness.

4. The observing self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self, a continuity of consciousness which is unchanging.

5. Values: Discovering what is most important to oneself.

6. Committed action: Setting goals according to values and carrying them out responsibly.

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