Why Acceptance Commitment Therapy Is Endorsed By Professionals?

What Is Acceptance Commitment Therapy?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a (relatively) new modality of therapy. It is based on Mindfulness and incorporates components of CBT. It helps and encourages clients to change their relationship with their emotions, thoughts and symptoms related to health mental. Psychologists and counselors often use it to treat many mental and physical conditions. Such as:

  • Depression

  • Anxiety disorders

  • Eating disorders

  • PTSD

  • Personality disorders

  • Mood instability

Acceptance Commitment Therapy & Other forms of therapy

One of the key components of Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) is to help clients improve the fulfilment of their lives without primarily focusing on symptoms. It focuses on increasing psychological flexibility, or a person’s adaptability to their thoughts, feelings, situations, and behaviours accordingly through their moral compasses or values. As a result, it has become a popular choice of therapy for many. 

Despite ACT's well-known research and evidence, there are other approaches of note. Psychologists often recommend different approaches for their patients depending on their needs. This means there are many different types of techniques that can be used to improve one’s mental wellbeing. 

Specific approaches used by therapists might include, but are not limited to: 

  • Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT): this type of therapy promotes dialectic thinking, which is the ability to hold 2 seemingly opposite ideas at the same time. For example, accepting yourself and changing your behaviour might seem contradictory, and at the same time, doing both might help achieve a different way of relating to yourself and your environment

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): involves identifying the individual's thoughts and beliefs. It aims to help clients identify unhelpful thinking and uses different strategies to challenge them, in order to modify unhelpful behaviours, such as avoidance

  • Narrative Theory (NT): NT asks individuals to talk about their challenges, allowing them to externalise their issues rather than internalise them.

Is Acceptance Commitment Therapy right for you?

Consultation with a therapist has demonstrated the need for individuals to identify their problems and develop coping strategies to deal with their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. 

Among the available approaches, Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an effective therapy choice for some individuals as it provides a realistic and accepting lens on their personal problems. ACT is more an experiential therapy, where cognitive work (e.g., challenge your thinking) is limited. On the other hand, methods like CBT may require a logical and reasoning perspective to view them. 

To learn more about Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), contact our Client Support Team at Inner Eastern Psychology and enquire about a consultation. 

It’s helpful to note therapists often offer many treatment approaches, and one size doesn’t fit all. You might find it helpful to check out the following below: 

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