Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) encourages people to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them.
ACT in simple terms: it is a type of therapy that aims to help patients accept what is out of their control, and commit instead to actions that enrichen their lives.
It is "a unique empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behavior change strategies, to increase #psychological #flexi
The founder of ACT has also offered a definition of ACT in terms familiar to the psychology field:
“a psychological intervention based on modern behavioral psychology, including Relational Frame Theory, that applies mindfulness and acceptance processes, and commitment and behavior change processes, to the creation of psychological flexibility” (Hayes, “The Six Core Processes of ACT”).
Six core processes of ACT guide patients through therapy and provide a framework for developing psychological flexibility . These six core processes of ACT include the following:
1. Acceptance;
2. Cognitive Defusion;
3. Being Present;
4. Self as Context;
5. Values;
6. Committed Action.
We are not only what happens to us. We are the ones experiencing what happens to us.
Steven C. Hayes, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, developed ACT in 1986 (Harris, 2011). Hayes disagreed that suffering and pain are to be avoided and buffered whenever possible. He saw suffering as an inevitable and essential part of being human, as well as a source of fulfillment when we do not flee from what scares us.
