An approach that shifts the aim of therapy: not to get rid of unpleasant experiences, but to stop letting them run your life.
The classical logic: to live well you first have to get rid of anxiety, sadness, self-doubt. ACT puts the question differently: what if that condition cannot be met?
Research shows that attempts to control inner experiences often intensify them. The harder someone tries not to think about something unpleasant, the more densely they think about it. The more energy goes into not being anxious, the wider the field of avoidance becomes.
ACT proposes ending the struggle and directing the freed-up resource towards what actually matters — even if the anxiety remains.
Acceptance. A willingness to experience unpleasant states without trying to eliminate them immediately. Not submission to circumstances, but the end of a useless struggle with yourself.
Cognitive defusion. The ability to see a thought as a thought rather than as a fact. Between “I am a failure” and “I have had the thought that I am a failure” there is a substantial difference in how much it governs behaviour.
Contact with the present. The skill of noticing what is happening now instead of living in memories and forecasts.
The observing self. The experience in which you are not your thoughts and roles but the one who notices them. This gives stability when self-esteem collapses.
Values. What matters to you — not as a goal you can achieve and close off, but as a direction. “Being a caring parent” is a direction; “buying a flat” is a goal.
Committed action. Concrete steps in the direction of your values, starting today and in the state you are actually in.
ACT uses many metaphors and exercises aimed at experience rather than explanation: some things have to be encountered to be understood, not listened to. The work often begins not with the question “what is troubling you” but “how would you want to live if the trouble were not an obstacle”.
Where the problem cannot be eliminated: chronic pain, serious illness, bereavement, irreversible circumstances. Also with chronic avoidance — when a person’s life has gradually narrowed down to whatever causes no discomfort.
The work is usually shorter than in schema therapy: from 10 to 25 sessions. Elements of ACT are often built into a broader CBT programme.
If you are a practitioner and want to add this method to your work, the centre runs programmes where it is taught.
Systematic training in cognitive behavioural therapy: 13 modules that take you from methodology and assessment through to independent case work under supervision.
Constant worry, panic attacks, fear of situations you were not afraid of before.
Nothing brings joy, there is no energy, everything takes effort, and the meaning of what is happening slips away.
Intrusive thoughts you cannot get rid of, and actions you have to repeat.
Alcohol, substances, gambling, screens — when control over them has been lost.
A new country, the loss of your supports, the sense that life is going on somewhere other than where you are.
Write to us — a coordinator will clarify what you need and suggest a therapist who works in this approach.
