Values Based Living with ACT

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT (pronounced as the word “act”), is a form of behavioral treatment that emphasizes personal values and processes of mindfulness and acceptance to help clients live more rich, purposeful and fulfilling lives. Whereas traditional cognitive-behavioral treatments have focused on the contents of thinking as the targets for change (replace “bad thoughts” with “good thoughts”), ACT and other so-called third-wave behavioral treatments emphasize the relationship we have to thoughts as being the principle target. What this means is that in ACT we learn to see our thoughts as thoughts, not as literal broadcasts of “truth”. We learn to gain perspective and space within our awareness so that we can more clearly see the landscape of our inner world and thus begin to better acquaint ourselves with those dark corners we have  long avoided or feared.

ACT emphasizes personal values and uses workability as it’s main metric of success. From this perspective, as your therapist, I am deeply interested in helping you learn how to move towards what you care about despite the discomfort, stress, or fear that may accompany that journey. Along the way, as the pain and distress surface, we will learn skills to unhook from unhelpful thoughts and accept what cannot be changed in order to make progress towards the life you would rather live.