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ACT - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Notes from A Non-technical Overview of ACT by Dr. Russ Harris.

The Core Philosophy

In stark contrast to most Western psychotherapy, ACT does not have symptom reduction as a goal.

This is based on the view that the ongoing attempt to get rid of ‘symptoms’ actually creates a clinical disorder in the first place. Instead, ACT focus around two main processes:

  1. Developing acceptance of unwanted private experiences which are out of personal control.
  2. Commitment and action towards living a valued life.

Experiential Avoidance

ACT assumes that human language naturally creates psychological suffering by setting us up for a struggle with our own thoughts and feelings.

  • The Problem-Solving Trap: In the material world, if we don’t want something, we get rid of it. We naturally apply this to our internal world (thoughts, feelings), but trying to get rid of them often creates extra suffering (e.g., addiction).

Control is the Problem, Not the Solution

Emotional control strategies are often responsible for the problem. Fixating on controlling feelings traps you in a vicious cycle.

Key Metaphors

  • Quicksand: The more you struggle, the faster you sink. To survive, you must lie back and float.
  • Clean vs. Dirty Discomfort:
    • Clean Discomfort: Natural physical/emotional pain that life serves up.
    • Dirty Discomfort: Additional suffering created by struggling against the clean discomfort (e.g., anxiety about your anger).

The Six Core Principles

ACT uses these principles to develop psychological flexibility:

  1. Cognitive Defusion: Learning to perceive thoughts and images as what they are—bits of language—rather than threatening events or objective truths.
  2. Acceptance: Making room for unpleasant feelings and urges; allowing them to come and go without struggle or avoidance.
  3. Contact with the Present Moment: Bringing full awareness to the here-and-now experience with openness and receptiveness.
  4. The Observing Self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self that is unchanging and peripheral to thoughts and feelings. You are not your thoughts; you are the space they occur in.
  5. Values: Clarifying what is most important in your heart and what you want to stand for in this life.
  6. Committed Action: Setting goals guided by values and taking effective action to achieve them.

See also: Discomfort Anxiety, Principles of REBT

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