Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, infuses the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (see more information on that treatment here) with additional mindfulness-based principles to improve psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility improves as we attend to six core processes: acceptance; cognitive defusion; being present; seeing the self as context; identifying personal values and committing to engage in values-related behaviors. ACT uses metaphors, stories and experiential exercises to build that flexibility. ACT has shown success in treating a variety of disorders, including anxiety, trauma, OC-spectrum disorders, and chronic pain. ACT can also be done as either a stand-alone treatment or with an adjunct therapy such as Exposure and Response Prevention (see more information on that treatment here) .

If you are interested in learning more about ACT you can visit the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science here.