Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is a type of behavioural therapy that combines mindfulness with the practice of self-acceptance. It helps you to accept your difficult thoughts and feelings without judgment, rather fighting them or avoiding them, and to develop psychological flexibility to respond to your painful experiences more effectively. This form of therapy will encourage you to accept what is out of your control and instead helps you to clarify what is important to you and commit to actions which can improve and enrich your life. The idea is that we cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to what happens to us. We are not our thoughts and feelings; we are the ones experiencing the thoughts and feelings When your actions are dominated by your thoughts and feelings, then you will move away from your values (what you stand for, what is important to you, how you want to behave as a human being and what sort of a person you want to be) and as a result you will create more suffering for yourself. In this type of therapy, you will learn psychological skills, such as defusion, acceptance and mindfulness skills, to manage your painful inner experiences more effectively and reduce their impact and influence over you, so that you can be more present, engage in what you are doing and create a richer and more meaningful life.