Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
If you are struggling with depression, anxiety or similar mental health conditions, psychotherapy can help you change your outlook on life and move forward with more confidence. Acceptance and commitment therapy is one form of counseling that might benefit your mental health.
What Is ACT?
Acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, is akin to cognitive behavioral therapy in that it aims to help you identify and work through negative thought patterns. After learning about your experiences and what has led you to seek help, a therapist who specializes in ACT can equip you with healthy coping mechanisms specifically for your situation.
Dwelling on your past will hold you back from making progress in the here and now. ACT uses various approaches such as mindfulness, acceptance and commitment methods to teach you to stay grounded in the present moment.
What to Expect From ACT
ACT is an evidence-based treatment approach for addressing issues such as trauma, substance abuse and generalized anxiety by helping you work through complex emotions or unpleasant memories you may have been avoiding. Via ACT, you can learn to view these in a more positive light and commit to changing your behavior and attitude for the better. The goal of ACT is not to stop unwanted thoughts or feelings, but to encourage you to develop a new, more compassionate relationship with your experiences.
Working with a therapist, you will learn to tune into your inner monologue, or the things you tell yourself about traumatic events, relationship problems or other issues. Then, you can choose whether an issue requires immediate action and change, or if you must accept it as it is while you adapt your behavior appropriately.
Your counselor may ask you to describe previous strategies that have been unsuccessful, so they can help you break the cycle of repetitive thought patterns and behaviors that are causing you more problems. Once you have faced and accepted your current issues, you can commit to stop battling your past and your emotions. Instead, you’ll start practicing more confident, optimistic behavior, based on your beliefs, values and goals.
How Does Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Work?
The reasoning driving ACT is that it is unsuccessful and counterproductive to try suppressing painful memories or experiences because doing so ultimately leads to more turmoil. An ACT specialist can teach you how to think more mindfully and eventually commit to improving your behavior, attitude and emotional state.
After completing ACT, you should be more accepting of your feelings, instead of trying to escape from them. By embracing the experiences that have shaped you rather than running away from them, you can finally attain your full potential.
Individualized Treatment for Addiction Recovery
At Beach House, we enable adult women and men to find lasting freedom from substance abuse and other mental health issues. We emphasize a therapeutic alliance that significantly improves clinical outcomes by boosting client engagement and retention during treatment.
Our unique culture emphasizes that love and connection are the opposite of the hopelessness and loneliness that characterize addiction. To learn more about the qualities that have made Beach House one of the nation’s leading drug and alcohol rehab facilities, please reach out to our caring, experienced admissions counselors today.