Third Wave of CBT: What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?

Created by psychologist Steve Hayes in the 1980s, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, pronounced as the word "act") is considered part of the “third wave” of cognitive behavioral therapy.

 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) gets its name from its key objectives: accept what is out of your control, and commit to action that improves your life. The goal of ACT is to create a full, meaningful life, while accepting that life will always include pain and suffering.

The goal is not to reduce or eliminate your symptoms. In fact, trying to directly control, lessen, or suppress your symptoms is not only ineffective, but often makes things worse.

 What is “psychological flexibility”?

ACT defines as “psychological flexibility” as being able to stay in contact with the present moment, despite any painful and uncomfortable feelings, thoughts, or body sensations that come up. Rather than try to suppress or avoid our negative feelings and thoughts, we can accept them as a more adaptive response to our challenges.

Mindfulness Skills

In ACT, there are three types of mindfulness skills that are taught to help you deal with difficult feelings, thoughts, and sensations effectively, so they don’t hold such a strong grip.

Defusion is distancing from your thoughts.

Acceptance is making room for uncomfortable feelings and thoughts.

Being present is engaging fully and openly with the “here and now’. 

Taking Action

ACT methods encourage you to identify what is important to you in your life, as a way to motivate and guide you to make the positive changes necessary to have a meaningful life. Once you have clarified the underlying values you want to live by, the next step is to manifest these values by setting goals and taking action to reach them.

Clarifying Your Values:

Values clarification is a process in which we reflect on what matters to us, deep in our hearts.

What do you want your life to be about?

What kind of person do you want to be?

What do you want to do with your time?

Clarifying what’s important motivates and inspires us, and provides the roadmap for our actions.

Committed Action:

Committed action means “doing what it takes” to live by these values, even in the face of pain or discomfort. Committed action starts with setting goals, identifying obstacles, and persisting flexibly in achieving values-congruent living.