What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Psychological Flexibility?
By: Adam Davis, LPC
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT (pounced like the word "act")
is a psychotherapy approach that can be of support with treatment related to trauma or trauma-related disorders, anxiety, depression, bipolar-related disorders, and other disorders. The basis of ACT is to help increase the ability, or abilities, to accept your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the current moment as they are, and identify your values to help link your behaviors to your values over a greater pattern within your life.
With that being said,
ACT does not have the intention of getting rid of anxiety, getting rid of traumas, getting rid of depression, or getting rid of anything painful or anything that feels uncomfortable. Rather, the therapeutic intention of ACT is to help change one's relationship with their challenging experiences and feelings/emotions so that they can get back in touch with a more meaningful life experience. To help change such relationship dynamics within one's self, ACT aims at targeting six main flexibilities which include: acceptance, cognitive defusion, flexible attention to the now, flexible perspective taking, identification of values, and committed action (please see a breakdown of components of flexibilities within slide show/video). Essentially, when examined all together this can refer to one's overall ability to adapt and respond to various situational, and internal emotional/psychological challenges, to continue to live a fulfilling life... also known as psychological flexibility.
When someone is greatly struggling with their emotional, behavioral, or mental health experience there is a good chance they are experiencing psychological inflexibility which is either a great difficulty to one or possibly many flexibility processes. Furthermore, the psychological inflexibility processes are called: experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, inflexible attention, lack of contact with chosen values, and inaction/impulsivity (see slide show or video for more information). Sometimes if enough or certain inflexibilities are occurring it can qualify for a mental health disorder but not always.
In ACT, a therapist will use a wide variety of interventions to help a client increase their psychological flexibility, which over time can decrease challenges with anxiety, depression, and many other mental health conditions. Some common interventions include the use of mindfulness, the practice of acceptance, and cognitive defusion.
If you are curious to know more, I invite you to watch my video/webinar on ACT and Psychological Flexibility in my video I present some ways in which you may be able to increase your psychological flexibility. However, it is important to know that ACT interventions can be tailored to each specific person and not all ACT interventions may resonate the same with each individual. So, if you are looking into ACT treatment services to support you with your mental health, I recommend reaching out to a mental health professional to find out more about how ACT could benefit you.
OTHER COUNSELING SERVICES We Offer in Denver, CO & Tampa, FL
We offer a variety of additional services besides brain-spotting and EMDR therapy. WellMinded Counseling also offers the following therapy services: