At Resting Tree, we use Acceptance and Commitment therapy as one of our approaches to teach clients how to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling bad about them.

The aim of ACT is to help individuals enable curious and compassionate responses to their emotional struggles while moving forward with values-based actions that would enhance well-being.

How It Works

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is based on  the following 6 core principles that also include mindfulness based concepts:

Cognitive Defusion 

• Since thoughts are from language and memories, they may not be objective or true . The process of cognitive defusion helps us to separate ourselves from our thoughts and memories.

Acceptance:

• Allowing and making room for uncomfortable, unpleasant and unwelcome thoughts, feelings and sensations without needing to resist or engage in them. 

Contact with the present moment

• Instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we bring awareness to what is happening right here, right now. When we are fully engaged in the present, we are able to bring curiosity, interest and receptiveness into our experiences.

Self as context (The Observing Self)

• To be able to think and observe our thinking, we can see that  thoughts, images, memories, feelings or urges as separate from us. Therefore, no internal experiences are able to control us. 

Values Clarification

• By asking ourselves what is meaningful to us and what we want to stand for in this life we can  discover our valuesthat can provide us with direction for our lives. When guided by values, we experience purpose and joy even when unpleasant things happen to us.

Committed Action

• When we are fully confident about our own values, we can commit  to them by setting values-based goals and taking action to move towards them. 

Developing Psychological Flexibility

The focus of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is to develop skills and abilities to become more psychologically flexible. 

Psychological flexibility has two components: 1) To be present; knowing and understanding the reactions and experiences a situation produces 2) To be able to respond with consciousness; behaviours and actions that are aligned with your values.

During an ACT session, the therapist will lead the client through exercises that promote cognitive defusion, acceptance, and awareness of the present moment. The therapist would help the client identify their values, explore what they look like in real life, and facilitate an action plan with them to move towards these values.

This process would result in learning how to embrace your  pain, instead of avoiding, suppressing or denying it. At the same time, you  intentionally create meaning in your life by acting according to what’s most important to you. The more you practice these  skills, the more you may find yourself becoming more psychologically flexible in future.

Curious to find out more about ACT and how it may be able to help you? Find out more by contacting us at info@restingtree.ca or book your free consultation today