What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic intervention rooted in the behavioural tradition. It has over 1000 RCTs, demonstrating its effectiveness for many psychological health problems, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, work-related stress, addictions, long-term health conditions (LTCs), and traumatic stress. For more detailed information about the research journey of ACT, I recommend this book by Nic Hooper and Andreas Larsson.
How does ACT work?
The six core processes of ACT aim to increase psychological flexibility, a scientific and empirically supported phenomenon in behavioural science. The research shows that when people increase their psychological flexibility, their well-being, functioning, and mental health improve.
What is Psychological Flexibility?
We can understand psychological flexibility by first recognising that it has an opposite – psychological inflexibility. When a person is inflexible, they are more likely to suffer from emotional distress, ill health and lower life expectancy. One can measure flexibility through the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ2) or Comprehensive ACT Assessment (COMP-ACT). These short psychometric self-report measures capture the behavioural processes in psychological flexibility. It can also be measured qualitatively by tracking your own experience.
When you sign up for one of our Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training courses, we’ll teach you how to use the ACT Model to build psychological flexibility with your clients.
Psychological flexibility is made up of six core processes. They are interrelated and distinct behavioural processes. They include mindfulness, acceptance and behavioural change processes. More specifically, the six core processes of ACT are:
- Willingness or Acceptance
- Cognitive Defusion
- Contact with the Present Moment
- Perspective-taking through an Observing-Self
- Values Clarification
- Values-based Committed Actions
The Six Core Processes of ACT and Psychological Flexibility
Each behavioural process has a respective opposite that shows you how to identify inflexibility. The list below corresponds to the list above with each number:
- Experiential Avoidance
- Cognitive Fusion
- Inflexible Attention and dominance of a past or future orientation
- Rigid attachment to a conceptualised self, e.g. “I am weak, bad, a failure etc.”
- Disconnection from life purpose and meaning
- Avoidance, delay or inconsistent attempts at life-affirming activity
ACT aims to shape behaviour both inside and outside the therapy room. You can teach clients techniques (the hands of ACT) inside the session and invite them to practice them outside the therapy in various and multiple contexts. This way, they get to build patterns of committed action.
It is important to help people understand the processes that underpin the techniques. ACT isn’t merely an intellectual process. It is experiential, requiring a person to ‘move their feet. Hence, one needs to practice understanding willingness or acceptance. The ACT practitioner moves into experiential exercises quickly during the session.
How do I become an effective ACT Practitioner?
Sign up for an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training course
To be effective, ACT practitioners require a firm knowledge of the basic science that underpins the application of the model. Without it, practitioners run the risk of going off-track. Your first step is to attend some introductory Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training.
One can attend a training workshop and feel invigorated. However, humans are complex, and once practitioners return to their places of work, they can easily feel lost after a few days or weeks of trying to apply what they’ve learned. Your development will likely stagnate without a commitment to ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) and supervision. The commitment to learn and improve is one that you can choose to make. You alone are the master of that choice.
for the acceptance & commitment therapy practitioner
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Learn the Theory and Practice
As an ACBS peer-reviewed ACT Trainer, Jim Lucas recognises that he is responsible for ensuring that what he teaches provides you with enough knowledge and skills to begin that journey. If he chose to, he could show you many techniques from ACT. If he were to do that and nothing else, you would not understand the theory and the science that tells you ‘why’ you are doing it.
Similarly, if you were only to learn the theory about ACT, you would not develop the skills you need to help people in your professional role. Combining the ‘head’ (Knowledge and Concepts) and the ‘hands’ (ACT Skills Training) is necessary. However, you may still be left wanting even with these two components.
Experiential Practice: The Heart of ACT
Therapy requires a true and deep connection between two or more humans. Jim’s experience as a therapist tells him that many of the problems clients struggle with are rooted in painful and recurring interpersonal disconnections. You can impress a client with your advanced theoretical understanding when in the therapy room. Similarly, you may have a remarkable arsenal of psychological tools at your disposal.
These abilities may make a helpful difference but will likely be limited if a practitioner does not know how to embody the spirit of the model. In truth, one needs to know ACT’s ‘heart’ (Personal qualities and Experiential Practice) to meet another person with empathy, courage and humility.
Check out our Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training courses or join our online community, which brings together psychologists, counsellors and therapists who want to learn ACT by practising, connecting and discovering as much as possible to become highly effective in the ACT approach.
