What is ACT?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapy that draws upon mindfulness and other approaches to help people step back from their thoughts and live more meaningful and fulfilling lives based on what’s important to them. My main ACT training has been with master therapist Russ Harris. Supplementary learning has come via Kelly Wilson and Steve Hayes.

ACT differs from CBT in that ACT is more interested in the processes of thinking and language rather than testing and adapting the content of thoughts. ACT sees thoughts as behaviours and is regarded as a form of radical behaviourism. ACT therapy invites you to unhook from your thoughts, allow experiences to come and go without struggling with them, make contact with the present moment, learn to observe the self, discover important values and then take committed action.

ACT is a playful approach resting on a sophisticated theory of language, that invites you to become more psychologically flexible in the face of life’s inevitable difficulties. It has a growing evidence base and has recently been included in the NICE guidelines for the management of chronic pain.

ACT is often helpful for people who find CBT too mechanistic, rigid and reductive. Although my core training is in CBT, I consider ACT to be a more flexible approach and expect it to become my main modality over the next few years.

OTHER THERAPIES OFFERED:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - CBT
Compassion Focused Therapy - CFT
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy - MBCT
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction - MBSR
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing - EMDR